Digital Commons Network^™

Voices From The Margins: Service Providers Perspectives On Empowering Refugee Women, Deidra Ann Coleman

Master's Theses

Refugee women face considerable challenges while fleeing their countries, and attempting to adjust to their new lives in their host country. As a result of being both a woman, and a member of a marginalized group, refugee women tend to suffer disproportionately during displacement and and resettlement (UNHCR, 2015). They are more likely to be discriminated due their gender and ethnicity, and to lack the necessary community supports and resources needed to overcome barriers they encounter. In response to the refugee crisis, service organizations have emphasized empowerment as a key way to improve the lives of refugee women. While there …

Domestic Violence Among Asian Indian Immigrant Women In The United States, Teuta Peja

Master's Theses

This study looks at how domestic violence is conceptualized by the research studies on

Asian Indian immigrant communities in the United States through different periods of time, and

how sociocultural factors are associated with domestic violence. Using the meta-synthesis

descriptive method, I analyzed and interpreted the findings of four research studies conducted

between 1995-2016 that included in-depth interviews with Asian Indian immigrant women who

experienced domestic violence. The analysis focuses on changes of the patterns of abuse, helping behavior, and leaving the abusive marriage as an option. The changes in U.S. domestic

violence legislation and policy regarding immigration and domestic …

A Comparative Analysis Of Access To Reproductive Health Care In Laos And Southeast Asia, Malakhone Sonethavong

Master's Theses

This thesis research aims to unravel main barriers that prevent women from being able to access reproductive health care in Laos in comparison with other two Southeast Asia countries which are Thailand and Vietnam. The comparison of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam will be explored through an analysis of a literature review. This research explores the critical issues and on finding a mutual understanding between the role of the policy makers and the implementers of policies. At the end of the research, some recommendations on health care system improvement and personal perspective towards the rights of women on reproductive health and …

The Influence Of Backlash On Self-Sexualization And Cognitive Depletion, Mallory Helen Elizabeth Nurse Grembowski

Master's Theses

A woman who acts agentically in the workplace is more likely to be disliked and viewed as less competent than a woman who acts caring and communal. The negative consequences for acting outside of a cultural stereotype are called backlash. Cultural gender stereotypes for western society depict women as warm and communal while men are agentic and independent. Women in the workplace act outside of the cultural stereotype, and thus face backlash from their peers. This study examines the extent to which women utilize self-sexualization as a recovery strategy to cope with the fear of backlash, and ultimately how these …

Women In Leadership And The Politics Of Power, Caitlin Maeve Kendall

Master's Theses

With the use of intimate interviews, this qualitative research study employed an experiential, story-telling approach to gather a more thorough understanding of individual female experiences in leadership positions in the field of education in relation to the literature on female leadership in a gendered workforce. Although this study only included the experiences of several women leaders in the field of education in the Chicago area, the preexisting research on the topic guided the interview questions and divulged the nexus between a culture of systematic gendered hierarchy in the workplace and the strategies and characteristics of success employed by female leaders …

Women's Access To Secondary Education In Colonial And Postcolonial Tanzania And Rwanda, Emlyn Ashley Ricketts

Master's Theses

This paper will examine how the politics of colonialism and independence during the twentieth century, as well as the culture of each country, have created and limited secondary educational opportunities for women in Tanzania and in Rwanda. I will argue that the English and Belgian colonizers' goals of the education systems in colonial Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi-how much education they thought was appropriate for women to have and their overarching goals in creating the education systems in the colonies-shaped the place of women within Tanzania and Rwanda today. I will argue that English and Belgian colonizers imposed a western, Christian, patriarchal …

Neither Butch Nor Barbie: Negotiating Gender In Women's Roller Derby, Kaley Marissa Mullin

Master's Theses

Using ethnographic methods, I began this project with the goal of understanding the full experience of what it means to be a derby girl. This included examining how the sport dictates performances of gender and how derby girls perform gender on and off the rink. Additionally, I paid special attention to how the women negotiate femininity and beauty. I found that roller derby girls maneuver through the world of gender dichotomies skillfully by means of their actions and words in the derby space. Unlike at the inception of derby, current derby girls engage less consciously with the feminist movement. Instead …

Ritual As Clinical Intervention In Groupwork With African American Women, Kathryn Kristin Berg

Master's Theses

This paper is an exploratory study on the subject of ritual as clinical intervention in groupwork with African American women. It is predicated on the idea that ritual has the potential to foster emotional growth in clients by creating structure and facilitating processes of transition. Ritual has largely been underexplored in the literature as a clinical intervention. However, there is a particular gap in research on ritual in groupwork with African American women. The first half of this paper provides an overview of social work scholarship covering individual branches of the subject, including spirituality in social work, spirituality in the …