Digital Commons Network^™

“Angles Of Approaching Gender Equality: Top-Down Vs. Bottom-Up”, Manali Basu

Dissertations and Theses

The international community has attempted to integrate and implement norms into their domestic structure for many decades. They have incorporated the norm of gender equality through many different measures, however failed to identify a successful approach to implementing this type of norm effectively. This paper will explore how these international norms are spread and analyze two separate approaches to integrating gender equality: top-down and bottom-up. It will assess these approaches through a case-study analysis of India and Ghana. This will provide an in-depth explanation of each approach and it will analyze how they have, respectively, impacted the country’s education and …

When Wives Migrate And Leave Husbands Behind: A Jamaican Marriage Pattern, Elaine B. Douglas-Harrison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For over a hundred years Jamaicans have been migrating to make the proverbial `better life' for themselves and their families. In the early 20th century husbands migrated, leaving wives behind. As economies of the United States and Canada have become more service-oriented, wives migrate leaving husbands behind. The experiences of Jamaican immigrant women are documented in Caribbean migration studies, but the marriages of Jamaican legally-married immigrant wives and their husbands left behind in Jamaica are so far unstudied. The main research question of this study is what maintains these transnational marriages over time, sometimes for decades, when spouses see each …

Women In Foreclosure: Social Reproduction & Mortgage Strain In The Subprime Era, Amy Baker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Advisor: Professor Mimi Abramovitz

This research captures the experiences of 31 single female homeowners with risky lending markets and mortgage foreclosure in the city of Philadelphia. In-depth, semi-structured interviewing was employed to build knowledge about single women's experiences with seeking a loan, buying a home, entering default and attempting to stall foreclosure. Thematic analysis of the data demonstrated that risky lending and foreclosure did not mark the onset of financial instability among study participants. Instead, it functioned as a tipping point for single women unable to access upward mobility and asset accrual throughout the lifespan. Women's status as the strongest …

Cisgenderism In Gender Attributions: The Ways In Which Social, Cognitive, And Individual Factors Predict Misgendering, Erica Jayne Friedman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current program of research investigated the ways in which social representations of gender, cognitive processes, and individual factors can be integrated to predict "misgendering," an example of cisgenderism in which people are categorized as a gender with which they do not identify. I proposed an (In)consistency Processing Model of Gender Attribution in which perceivers make a gender attribution by interpreting the stereotype-(in)consistencies of a target's gender characteristics through either a biology- or identity-based schema. Five studies were conducted to test different aspects of this model, the first of which was a secondary data analysis on a sample of students …

We Work, We Eat Together: Anti-Authoritarian Mutual Aid Politics In New York City, 2004-2013, David Spataro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

New York City's neoliberal restructuring has fundamentally transformed the city's labor market and privatized many important aspects of a once robust municipal welfare system. In this research I examine one radical response to these changes: anti-authoritarian mutual aid groups that blend Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture with direct action politics. These are projects where activists attempt to build strong communities of resistance by organizing collective forms of social reproduction. I find that these projects are a threat to neoliberal urbanization because they reorganize reproduction beyond the household scale while simultaneously criticizing the social relations of capitalism as the root of household insecurity. …

Changing Gender: Gender Role, Class And The Experience Of Chinese Female Immigrants, Doris Cheung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes gender role identity development in Chinese female immigrants from diverse work and education backgrounds. This study focuses on Chinese female immigrants, bakery salesladies and social workers, to addresses a gap in the existing literature, which has previously emphasized factory workers and students, on gender role identity development at the interface of social context and activity system dynamics. To understand further the Chinese female immigration experience, this research investigates how gender role identity is manifested across different social contexts and institutions. I administered questionnaires and conducted interviews with Chinese female immigrants residing in New York City. The sample …

A Comparative Study Of Gender-Centered Policies; Liberia And Uganda, Akeisha Knights

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Caregiving And The Work-Life Balance; The Impact Of Gender Expectations On Employed Parent Caregivers, Meghan Amato

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this research is to understand how men and women differ in how they handle the division of caregiving for aging parents and children and work responsibilities. Previous literature states that gender differences in caregiving exist due to the structure of the workforce and family. The workforce is often inflexible concerning employees’ personal schedules and is more welcoming for individuals who do not have to compromise career with family responsibilities. Often, one spouse must curtail his or her career to make time for child or parent care. Care work is typically seen as a “feminine” job and often …