Digital Commons Network^™

Feminist Environmental Ethics: A Modern, Intersectional Approach, Suzanne E. Scharff

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Developing A Gender Diverse Stimulus Set For Emotion Expressions, Amir Robertson

Honors Theses and Capstones

Much past research has demonstrated that gender plays an important role in emotion perception, such that gendered stereotypes about emotion seem to shape how we perceive and interpret the emotion expressions of men and women. However, the stimulus sets that are typically used in the vast majority of this research have been based on binary ideas of gender, and purposefully limit common elements of gender presentation, with models posing with limited accessories or personal aesthetic choices. In everyday life, however, individuals’ gender and gender presentation are not limited in these ways and likely contribute in important ways to how we …

Domestic Shakespeares In The Antebellum United States, Daniel G. Lauby

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how early nineteenth-century female novelists developed a new mode of adapting Shakespeare, what I am calling “domestic Shakespeares,” that cite, reference, and rearrange plays based on women’s experiences in and of the home. I focus on popular women authors whose novels appeared between 1827 and 1862, a time when identity was especially apparent in the geographical formation of the United States. These women novelists used allusions to and adaptations of Shakespeare in their works to express their frustrations with conventional paradigms of womanhood and related disciplinary systems, such as coverture, that limited women’s citizenship. “Domestic Shakespeares,” I …

An Exploration Of Self-Identity In Transracial Adoptees From China, Aliya Dejun Sarris

Honors Theses and Capstones

Sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the author began to notice that the newest wave of Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) activism was not inclusive of transracial adoptees, or people adopted by parent(s) of a different race. This study explores the unique identity of transracial adoptees specifically from China. The author explores the topics of identity, family, friends, community and overall belonging through the lens of primary and secondary sources. The primary sources include seven, hour-long interviews that the author conducted herself. Overall, the study concludes that transracial adoptees have a qualitatively different experiences than non-adopted peers that – although an incredibly …

Perceived Gender Discrimination In The United States Air Force, Linzi Gail Eppinger

Master's Theses and Capstones

While the existence of gender discrimination in the Air Force is well known, previous research had not examined how active-duty Air Force members define gender discrimination and how service members differentiate instances of gender discrimination from gender-based harassment. This study drew on qualitative interviews with 25 Air Force service members to provide a rich account of their perceptions of discrimination and harassment. From this research, several common attributes of gender discrimination became clear. Active-duty Air Force women were more aware of instances of gender discrimination than men, participants perceived being a gender minority in the workplace is a risk factor …

“Test Run Or One And Done”: Gender Differences In Lgbtq+ Hookup Experiences, Della Burke

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores queer individuals’ participation within hookup culture, the goals and motivations of those taking part in queer hookup encounters, and the ways queer individuals make sense of their hookup experiences. I analyze data from 24 semi-structured qualitative in-person and online interviews to examine LGBTQ+-identified individuals’ experiences with queer hookup encounters. This dissertation offers several major contributions to the scholarship of LGBTQ+ hookup experiences. First, I find that participants talk about three discrete levels of intimacy: noncommittal hookups, “catching feelings,” and third, “real relationships” or emotional connections. Second, both men and women define hookups as noncommittal sexual encounters, but …

Doing Gender With Ink: The Social Construction And Performance Of Gender As A Tattooed Person, Meghan Rose Lewis

Master's Theses and Capstones

Previous research surrounding tattoos and gender has shown that cismen and ciswomen’s tattoos often differ in size, placement, and design, but little research has investigated why these differences persist. Furthermore, studies on tattoos and gender remain limited in scope as they mainly focus on the lived experiences of cisgender men and women. The current study seeks to expand previous research by including a more gender-diverse sample to investigate how the social construction of masculine and feminine tattoos occur, and how participants across the gender spectrum perform gender through tattoos. For this study, I conducted 20 semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews with …

Neighborhood Disorder And Adolescent Psychological Distress: Effects Of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Social Support, And Self Concept, Jean Bessette

Doctoral Dissertations

Sociological research on mental health is often guided by the stress process framework. A key tenet of this paradigm is the proposition that both exposure and vulnerability to social stressors arise from one’s placement in the social structure; those with lower social status face greater exposure and/or greater vulnerability to stressors that detrimentally impact their psychological wellbeing. A consequential social stressor is the neighborhood context in which one resides. Past research has suggested a disadvantageous effect of greater neighborhood physical and social disorder on youth mental health. This research employs the stress process framework to examine how the effects of …

Privacy Paradox: The Impact A Health Crisis Has On Individual Views Regarding Privacy And Data Collection, Jessica B. Walsh

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

How The Media Frames Mental Health And Social Media: A Case Study Of The Facebook Whistleblower, Megan Switzgable

Honors Theses and Capstones

In September 2021, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, leaked confidential documents surrounding internal research performed at the company, revealing that Facebook knew the negative impact Instagram had on the mental health of teenagers. In this paper, I study how the media frames the relationship between mental health, teenagers, and social media when discussing the leaked documents. In order to do this, I perform a critical discourse analysis of thirty print media articles written about the Facebook Whistleblower, focusing on how the
articles present gender, mental health, and the positive and negative uses of social media. I also look at …

Review Of Gender Related Trends Among People Hospitalized For Infections With Concurrent Substance Use, Meghan Lotti

Honors Theses and Capstones

Abstract

Background: The opioid epidemic has been on the rise in the past decades, and with the rise of opioid use, infections related to substance use has also been on the rise. Infection trends in relation to gender currently have little evidence on how they affect each other.

Methods: Data was gathered from the New Hampshire Discharge Dataset on patients aged 18 to 85 who were admitted to any hospital with an infection diagnosis and concurrent substance use, from the years 2012 to 2019. This data was then graphed to analyze the trends.

Results: Infection rates had a consistent rise …

Uses Unaddressed: How Social Technologies Tacitly Allow Gender-Based Violence, Brooke J. Marston

Honors Theses and Capstones

Growing technological capabilities have enhanced and intensified the potential for surveillance in many areas of life. Particularly, the placement of advanced technology in the hands of everyday people has produced ample opportunities for interpersonal monitoring. This growing capacity to surveil others we know without sophisticated techniques has concerning implications for acts of gender-based violence and intimate partner violence, which often hinge on surveillance, isolation, and control. Often, technology is used to the advantage of abusers in achieving such ends, and the wealth of personal information that is often available online leaves users vulnerable to acts of gender-based violence such as …

Bullying Trends In The United States And An Analysis Of The Impact Of Prevention Programs On Bullying Subtypes And Gender, Reeve Kennedy

Doctoral Dissertations

This three-article dissertation presents three standalone articles that address bullying trends over time within the United States (US), gaps in bullying prevention program outcomes (both within the US and internationally), and the role of study and methodological features on the findings. The first article used meta-regression to establish trends in different types of bullying involvement from 1998 to 2017, identified factors that help explain variation in bullying trends, and determined differences in those trends by gender and grade. The second article used meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of bullying prevention programs on three subtypes of traditional bullying victimization: physical, relational, …

The Effect Of Gender On Ethical Investing, Delaney J. Housley

Honors Theses and Capstones

Prior literature related to gender and risk propensity would suggest that females are risk-averse, compassionate, and value ethics over return. This ideology of traditional gender norms stereotypically implies that females may be more likely to engage in ethical investing, as there is inherently less risk in investing in companies with strong corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, males are often portrayed as risk-seeking, competitively motivated, and valuing profits over principle, thus may be more willing to compromise ethics if the ends justify the means. The following paper seeks to investigate this relationship between gender and ethical investing, as examined …

What Stepmothers Can Teach Us About Contemporary Family Life, The Institution Of Motherhood, And The Reproduction Of Gender Inequality, Melissa Day

Doctoral Dissertations

A substantial amount of scholarly attention has been dedicated to understanding changes in the institution of family and, within the context of these changes, how the institution of motherhood continues to play a central role in reproducing gender inequalities for women in society. Through two distinct, but interrelated papers, this dissertation examines stepmothers’ experiences in the family with the goal of expanding our understanding of the reach of the institution of motherhood into the lives of all women. The first paper draws on 33 semi- structured, in-depth interviews with stepmothers. From these data, my findings are two-fold. First, I find …

Navigating The Path To Presence: Ideology, Politics, And The Campaign For Gender Balanced Boards And Commissions In Iowa, Ezra Joseph Temko

Doctoral Dissertations

From 1986 through 1988, Iowa adopted and strengthened a gender balance law that required men and women be equally represented on state boards and commissions. In 2009, Iowa extended this law to also require its counties, municipalities, and school districts to gender balance their boards and commissions. Iowa’s law remains unique in the United States. Through archival research and interviews, my research investigates how advocates navigated the ideological landscape associated with this policy issue. My research unveils the mechanisms that substantially deradicalized gender balance in Iowa, enabling its passage and shifting Iowans’ perceptions of gender, governance, and affirmative action—disembedding gender …

Conflict Resolution In Popular Film, Linda M. Fogg

Master's Theses and Capstones

Studies on media content have been focused for decades on the frequency of violence, types of aggression, and sex roles. These studies have largely focused on children’s media, especially Disney, with few investigating the presence of violence in adult media as it is perceived as less harmful. Although these are all important topics of research, they have failed to incorporate the larger picture of media's portrayal of conflict resolution. This study aims to answer the questions: how is conflict resolution portrayed in popular films and does it change based on the MPAA rating? using popular movies from 2016. The ratings …

Tracking The Evolution Of The Companionate Marriage Ideal In Early Modern Comedies, Madison L. Pierce

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis examines the socially constructed ideal of companionate marriage in Elizabethan and Jacobean England through four dramas by Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton. It probes the question of how these theatrical productions of early modern England fit within or defy the emerging social trends regarding companionate marriage. It uses socioeconomic statuses, religious affiliations, and emerging notions of race as lenses through which to analyze the romantic couples depicted in these plays. The results of this study indicate that, while exact authorial intentions remain unknown, these plays served as proponents of the companionate marriage …

Sex Differences In Internalizing And Externalizing Behaviors In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Caroline C. Cherry

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study used a retrospective practice-based research method to compare levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors of a clinically-ascertained sample of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n=90). As measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), internalizing and externalizing behaviors were compared to normative behavior, and between boys and girls with ASD. Findings suggest that in a clinical sample, children with ASD are more likely than typically developing children to have internalizing and/or externalizing problems. No significant sex differences were found for Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems, or Total Problems scores on either the parent or teacher …

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, Caley Prunier

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Religious Affiliation And Women's Labor Patterns In U.S. Counties, Andrew Schaefer

Doctoral Dissertations

In the past 50 years, the United States has experienced a large influx of women, particularly those with young children, into the paid labor force. Concurrently, adults across the country have steadily moved away from organized religion. Nonetheless, sociological research has documented relationships between affiliation with conservative religious groups and negative attitudes towards women’s labor force participation. Further, research has shown that women in conservative religious groups like evangelical Protestants and Mormons are less likely than others to enter the labor force upon getting married and, among those who work, more likely to work a reduced schedule.

Building upon this …

Social-Pragmatic Communication In Women With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Multiple Case Study, Lacey W. Ryder

Honors Theses and Capstones

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is identified much later and less often in females than in males. Some researchers suspect that a different set of characteristics of ASD in females may not be consistent with the more established and widely recognized characteristics of ASD, leading to under-identification in women. In the present study, four women and one non-binary feminine-presenting person with ASD were interviewed. The five participants conveyed their experiences with social-pragmatic communication, and their views on gender, ASD, and gender differences in ASD. The results are discussed in relationship to the limited amount of past research on women with ASD.

“They Set Themselves To Undermine The Whole Thing”: Gender And Authority In The Work Of Union Female Nurses In The Civil War, Katelynn Ruth Vance

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Civil War marked American women’s entry into the arena of public nursing. The influential reformer and advocate for the mentally ill, Dorothea Lynde Dix, was appointed Superintendent of Female Nurses in 1861. Dix was tasked with supervising all female Union nurses, establishing hospitals, and coordinating the arrival and distribution of supplies for the Union army. The responsibilities of the position were immense. Despite attempts to centralize her authority over the female nurses, by the end of the war, Dix had lost her administrative influence. Lacking effective administrative oversight, upper-class female nurses relied on existing social networks in order to …

Strategic Gendering: The Negotiated Social Actions Of Adolescent Girls, Joann Stemmermann

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study is focused on how gender expectations shape the identities and social actions of seven white middle class adolescent girls. Utilizing an ethnographically oriented grounded theory approach, this study seeks to reframe adolescent girls’ agentic actions in relation to cultural influences. This investigation looks at “cultural impasses” in girls’ lives and how they are indicators of gendered preconditions which shape their everyday choices and behaviors. Research aims are embedded in the concept that gender is socially constructed and produced through the combined interplay of girls’ social actions and cultural demands. Through an examination of girl and adult narratives, …

Queer Farmers: Sexuality And The Transition To Sustainable Agriculture, Isaac Leslie

Master's Theses and Capstones

Intimate relationships are foundational to farm viability. Such relationships affect how farmers share tasks, earn income, and access land, yet the role of sexuality and heteronormativity in agriculture remains understudied. Furthermore, queers are largely ignored as potential farmers by the sustainable agriculture and LGBT movements. Through participant observation and interviews with 30 sustainable farmers of various genders and sexualities in New England, I document the lived experiences of queer sustainable farmers, an under-researched group, and examine whether sexuality and gender affects why they farm. Whereas the perception of rural heterosexism can discourage queer participation in agriculture, queer farmers faced less …

Use And Perception Of Taboo Language In College-Age Females, Kathleen M. Uhlman

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Abnormal Sexual Assault Situations And Its Influence On Rape Myth Acceptance, Amber Carlson

Honors Theses and Capstones

The crime of rape, unwanted sexual contact, is a heavily researched topic in the sociological field. The majority of research, however, has revolved around incidences of stranger rape and the typical gender combination of male offender and female victim. The updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale was created to measure the level of participants agree with the typical rape myths of: she asked for it, he didn’t mean to, it wasn’t really rape, and she lied. This research study was designed to test the influence of gender in rape situations and how this affects the acceptance of rape myths. In …