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Women's Mobilization In Latin America: A Case Study Of Venezuela, Brianna Russell

Master's Theses

Abstract

I examine the following elements in regards to women’s mobilization in Latin America and Venezuela from the late 1950s to the present: (a) the influence of the state and economy on times when women mobilized (b) class division within the movement (c) women’s demands during different time periods (d) the ways in which women were successful in working towards gender equality. This thesis reviews the literature on women’s mobilization in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. I find that women mobilized across class lines with the masses to end dictatorships. Women demobilized during transitions to …

Identity And Intersectionality For Big City Mayors: A Phenomenological Analysis Of Black Women, Constance J. Brooks

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The role of a mayor is integral within local governance. Their leadership and influence directly effectuates outcomes for the cities over which they preside. For big city mayors, their impact extends beyond local government and into the national policy arena. The way an individual demonstrates the role of mayor can be influenced by his/her perception of their own identity. However, within the realm of academic research dedicated to mayoral leadership and African Americans in politics, Black female mayors have largely been ignored. In particular, there are no known attempts at investigating the intersection of race and gender in understanding Black …

Female Head Athletic Trainers In Ncaa Division I (Ia Football) Athletics: How They Made It To The Top, Joanne Gorant

Dissertations

The profession of athletic training has opened its doors to women, who now slightly outnumber men in the profession (Shingles, 2001; WATC, 1997, 2005). Unfortunately, this representation does not carry over into positions of high rank. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the lived experiences of female head athletic trainers in NCAA Division I (IA football) institutions to focus on the issues of barriers to advancement and their ability to overcome them.

Using Hakim’s “preference theory” as a lens, this interpretive qualitative investigation utilized semi-structured, open-ended interviews to learn how participants advanced in the field of athletic …

Factors Contributing To The Educational Success Of Single-Mother Welfare Recipients At An Urban Southwestern Community College: Case Studies Of Six Success Stories, Rhonda Rose Faul

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study gave voice to the issues, needs, and concerns of economically disadvantaged single mothers and determined the motivational and institutional factors that helped lead them to their successful completion of a community college degree or certificate program while at the same time coping with the challenges of financially surviving on meager public welfare assistance, raising their children, and meeting welfare-mandated work activity requirements. While American society has a long tradition of regarding higher education as a means of achieving long-term financial security and self-sufficiency, current welfare policy unfortunately adds additional obstacles for welfare recipients who may be motivated to …

On The Verge Of Change: Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, Mallary Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the effects of war on the southern plantation lifestyle depicted in Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding. This thesis focuses on the female characters who adapt to the absence of the husbands during wartime. Wars are the catalyst for societal change in the novel, and the women must adapt to the new social changes that are encroaching upon the plantation. The chapters explore each individual reaction of female characters in the novel. The female characters in Delta Wedding represent varying wars of reacting to shifting social norms brought about by war.

Contextualizing Concerns & Empowerment: Somali Urban Refugee Women In Nairobi, Mie-Na Lee Srein

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Thank You For Being A Friend: Women's Self-Disclosures And Social Support On Facebook, Emily A. Dolan

Media Studies - Theses

This study focused on women's self-disclosures on Facebook and how they functioned to both gain and give support on the site. After employing 17 textual analyses of participants' Facebook pages and 17 in-depth interviews, a variety of themes emerged in regards to how and why women give and seek support on the site, the types of information disclosed, and the benefits of self-disclosing to gain support on the site. More specifically, results indicate that gender role expectations, which for women include exhibiting behaviors that convey warmth, kindness and politeness, play a large role in giving and receiving support on the …

The Journey Narrative: The Trope Of Women's Mobility And Travel In Contemporary Arab Women's Literary Narratives, Banan Al-Daraiseh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the trope of women's journey and the various kinds of movement and travel it includes employed and represented by three contemporary Arab women literary writers, Ghada Samman, Ahdaf Soueif, and Leila Aboulela in their literary narratives as well as travelogue in the case of Samman. The primary texts analyzed in this study are Samman's Beirut 75 and The Body Is a Traveling Suitcase, Soueif's In the Eye of the Sun, and Aboulela's The Translator and Minaret. These texts demonstrate how the journey trope becomes a fresh narrative strategy used by Arab women writers that …

Women Under National Socialism: The Case Study Of Melita Maschmann, Lynda Maureen Willett

Graduate Masters Theses

The case study of Melita Maschmann shows that despite the deep manipulation and gender discrimination she was subject to in her youth by National Socialism Maschmann made her own free choices as an adult and chose to zealously absorb its political ideology. The general assumption is that National Socialism, and fascism, were male dominated political ideologies in which women played a passive role, such as that professed by Gertrude Scholtz-Klink. However, many women found National Socialism appealing and became active supporters of its ideals. The purpose of this paper is to explore that appeal and analyze why certain women such …

I'M The Same Me: Communication And Renegotiation Of Identity In The Weight-Loss Surgery Experiences Of Women, Heather D. Schild

Masters Theses

Adult obesity rates are on the rise in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control (2009) which has led to an increase in obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Weight-loss surgery (WLS) has become accepted as a "cure" for obesity by the medical community. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of obese individuals electing to undergo WLS every year; 82% of these individuals are women (AHRQ, 2007). More women may be electing to undergo these procedures than men due to the pressures women face in American culture to achieve social standards of …

Leadership Is Passion: Understanding The Changing Experiences Of Women Student Leaders At A Co-Educational Liberal Arts Institution, Aleena Paul

Honors Theses

The traditional definition of leadership emphasizes the actions of individual leaders with culturally-ascribed masculine personality traits and behaviors who control all aspects of an organization. A new post-industrial paradigm, in contrast, defines leadership as interpersonal relationships. This evolving paradigm, with its emphasis on culturally-attributed feminine traits such as collaboration and participation, has allowed for a broader conceptualization of leadership that brings forth discussions on women leaders and their experiences. According to current research, while there is increasing involvement and empowerment of women leaders, their experiences continue to be hindered by gender stereotypes. This study attempts to explore the experiences of …

Women And Video Games: Pigeonholing The Past, Allison Perry

Scripps Senior Theses

Academic work dealing with the overlap between video games and female representation is limited in both volume and proper research. Most texts agree on three supposed flaws with video games: they alienate female participants, there are no games for female players, and female players cannot relate to female characters. This thesis sheds light on these points, not only citing specific counter-examples, but also showing how many of these issues reflect on a larger societal problems.

The Road To Gaining Acceptance And Status For Women In American Medicine, Terrie S. Ahn

Honors College Theses

For my honors thesis, I discuss the history of women in American medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, I focus on how the social and cultural time periods affected women’s efforts in pursuing further medical education, how these women were perceived and treated by not only their male colleagues, but also the outside world, how it affected their future career choices in medicine, and finally, how their efforts ended up changing the medical career path for future female generations.

It begins with a discussion of the variety of obstacles, both private and public, that hindered …

Sex And The City: A Promotion Of Modern American Feminism, Cameron Michael Tufino

Theses & Dissertations

The television series Sex and the City (SATC), has left a significant impact on American society. The show displays this revelation: American women today have many established cultures of equal worth in male dominated discourses. This thesis explains how the shows narrative represents and expands feminist ideology in America. By modernizing feminist discourses, SATC challenges televisual female representation on subject matters including motherhood, sexuality, marriage, gender identity, and family. Investigating its four protagonists - Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha - demonstrates how the narrative contributed to the social movement of feminism. Furthermore, with analyzing its construction and display since the …

"She's An All-In-One Guru": Devotion To A 21st Century Mystic, Angela Carol Rudert

Religion - Dissertations

Anandmurti Gurumaa is a multi-lingual teacher of meditation and "spirituality" situated at the intersection of Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi and Sikh mystical traditions. This dissertation, employing inter-disciplinary methodology, provides an in-depth study of Gurumaa and her rapidly developing, disciple-driven transnational spiritual movement. I introduce Gurumaa and her circle of devotees within the cultural context of globetrotting Indian gurus and examine issues of tradition and innovation in her mission. Through ethnographic writing, I specifically turn to examples of Gurumaa's pluralism, gender activism and embrace of new media to discuss continuity and change within the tradition of guru-bhakti (devotion to the guru). Because …

The Bitter Relicks Of My Flame: The Embodiment Of Venereal Disease And Prostitution In The Novels Of Jane Austen, Melanie Erin Osborn

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Resembling the mercurial, black beauty mark used as an ornamental concealment of syphilitic sores, Jane Austen’s comedy of manners likewise acted as a superficial cosmetic device that concealed the ubiquity of venereal disease and prostitution hidden within. Through her characters, Austen used veiled narrative to highlight the reality of venereal disease and prostitution in eighteenth-century England. This thesis uncovers the hidden narrative in Jane Austen’s novels, as a means of better understanding the impact venereal disease and prostitution had on sexual issues with women and the female body during the eighteenth century. Beginning with an almost comic reference to venereal …

"So Much For Fond Five-Dollar Memories": Prostitution In Las Vegas, 1905-1955, Marie Katherine Rowley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the fifty years examined in this thesis, the interactions between federal and local officials shaped prostitution policy in Las Vegas and Clark County. At times that federal authorities were concerned about prostitution in the county, local leaders balanced tradition and economic necessity in their responses. In the early twentieth century, prostitution's benefits to the local economy outweighed fear of federal reprisals, so local officials worked to protect the city's brothels. By the start of World War II, the federal government's increased power and presence in the West made local officials more willing to abandon the tolerance for prostitution in …

Die Frauen, Der Strafvollzug, Und Der Staat: Incarceration And Ideology In Post-Wwii Germany, Andrea Moody Kozak

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how the material reality of Germany's women's prisons has been largely determined by their ideological foundations, and by the historical developments that have produced these ideologies. The German women's prison system is complex and imperfect, yet in many ways very progressive. It is the result of the last sixty years of tumultuous German history, and has been uniquely shaped by the capitalist and communist histories of the once-divided state. In its current state, it seems to have incorporated elements of a supposedly “rational” or individualistic conception of humanity as well as one that is relational and interdependent, …

Gender And The Boundaries Of National Identity: U.S. Women As A Citizen Class In The Long 1960s, Sara Bijani

Masters Theses

This text analyzes the public ideologies and institutions that underpinned women's unequal status within the national collective of United States citizens during the long 1960s, paying particular attention to the executive office of Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the national security establishment. Women were frequently framed within these institutions as a separate special class of citizen, with rights and responsibilities not akin to those of the elite—male bodied—members of the national collective. Allowing for the imaginative construction of "women" as a subject class in U.S. society, this text argues that even with the guarantee of formal political rights in place, women …

Shaping Identity: Male And Female Interactions In Cinema, Jonette Lauren Lagamba

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Since the inception of cinema, women have been portrayed with the typical identities of emotionally and physically weak characters; this portrayal led to their subsequent dependence on men. Men were usually the protagonists and/or the heroes, following their archetypal journey. Thus, women's position in early cinema was to exemplify what men were not, placing the former in the diminutive position of the Other. One may conclude that men were often defined by what women lacked, and the women were defined by their relationships with these heroic men. As time progressed in the history of cinema, women's images retained part …

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 …

Deviant Desires: Gender Resistance In Romantic Friendships Between Women During The Late-Eighteenth And Early-Nineteenth Centuries In Britain, Sophie Jade Slater

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Romantic friendships between women in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries were common in British society. Young women were drawn to each other, often in romantic ways, in part because of the way in which the society was ordered. In this period, females generally socialized only with other females, from birth until marriage. Even after marriage the majority of women spent most of their time with other women. This deep intimacy between women was encouraged and accepted and is visible in correspondence between female friends. Although there is scholarly literature surrounding romantic friendships during this period, the way in which these …

Aemilia Lanyer's Use Of The Garden In Salve Deus Rex Judæorum, Anna Brovold

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Aemilia Lanyer used her collection of poetry, Salve Deus Rex Judæorum to redefine the way that women should look at themselves in the eyes of God. She began her collection with poems dedicated to women that she had deemed virtuous and worthy of individual attention. Her dedicatees were then presented to her readers as the true Disciples of Christ; an honor due to women because of their empathy for Christ's situation. Lanyer rewrote the biblical Passion story in order to include a feminized version of Christ, the rightful female Disciples of Christ and an additional trial presented to Pontius Pilate …

"I Have Not Learned Anything About Native American Women In Minnesota": An Educational Workshop About Indigenous Women Of Minnesota, Amy Anderson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The historical and contemporary experience of Native cultures is an integral component of the history of Minnesota; however, the significance of these Nations is often overlooked in formal education, as well as culturally ignored. I have witnessed a lack of knowledge regarding Native lived experiences from both resident and non-resident college students in Minnesota. Comprehension of topics ranging from the various Nations in Minnesota to the United States-Dakota War of 1862 is absent. Furthermore, any recognition or familiarity with Native women's position is basically nonexistent. Formal education has failed to transmit the history and the cultures of this population, so …

"Only A Girl Like This Can Know What's Happened To You" : Traumatic Subjects In Contemporary American Narratives, Allison Virginia Craig

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This project is primarily concerned with the difficulty of representing traumatic experience and the problem of seeing violence and exploitation as natural and inevitable functions of social life. It argues that texts attempting to expose exploitive hierarchies and structural injustices often risk having their stories subsumed and commodified by the profuseness and proliferation of countervailing messages about individual choice and personal freedom. This struggle is highlighted through historicizing five contemporary American narratives--Margaret Atwood's Bodily Harm, the films Boys Don't Cry and Monster, Toni Morrison's Beloved, and Linda Hogan's Solar Storms--with and against critical concerns and popular texts. Furthermore, by employing …