By carrying oral history analysis, this thesis looks at the political activism of Chilean women exiled in Spain from a gender perspective. It highlights the role of gender and stereotypes in women...Show moreBy carrying oral history analysis, this thesis looks at the political activism of Chilean women exiled in Spain from a gender perspective. It highlights the role of gender and stereotypes in women's experience towards their "exilic condition" before and upon arrival to Spain, as well as political activism within and outside the Chilean community during the Spanish transition and arrival of the Spanish Socialist Party to the government in the 1980s. The main findings are: 1) despite their political activism before and during the government of the socialist Salvador Allende and in some cases clandestinely after the 1973’s coup, most women highlight motherhood and the role of their more visible partners in politics as the breaking point in their decision to self-exile. However, by identifying with the social identity of “political exile” based on their activism, their political identity and gender roles from Chilean society cross each other showing a conflicting experience. 2) the gendered division of labour framed Chilean women participation among the Chilean community in Spain, being assigned so-called “female tasks” based on the gendered division of labour which many times kept them invisible from Chilean transnationalism in Spain. And 3) As a result, a group of women organized outside the traditional organics of the Chilean movement to advocate for human rights in Chile and Latin America incorporating the struggles and role of women in these regards. The two cases analyzed are the Chilean women’s association “Tralún” located in Madrid who advocated for human rights in Chile and Latin America from a feminist approach. Likewise, the case of the lawyer and Chilean Judge Alicia Herrera Rivera who became the face against gender violence in Spain in 1983 is analyzed. Herrera’s case shows how her involvement in the feminist movement imposed a “new exile” this time from the Chilean community as her advocacy for women’s rights was seen as a threat to the working-class unity in the Chilean Left.Show less
The leading question in this research is how sir Granville St John Orde Browne imagined the ideal colonial labourer in correspondence and reports written in the course of his career, 1885-1945. It...Show moreThe leading question in this research is how sir Granville St John Orde Browne imagined the ideal colonial labourer in correspondence and reports written in the course of his career, 1885-1945. It asks specifically how men and women were represented or omitted within this imagining and why. It is argued that in the context of colonial labour, Orde Browne imagined the ideal colonial labourer as male and hereby excluded women from the realm of wage labour opportunities, instead discursively assigning them to the sphere of domesticity and recommending policies that limited female wage labour opportunities and reified a colonial idealization of wife-hood and motherhood. This exclusion was based on assumptions of women as especially traditional and conservative, a sexualization and associated demoralization of the independent presence of women in the compounds, and women being deemed inferior labourers. Men, on the other hand, were represented as objects of exploitation, whose bodies and minds were to be controlled through colonial policies with the aim of making labour migration as efficient and profitable as possible. Women within this structure were visualized as dependents who could either hinder said effective exploitation through the spread of disease and immorality, or could enable even more efficient and stable exploitation and ensure the reproduction of a future generation of workers.Show less
The purpose of this research was to expand the debate on gender by incorporating the age debate and by focusing on how different bodies were represented in ancient theories on dietetics. I studied...Show moreThe purpose of this research was to expand the debate on gender by incorporating the age debate and by focusing on how different bodies were represented in ancient theories on dietetics. I studied the representation of healthy and sick menstruating women, pregnant women, elderly, infants and children in ancient medical texts. This research found that dietetics was applied differently based on the condition of the body. The advices given had similar qualities to the body when the body was healthy and seen as well balanced. In contrast, when a healthy body was assumed to be less well balanced the diets employed the theory of ‘opposites cure opposites’. When someone became ill the dietetic advices always focused on curing the patient using the theory of ‘opposites cure opposites’. Most importantly in all treatments countering the diseased state took precedence over rebalancing inherent bodily imbalances. In conclusion, the ideas on different body types found in ancient medical theories were reflected in the application of dietetics. This reflection was more pronounced in advices given to healthy people than in those given to the sick.Show less
Why should the term 'foreign fighter' be applicable to women serving non-violently in transnational insurgencies both past and present? Using case studies of women migrating from western countries...Show moreWhy should the term 'foreign fighter' be applicable to women serving non-violently in transnational insurgencies both past and present? Using case studies of women migrating from western countries to serve in Spain during the Spanish Civil War as well as studying the more recent migration of western women to join ISIS in Iraq and Syria, this thesis explores how female volunteers fit into existing frameworks of the foreign fighter despite often being unrecognised as such.Show less
The Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj, is known as one of the biggest movement of people in the world. This annual event has long become the meeting point of Muslims from various places. In the late...Show moreThe Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj, is known as one of the biggest movement of people in the world. This annual event has long become the meeting point of Muslims from various places. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the face of hajj changed significantly due to the advance in technology, opening of transportation routes and involvement of colonial government in conducting the hajj. The number of hajj participants from the Dutch East Indies, which were also known as the haji jawa increased greatly, including the female pilgrims, which made up 20-30% of the total pilgrims from the region. This thesis puts gender and colonial perspective together to study the female pilgrims and hajjah from the Dutch East Indies in comparison to the male counterparts. This thesis addresses the issue of how the Dutch colonial government perceived the female pilgrims and hajjah from the Dutch East Indies, such as what kind of themes appeared in the depiction of female pilgrims in the archives, where and when the female pilgrims were mentioned or not mentioned and why, and how it eventually relates to the production of knowledge about it. Contrary to the popular beliefs that the pilgrims were all male, there were many female pilgrims and many of them stayed in Mecca as moekimers. Women were mainly depicted as wife and companion, and victim of violence and slavery. They were underplayed in the archives and had never been under the spotlight in comparison to male pilgrims which were regarded as very important due to the possibility of being subversive and rebellious. The downplayed depiction of female pilgrims in the archives is continued until today in the historiography of hajj.Show less
