Digital Commons Network^™

A Hidden Culture Of Carelessness: A Comparative Qualitative Study Of Gender Inequality And Its Implications For African American And South African Black Women Higher Education Administrators, Dawn S. Singleton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and compare the lived and career experiences of Black women higher education administrators in the United States and South Africa. This comparative study elucidated the women’s experiences while giving voice to Black women, whose experiences and status are often further marginalized under new managerial practices. This research used the theoretical lenses of intersectionality and carelessness, a new managerial practice within higher education, to uncover the challenges, opportunities, and contexts experienced by these women within gendered, racialized organizational structures and practices. A major finding of the research is that Black women shared …

Interrupting The Conspiracy Of Silence: Historical Trauma And The Experiences Of Hmong American Women, Ia Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

The Hmong have endured a history of oppressive and traumatic experiences. The Secret War was particularly significant as it resulted in genocide, dislocation, and oppression for the Hmong. In addition, the Hmong experience and their involvement as U.S. allies remained largely a secret for several decades. Current research suggests that Hmong Americans experience a high prevalence of mental health issues including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse as well as other health disparities. The purpose of this project was to explore how a history of massive group trauma and secrecy maintained about the Hmong may contribute to the current conditions of …

A Page Of Her Own: How Women Navigate The Public And Private Facets Of Blogging, Emily Marie Flinders

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the complexity of the texts women create through blogging and their inherent value. I seek to explore how the mothers who blog are constructing online identities for their family units and family members in this space and how those constructions affect and inform the mothers' construction of their personal identities online. I analyze how perceptions of gender norms and practices of gender performance may affect and inform the identities thus constructed, and further complicate the liminal nature of blogging spaces. I begin with the sociological framework of Erving Goffman, which is commonly used to deconstruct identity performance …

Women Workin’ It In Gis: A Mixed Methods Study Of Underrepresentation And The Gendered Experience Among Female Gis Practitioners, Livia M. Betancourt Mazur

Theses and Dissertations

Through novel empirical research, this thesis explores the experience of women working in the professional field of geographic information systems (GIS), adding to GIS literature, as well as to academic geography and wider science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discourses, addressing gaps in these bodies of knowledge.

Fantastic Sexism? Subverting The Femme Fatale And Femme Fragile In The Fantastic Fiction Of Machado De Assis, Jordan Benjamin Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, arguably the most famous Brazilian author, has been studied perhaps more than any other figure in Brazilian literature. Because Machado's novels are so exceptional, many of his good short stories have been neglected by scholars, particularly those categorized by some as “fantastic.” This study attempts to fill that gap by analyzing the most prominent female characters in Machado's fantastic fiction. After providing a brief overview of the term fantastic and explaining how the stories used qualify as fantastic, this study identifies several tropes into which their female characters fit. Chapter 1: The Femme Fragile analyzes …

Gender As An 'Interplay Of Rules': Detecting Epistemic Interplay Of Medical And Legal Discourse With Sex And Gender Classification In Four Editions Of The Dewey Decimal Classification, Melodie J. Fox

Theses and Dissertations

When groups of people are represented in classification systems, potential exists for them to be structurally or linguistically subordinated, erased or otherwise misrepresented (Olson & Schlegl, 2001). As Bowker & Star (1999) have shown, the real-world application of classification to people can have legal, economic, medical, social, and educational consequences. The purpose of this research is to contribute to knowledge organization by showing how the epistemological stance underlying specific classificatory discourses interactively participates in the formation of concepts. The medical and legal discourses in three timeframes are examined using Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis to investigate how their depictions of gender …

Work-Life Balance Of Women Leaders In The Association Of Theological Schools, Kelly Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Although women make up more than 50% of the student population at a theological institution, they are significantly underrepresented in leadership as evidenced by Lowe's 2011 study, which found that women account for fewer than 10% of CEOs in theological education. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine work-life balance as it relates to organizational commitment for women leaders in Association of Theological Schools (ATS) accredited schools. The researcher used a qualitative methodology employing the life course theoretical framework, sometimes called the narrative life story framework, which is based on Giele's (2008) original study. The interview questions were …

Unacknowledged Victims: Love Between Women In The Narrative Of The Holocaust. An Analysis Of Memoirs, Novels, Film And Public Memorials, Isabel Meusen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation combines cultural theory and gender theory with literary criticism to evaluate the treatment of lesbians during the Holocaust and in narratives about the Holocaust. Responding to the kissing-scene controversy of the Berlin memorial for the homosexual victims of the Holocaust I claim that lesbian women’s experience of suffering is downplayed and disappears under the umbrella term ‘homosexuals.’ Employing a critical historical conceptualization of “lesbian love,” I consider examples from Claudia Schoppmann’s Days of Masquerade and Verbotene Verhältnisse as well as the personal estate of political activist Hilde Radusch to trace the personal view lesbians have of themselves. Shifting …

A Comparison Of The Factor Structure Of The Short Form Liberal Feminist Attitude And Ideology Scale (Lfais) For Women And Men In A University Survey, V. Diane Woodbrown

Theses and Dissertations

The current study compares the factor structure of the short form Liberal Feminist Attitude and Ideology Scale (LFAIS; Morgan, 1996) for males and females in a University survey. We first provide a discussion of feminism, a brief narrative review summarizing previous and co-existing measures of the construct “feminist attitudes” for males and females, and then conduct confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to test Morgan’s own theory that there may exist a single general factor underlying the Liberal Feminist Attitudes Ideology Scale for males and for females, and that the latent construct/s underlying this scale are …

Patient And Provider Perceptions Of Weight Gain, Physical Activity, And Nutrition In Pregnancy, Kara M. Whitaker

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The high percentage of women who enter pregnancy overweight or obese and gain excessive weight during pregnancy is a growing public health problem. Health care providers are recommended to counsel women on weight gain, physical activity (PA), and nutrition during pregnancy. However, little is known about patient or provider perceptions of these topics. Purpose: Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study examined women’s and health care providers’ perceptions of weight gain, PA, and nutrition in pregnancy. This study also examined the role of the health care provider in optimizing pregnancy weight gain. Methods: Pregnant women between …

Creating The Self: Women Artists In Twentieth-Century Fiction, Bethany Dailey Tisdale

Theses and Dissertations

In novels of artistic development (or künstlerromane) by women in the early twentieth-century, becoming an artist is intimately tied to becoming recognized as an individual. It would appear that an era of rapid change and expanding opportunities for women would result in affirmative narratives of women’s artistry, but studying texts by Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Dawn Powell shows that stringent gender roles can still keep women from realizing artist success.

In Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Lily Bart ruins her prospects on the marriage market by striving for freedom and aesthetic pleasure. Those desires cannot be reconciled …