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Blogging In The Fatosphere: A Qualitative Study Of Perceptions Of Personal Risks And Benefits For Women Who Blog About Weight, Weight Loss, And Dieting Issues, Melissa Marie Sneed Dec 2012

Blogging In The Fatosphere: A Qualitative Study Of Perceptions Of Personal Risks And Benefits For Women Who Blog About Weight, Weight Loss, And Dieting Issues, Melissa Marie Sneed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the perceptions of the personal risks and benefits of women who blog about weight, weight loss, and dieting issues. Many overweight women use blogs as a tool during their weight loss journeys to garner support. The experiences of 5 women who blog about weight and dieting issues were collected through 45 minute in-depth interviews. The author's own experiences with blogging is analyzed as well. A qualitative approach was taken when analyzing the data. Eight emergent themes came from the research data. The benefits of this study are significant for current and future research regarding the influence of …


Women In Prison: Planning The Getaway: Vocational Education In A Southern Women's Correctional Institution, Aimee Michelle Burgdorf Nov 2012

Women In Prison: Planning The Getaway: Vocational Education In A Southern Women's Correctional Institution, Aimee Michelle Burgdorf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine the vocational programs available to female inmates incarcerated in the only female prison in a southern state, to explore these inmates' thoughts, feelings, and perspectives about the programs available to them, and to determine whether these programs are unintentionally gender-biased or gender-stereotypical. Additionally, data were collected reflecting the vocational education instructors' thoughts, feelings, and perspectives on their programs as well as on the the inmate students enrolled in their programs. Additionally, detailed vocational program descriptions were obtained from the facility. These documents provided information about the kinds of jobs available for each …


On The Verge Of Change: Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, Mallary Taylor Oct 2012

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.


Becoming Isis: Myth, Magic, Medicine, And Reproduction In Ancient Egypt, Chrystal Elaine Goudsouzian Jul 2012

Becoming Isis: Myth, Magic, Medicine, And Reproduction In Ancient Egypt, Chrystal Elaine Goudsouzian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In ancient Egypt, sexuality, fertility, and the conception of children was of central importance not just to personal identity, but also to family and social structure. Because of the significance of birth in both the physical world and in the spiritual realm, references to reproduction, including fertility, conception, pregnancy, and childbirth, can be found in a wide variety of textual sources. Specifically, mythic events and scenarios, including those in magical spells, medico-magical spells, and funerary texts, reflected Egyptian reproductive conceptions and practices. Further, the Egyptians employed and called on these mythic episodes and archetypes to create divinely charged myth-mirroring space, …


The Edenton Tea Party, 25 October 1774: A Patriotic Female Community In Revolutionary North Carolina, Eliza Love Shelton May 2012

The Edenton Tea Party, 25 October 1774: A Patriotic Female Community In Revolutionary North Carolina, Eliza Love Shelton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis examines the background and significance of the women who participated in the Edenton Tea Party, which took place in 1774. By examining this important event and the community that supported it, I illuminate the common political and domestic struggles of white women in the American Revolution as well as how they changed. The time period includes Edenton's part in the colony's participation in the war, the women's demonstration, their subsequent wartime experiences, and the legacy of their unprecedented rebellion, all of which place women on the path to attain the right to participate in American government. I analyze …


Women In Intercollegiate Athletics : An Exploration Of The Career Development Of Female Senior Administrators., Meg C. Hancock May 2012

Women In Intercollegiate Athletics : An Exploration Of The Career Development Of Female Senior Administrators., Meg C. Hancock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The roles of assistant and associate athletic director have been identified as positions in the "pipeline" to achieving the position of Athletic Director (Grappendorf, Lough, & Griffin, 2004; Lapchick, 2010). Given the underrepresentation of female Athletic Directors in intercollegiate athletics and the concern that women may experience difficulty accessing such positions, there is a growing need to understand the career experiences and expectations of women in senior-level management positions in intercollegiate athletics. The purpose of this study was to explore the career development of female assistant and associate athletic directors at NCAA Division I institutions. This study investigated participants' (a) …


Consumer Culture, Material Desires, And Images Of Women In American Novels And Art At The Turn Of The 20th Century., Janna S. Tajibaeva May 2012

Consumer Culture, Material Desires, And Images Of Women In American Novels And Art At The Turn Of The 20th Century., Janna S. Tajibaeva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines American consumer culture and its influences on images of women created in art and literature at the turn of the twentieth century. It is divided into four substantive parts and uses the methods and theoretical approaches from four separate disciplines: social history, social theory, literature and art. The study offers a cultural discourse of the period by analyzing the novels of Edith Wharton The House of Mirth, and The Custom of the Country, and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, and also looking into the paintings of American Impressionists and Realists. It interprets the fictional and visual portrayals of …


Maidens, Matrons, And Magicians : Women And Personal Ritual Power In Late Antique Egypt., Meghan Paalz Mcginnis May 2012

Maidens, Matrons, And Magicians : Women And Personal Ritual Power In Late Antique Egypt., Meghan Paalz Mcginnis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to a variety of material, textual, and literary evidence, the aim of this thesis is to shed light on the realities – rather than stereotypes -- of an important aspect of late ancient women’s experience: the use of ritual power. Patterns of gender differentiation in late antique Egyptian magic are investigated and shown to be connected to the particular aims to which numinous powers were employed, aims which were in turn bound up with the social roles expected of each sex. The majority of this study consists of a series of case studies of different types …


Southern Graces: Women, Faith, And The Quest For Social Justice, Memphis, Tennessee, 1950-1969, Doris Ann Youngblood Mulhearn Apr 2012

Southern Graces: Women, Faith, And The Quest For Social Justice, Memphis, Tennessee, 1950-1969, Doris Ann Youngblood Mulhearn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Memphis,Tennessee was thrust into the national civil rights movement after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. The city, however, has a much more complex connection with civil rights activity than the traditional narratives imply. As early as 1950, both black and white Memphians attempted to address the social inequities of Jim Crow. Many of these early social justice activists were women. Although the assumption is that the women would be Protestant because of the historical association of African Americans with Protestant denominations as well as the lack of a significant Catholic population inTennessee, there was a …


The Year Of The Myrrhbearers, Sarah Grace Romer Apr 2012

The Year Of The Myrrhbearers, Sarah Grace Romer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This novel examines the lives of the three Creighton women, Joanna, Bethany, and Maggie, during the year following Jeremiah Creighton's death. While grieving the loss of a husband and father, each woman also faces the questions regarding the suspicious circumstances of Jeremiah Creighton's fatal car accident. Joanna knows and learns secrets about her husband which she hides from her daughters for fear of the blame and guilt that will come. Bethany wants to fix her families problems by trying for children with her husband, Simon, in an attempt to turn pain into hope. Maggie avoids the adult responsibilites that her …


Graduate Recital, Voice, Elizabeth Patterson Jan 2012

Graduate Recital, Voice, Elizabeth Patterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Entitled "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman: Pastoral Reflections by Passionate Women," this recital seeks to sing the unsung. The program features music of forgotten composers, forgotten cultures, and especially of forgotten women. The recital speaks on behalf of these composers through pastoral themes. The women of these texts express love and loss through communion with nature. They see their hearts' reflections in the sun and the moon, the flowers, the birds, and the seasons. These women articulate their emotions and explore their identities within a pastoral framework.


The Lady Showroom: Optical Representations In The Works Of Joanna Baillie And Louisa Stuart Costello, Katherine Richards Jan 2012

The Lady Showroom: Optical Representations In The Works Of Joanna Baillie And Louisa Stuart Costello, Katherine Richards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much women's writing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries attempts to depict other women visually through textual description, use of optical devices, and discussion of bodies and appearances. This thesis argues that they were trying to see and show other women as a way of understanding themselves and each other by examining intersections between visual culture and text through mirrors, miniatures, and portraits. This thesis demonstrates how these works reflect larger shifts in the optical unconscious of the eighteenth century. I focus on works by Joanna Baillie and Louisa Stuart Costello, who theorize the viewing process in their …


Thin Is In: A Content Analysis Of Images In Women's Magazines From 2009-2011, Jennifer Kate Wilson Jan 2012

Thin Is In: A Content Analysis Of Images In Women's Magazines From 2009-2011, Jennifer Kate Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many research studies have shown that women constantly compare themselves to the models they see featured in women's magazines, and in turn, develop body image issues, negative mood changes and even eating disorders. The majority of findings show that women often develop these serious side-effects because they are bombarded with images of mostly thin models. Yet editors of women's magazines continue to choose women much smaller, in most cases at least six times smaller, than the average sized American women to feature. It is very unusual to see fashion spread in a women's magazine featuring a model close to the …


The Gender Gap In Technical Communication: How Women Challenge The Predominant Objectivist Paradigm, Nathan Bower Jan 2012

The Gender Gap In Technical Communication: How Women Challenge The Predominant Objectivist Paradigm, Nathan Bower

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women are currently underrepresented in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how this underrepresentation translates to a gender gap in the field of technical communication and how this gap causes women to challenge the predominant objectivist paradigm in the field. Through an investigation of peer-reviewed journal articles, periodicals, critical theory, and articles published in online magazines such as Slate, I identify the gendered nature of modern technology and discuss to what extent a shift in the predominant paradigm has occurred in the professional arena. In looking at several theoretical approaches …


The Queen Of The Household: Mothers, Other Mothers, And Female Genealogy On The Plantation In Postslavery Women's Fiction, Correna Catlett Merricks Jan 2012

The Queen Of The Household: Mothers, Other Mothers, And Female Genealogy On The Plantation In Postslavery Women's Fiction, Correna Catlett Merricks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In many ways, the plantation defined the U.S. South because it was the primary site of production, and therefore income, for prominent southerners. In addition to being a site of production, the plantation created a complex series of connected relationships that was imagined by the plantocracy to be a large family unit. It functioned according to a specific hierarchical model that was primarily based on a patriarchal understanding of genealogy. Yet Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby" and "La Belle Zoraïde," Pauline Hopkins's Contending Forces, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Julia Peterkin's Scarlet Sister Mary, Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, …