Marjolein Vanmaercke (2024) Beyond the ‘boy crisis’: Reframing gender performativity in belgian classrooms

Title: Beyond the ‘boy crisis’: Reframing gender performativity in Belgian classrooms

Author: Marjolein Vanmaercke

Year: 2024

Keywords: Gender performativity, boy crisis, education and gender, Belgian classrooms, gender norms, masculinity in education, feminization of education, pedagogy and gender

Theme: Gender

Advisor(s): Kasira Cheeppensook

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: This thesis challenges the dominant discourse surrounding the so-called "boy crisis" in education by critically examining gender performativity in Belgian classrooms. Rather than accepting the narrative that boys are inherently disadvantaged in contemporary schooling, this study interrogates how gender is constructed and performed within educational settings. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, the research explores how teachers, curricula, and peer interactions contribute to the reinforcement or subversion of traditional gender norms. Using qualitative methods, including classroom observations and interviews with educators and students, the study highlights the ways in which gendered expectations shape students' educational experiences and outcomes. The findings suggest that the framing of the “boy crisis” oversimplifies the complex dynamics of gender and education, often reinforcing binary understandings that obscure broader issues of inequality. By shifting the focus from deficit-based narratives to the performative nature of gender, this research advocates for more inclusive and nuanced pedagogical approaches that challenge rigid gender norms and foster equitable learning environments for all students

Elizabeth Gabriela (2024) Women's role in sustainable development project in rural indonesia : A case study of ACCESS project, united nations development programme

Title: Women's role in sustainable development project in rural Indonesia: A case study of the ACCESS project, United Nations Development Programme

Author: Elizabeth Gabriela

Year: 2024

Keywords: Women's Empowerment, Sustainable Energy, ACCESS Project, Gender Equality

Theme: Gender

Advisor(s): Khathaleeya Liamdee

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: This research focuses on the role of women participants in sustainable development projects in rural Indonesia, analyzing intricacies through Ecofeminism and intersectionality. More specifically, it examines the ACCESS Project implemented by UNDP in four provinces, aiming to address women’s engagement in the energy sector. ACCESS is a case study exploring empowerment within an institutionally gendered landscape—bounded by state quotas—for employment. Employing qualitative methods such as document analysis and semi-structured interviews with eight participants, the study draws from Ecofeminism and intersectionality to understand its central arguments. The findings depict progress toward gender inclusion in technical management for leadership roles, allowing women to challenge patriarchal divisions. At the same time, persistent barriers shaped by social identity norms reinforced prevailing societal structures that posed restrictions for women’s participation. This underscores that participation cultivated agency; however, it remained delicate without consistent structural backing—highlighting uneven distribution among diverse participant identities. This study broadens the application of Ecofeminism and intersectionality while underscoring the need for development approaches that strive for context-responsive policies instead of placeholders like numerical targets

Hsan Thawdar Htun (2022) Unpacking gender inequality for inclusive development: a case study of Myanmar female migrant workers in Samut Sakhon Province, Thailand

Title: Unpacking gender inequality for inclusive development: a case study of Myanmar female migrant workers in Samut Sakhon Province, Thailand

Author: Hsan Thawdar Htun

Year: 2022

Keywords: Gender inequality, Gender Discrimination, Intersectionality, Myanmar female migrant workers, Thailand’s seafood industry

Theme: Gender

Advisor(s): Naruemon Thabchumpon

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: The study aims to address the issue of gender inequality in Thailand's seafood industry, with a specific focus on Myanmar female migrant workers in Mahachai (Samut Sakhon province). Although women migrant workers play a significant role in Thailand's economy, they have been facing various challenges in low-wage industries. Gender inequality remains a prominent concern in these low-skilled labor-intensive workplaces like seafood industry. While there have been studies on migration that include both men and women or focus solely on women, gender has not received sufficient emphasis in understanding the experiences of female migrant workers, particularly in the seafood industry. This research aims to fill this gap by examining the prevalent features of gender inequality in the working and living conditions of Myanmar female migrant workers in the seafood industry by applying the intersectionality theory. The research adopts a case-study qualitative approach, by collecting primary and secondary data. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews are conducted with 10 Myanmar female migrant workers from the seafood industry, both within and outside formal factory settings as well as 2 civil society organization members from the labour network called Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN). By using content analysis and presenting unique case studies of female migrant workers, the study finds that Myanmar female migrant workers in the seafood industry, face gender discrimination and gender inequality based on multiple intersecting factors such as gender, migration status, marital status, ethnicity that relates to intersectionality. Gender inequality and discrimination features are more prevalent when migration status is added in the intersection of gender and marital status in the seafood industry. The findings of this research will serve as a valuable resource for development experts and non-governmental actors to develop gender-responsive strategies and to promote the role of women migrant workers in Thailand's industrial growth

Hans Kevin Madanguit (2021) Queering The Migrant Experience: Gay Filipino Workers’ Performance of Gender and Sexual Identities in Bangkok

Title: Queering The Migrant Experience: Gay Filipino Workers’ Performance of Gender and Sexual Identities in Bangkok

Author: Hans Kevin Madanguit

Year: 2021

Keywords: LGBTQ+, QUEER, SPACE, MIGRATION, BANGKOK, GAY FILIPINOS

Theme: Gender

Advisor(s): Bhanubhatra Jittiang

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: The Philippine migration scholarship heavily focuses on heteronormative issues that depict the migrant workers as heterosexuals. Due to this trend, there is a scarcity of studies on overseas Filipino workers who identify as part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Community. Hence, this qualitative research focuses on eleven documented Filipino workers in Thailand who are males assigned at birth and identify as gay homosexuals. Individual informal interviews were employed to investigate how they practice their non-normative gender and sexuality, given their multiple yet intersectional social identities in a country with vibrant queer cultures. It also probes the relationship between the queer Filipino migrant laborers and the Thai capital Bangkok’s queer spaces and how they influence one another. By drawing my analyses on queer theory to simultaneously engage the three disciplines of sexuality, spaces, and migration, the research exposes the critical role of queer spaces in the formation and confirmation of the migrants’ gender and sexual identities through their experience in finding acceptance and belongingness as well as satisfying their romantic and sexual pursuits in both physical and online gay-oriented spaces. The investigation led to a realization that their presence in these spaces became a contributing factor in the intensification of existing issues on the function and significance of gay spaces, such as its heterosexualization and reinforced gay audience segmentation while homonormalization is happening in heterosexual spaces, which may all have a serious impact on the future of queer cultures that Thailand had cultivated for more than half a century. This observation banks on the idea that although space is helpful in an individual’s identity formation, an individual is basically the creator of space because it is social. Queering the migrant experience presents the importance of gender and sexuality as identities in the migration process as the performance of these identities by migrant laborers allows them to be molded by the spaces they consume and, on the one hand, be active stakeholders that influence and manufacture the meanings of these spaces. Hence, being gay, homosexual, and migrant workers are fundamental roles in the flourishment of sexual identities, practices, and communities.

Protection against sexual violence in the workplace: NGO programs for access to justice for female migrant workers in Thailand

Title: Protection against sexual violence in the workplace: NGO programs for access to justice for female migrant workers in Thailand

Author: Miss Shah Bano

Year: 2019

Keywords: Sexual Violence Survivors, NGOs, Female Migrant Workers, Criminal Justice System

Theme: Gender

Advisor(s): Soravis Jayanama

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: Sexual violence in the workplace amongst female migrant worker is an under-discussed issue, due to lack of reporting, that needs to be explored in more detail. This paper examined the role of NGOs in providing protection to FMW who are survivors of sexual violence, in Thailand, who want to seek justice. This study used qualitative approach by interviewing 3 people from local NGOs and 3 people from international NGOs working in Thailand that provide services to FMW who have faced sexual violence, to deal with the culturally biased and highly patriarchal criminal justice system. The study shows that regardless of not having a specific project that focuses on providing protection to FMW who are survivors of sexual violence in the workplace with their access to justice, NGOs provide effective legal services to those FMW who visit the NGOs for help and support