Browsing by Subject "intersectionality"

In this thesis I look at the evolution of portrayals of English working-class women, more specifically in the north of England by close readings of three novels. First, I discuss the working-class female characters in Elisabeth Gaskell’s North and South from 1854. I then continue the analysis with Miss Nobody by Ethel Carnie from 1913, widely considered the first published woman of a working-class background. Lastly, I look at a more recent novel, Saltwater by Jessica Andrews from 2019. Across different time periods, these novels deal with similar issues of regional, gender and class divide, and provide narratives of working-class women which have been and still are underrepresented in literature. I discuss the novels through three different themes: gender, class, and region, which have been separated into subchapters for clarity of structure. Intersectionality offers the theoretical background for analyzing the three overlapping factors of identity. The historical outlook describes the developments, which have played a part in creating and maintaining these categories of class, gender, and regional divide in England. In this thesis, I show how these novels portray the development of the regional divide and chance of shifting class identity as women, and how despite changes over time in society, there are many similarities in their experiences as northern working-class women. The novels reflect changes in society whereby women gradually become more independent through employment opportunities, and social mobility becomes an achievable goal. Nonetheless, similar issues such as sexual harassment are found in all three narratives. Regionally, North and South and Miss Nobody represent the north of England in its industrial era, whereas Saltwater represents the post-industrial north reeling from the loss of industry. Despite the vast period these novels represent, all of them provide similar descriptions of ‘it’s grim up north’ simultaneously describing but also maintaining a stereotypical image of the northern areas of England. The Covid-19 pandemic revealed how deeply ingrained class structures and regional inequalities still are especially for women in England, demonstrating how important awareness and further research of these issues is.

This thesis offers a feminist reading of the power of marginalized in Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1990 fantasy novel Tehanu, the unexpected fourth work in her Earthsea book series. Le Guin called the novel “affirmative action”, as it became for her a conscious reparative measure to tell the stories of the ordinary, “powerless” characters in the world of her creation. The aim of this thesis is to critique power as it is understood within the hegemonic-masculine frameworks of thinking and acting in the patriarchy, and ultimately, to offer a reconfiguration of power as approached through the experiences of women and other oppressed people. My central goal is to understand how femininity and other devalued forms of expression and ways of situating to the world could be empowered through a recognition of the power of the marginalized social position. I do this through an analysis of three female characters in the novel, Tenar, Moss and Tehanu. Each of the characters’ identities have instrumental value in opposing the patriarchal social order of Earthsea, which expects them to settle for subservience and compliance. However, I want to understand on a deeper level still how exactly the characters are able to put their alternative forms of powers to practice. For this, I employ the theoretical approach of feminist standpoint theory (Sandra Harding, Hilary Rose, Paige Sweet), according to which marginalized and excluded social positions have unique subversive power in opposing hegemonic paradigms. The three characters’ standpoints are built upon three levels: everyday experience, alternative knowledge and subversive action. Ultimately, my reading of Le Guin’s work demonstrates that examining and contesting the gendered conventions of fantasy and other literary genres remains a culturally significant project, and that a deliberate shift in attention on the lives of women and other marginalized individuals uncovers new understandings of power, not only as it is used in the patriarchy, but as something that can be redefined according to new values, based on human connection, compassion and trust.

Namibia has gone through great changes since its independence in 1990. The new constitution illegalized the apartheid rule and racial discrimination, but the history has left its marks on the contemporary society. The class inequalities are one the biggest in the world, and they still intertwine with the racial and tribal memberships. Although any kind of discrimination is strictly forbidden in the society, the prejudices still remain. Furthermore, the gender roles are in transition and women encounter multiple, sometimes conflicting expectations. In this context, the thesis studies multidimensional identity from the perspective of decency. More specifically, it explores how decency is conceived among black female nurses of Katutura township in Windhoek. The study investigates how the racial, tribal, gender, class and professional identities intersect and contribute to the perceptions of a ‘decent person’. The study also discovers how young women try to answer simultaneously to the traditional and modern female ideals. Lastly, the thesis illustrates how the class dominance, traditional gender roles and the ethnic and racial prejudices are resisted and reproduced through the perceptions on decency. In terms of class-related decency was demonstrated by diving the ‘indecent them’ to the upper and lower classes. The whites and the majority tribe of Owambos were accused of being discriminatory and having better opportunities in life. The lower classes were instead stigmatized as lazy and immoral individuals, who did not deserve the higher socio-economic positions. Thus, both the better and worse-off were claimed being less respectable than the interviewed nurses, who represented the middle class. However, the interviewees also identified with the lower class and admitted that the societal structures hindered their class mobility. To summarize, they simultaneously maintained and resisted the class dominance. Class also had a strong link to the female respectability. On the other hand, the modern woman was expected to be independent, to take care of herself and not to rely on the assistance of men. As the interviewees had succeeded in this, they achieved the dignity of a modern working woman. Still, on the other hand, the traditions expected them to follow the old gender roles. The conflicting expectations became apparent, for example when discussing the ‘ideal nurse’. The decent nurse was supposed to be a feminine mother-type of a figure, who put herself last in order to help others. Still, also the high professional expertise made the ‘proper nurse’. In this way, the nursing profession both strengthened and faded the women’s femininity and simultaneously rejected and reproduced the traditional gender ideals. However, it was the co-existence of the traditional and modern decency that enabled the nurses to maintain their respectability in the changing society. Regarding the racial and tribal relations, any kind of discrimination was condemned. Nevertheless, the condemnation was also an issue of differentiating those who had a good sense of morals and those who did not. The interviewees argued that the whites were still racist, but that they themselves promoted equality like a decent person should do. Considering this, it is controversial that they seemed to forget the principles of the universal equality when talking about the ethnic difference. They reproduced the same prejudices they judged in regard to racial discrimination. Moreover, they underlined their old and new identities as they draw strong lines between the racial and tribal groups, but also claimed for absolute equity. In this light, it is possible to argue that the societal transformation has a great impact on the decency perceptions of the Namibians. The historical stances remain side by side the ideologies of the post-apartheid era, although the attitudinal change is taking place. The class inequalities and discrimination clash with the aspirations of equality, the traditional gender roles are challenged by the modern female respectabilities and the group relations are defined by both reconciliation and boundary making.

The Finnish population is quickly aging. The aging of the population is reflected in the Finnish economy and in the availability of skilled workers in several fields. The governmental focus has consequently in recent years concentrated on increasing the immigration of the highly skilled in the country. The growing fields such as the technology industries in which the need of highly skilled immigrants is emphasized in the governmental aims are still statistically dominated by men. As such, female immigrants are still often discussed in the context of female dominated industries such as the care work industries. This thesis consequently aims to emphasize the position of highly skilled immigrant women in the traditionally male-dominated industry of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in Finland. Intersectionality as coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the 1980s focuses on the advantages and disadvantages in the lived experiences of different identity groups. Originating from considerations of challenges faced by African American women in the United States, intersectionality has since then expanded to depict the challenges on various groups. The theory will be consequently utilized in this thesis to depict the experiences of highly skilled immigrant women in the field of STEM in Finland, with immigrant women being seen as an often-marginalized group. Qualitative interviewing acts as the selected methodology of the thesis with five individuals working in the field of STEM being interviewed for the thesis. The interviewees were selected to represent different backgrounds, with the aim being portraying the possibilities and challenges faced by the interviewed individuals comprehensively in a manner of a case study. The data collected through the interviews is assessed through four analytical categories of education, bureaucracy, language skills and social networks. With each category being taken into the analysis separately, the individual impact of each in the labor market position as well as the societal position and the perception of these by the interviewees is being considered. Despite the international nature of the field of STEM, the analysis reveals there to still exist factors favoring native Finns in the labor markets. Furthermore, similar challenges are faced by people coming from within the EU and outside of the EU with for instance non-Finnish education and work experience impacting interviewees coming from both backgrounds. The differing experiences of the interviewees illustrate that the idea and reality of the (dis)advantages that are essential to intersectional thinking are not implicitly tied to persons who are viewed to belong to the groups seen often be the most burdened. The results of the analysis consequently demonstrate the non-universal character of migrating for certain purpose and oppose the traditional image of intersectional concerns associated with certain groups. Nevertheless, to reach a more comprehensive idea of the position of immigrant women in the Finnish field of STEM research with more extensive sample of data is needed. With the number of the highly skilled likely growing in the near future, understanding the position of highly skilled female migrants within such group will also become more emphasized both academically and societally.

This thesis has focused on Afro-Peruvian adolescents’ perceptions on education and future in the context of the poor and violent urban neighbourhood of La Victoria, Lima. The objectives of the study were to find out how the subjective experiences of the adolescents and their thoughts on social reality are directing the formation of values and practises and what factors affect their views, actions and decision-making. The study is based on 13 semi-structured interviews with the adolescents. In addition I have used participant observation, background interviews, lectures and seminars to complement my data. As a theoretical framework I applied Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and capitals combined with intersectionality – a concept borrowed from feminist studies that allowed me to look for relationships and differences of race, class, ethnicity and gender, and to explore the interconnections between different factors that can be found in the background of the adolescents’ decision-making processes. The factors producing inequalities in La Victoria are multiple. In the context of the study, poverty and social class have more significance for the adolescents than ethnicity. Poverty can be seen both as a concrete and a structural obstacle, whereas ethnicity is more structural and therefore invisible. Through habitus one learns to make choices that appear obvious, although they have been learned socially and culturally. Therefore, social structures become visible through people’s individual choices and actions. Poverty among the adolescents appears as socio-cultural poverty that places them in a marginal. It limits their possibilities to access capitals and to make adequate choices and decisions regarding their life and future. In many of the cases poverty can be seen as reproduction of a certain culture, a set of assumed values, attitudes and forms of behaviour that create a lifestyle ruled by maintaining survival strategies. The interviews demonstrate that the adolescents’ perceptions about education and future opportunities are constructed on the basis of multiple interconnections between social class, ethnicity, age and place. In their perceptions, class and place seem to be important producers of power that limit the possibilities to act and make decisions regarding education. The general attitude of the adolescents and the tone of voice remain fairly positive. However, it can be concluded that there is a big contrast between dreams, speech and actions. The adolescents believed to have better opportunities than their parents, but did not always transform this attitude into concrete actions. They recognised the adverse aspects of the socio-economic context, but thought that their will and motivation were exceeding them.

Women’s movements in Bolivia have long been divided into different feminist groups and organizations on the one hand, and indigenous women’s movements on the other. Indigenous women have generally considered feminism to be an urban, middle-class ideology that is not compatible with their conception of gender and does not represent them. They have preferred to be active within the indigenous movement, which stresses the idea of decolonization as key to achieving gender equality. Even with these differences, attempts have been made by different women’s movements to work together in order to have a stronger voice around gender-specific issues in the national debate. In this thesis, frame analysis is employed to examine such efforts of cooperation. The data is a report published in connection with a conference that brought together representatives from several different women’s organizations, with the goal of advancing dialogue between them. The frames that these activists use are examined in order to analyse how those frames address differences between women and what kind of frames are most successful in using differences as strength. The frames that emerge from the data are grouped into three broad categories. First, there are universalistic frames that see a common identity of women and a shared experience of oppression as a starting point for solidarity. Second, there are local frames that ground themselves in the specific struggles to find common ground between different women’s movements in the Bolivian context. These frames base the idea of solidarity on common goals and agendas. Third, there are frames that take a personal approach and present personal accounts of struggles and processes of change. These frames are able to incorporate multiple identities into a personal narrative and to treat solidarity and coming together as an ongoing and open-ended process. The frames in this data that are best able to celebrate differences as strength are certain local and personal frames that move away from broad, conceptual definitions of patriarchy and feminism and towards lived experiences and shared struggles. They focus on the process of coming together and building alliances, which opens them up to differences and to dialogue. However, a more profound analysis of power and privilege is still lacking in all these frames.