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Look Again—Traditional Women As Nontraditional Students: A New Face In Higher Education, Candi Jones Newell Aug 2018

Look Again—Traditional Women As Nontraditional Students: A New Face In Higher Education, Candi Jones Newell

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the experiences of 13 culturally traditional women who returned to higher education as nontraditional students. An individual unstructured interview, with guiding questions, was held with each woman. This provided the opportunity for these women to articulate their experience. The interviews were transcribed and interpreted using a synthesis of qualitative methods based upon Kvale's method. Seven themes emerged: (a) participants would tell a woman considering a return to school to "do it!" (b) participants saw spousal support as significant in their ability to return to school, (c) participants saw their families as generally supportive of their return to …


Assessing The Experiences Of Women Who Have Suffered Intimate Partner Violence Living In Shelters, Queencilla N. Hammond Jun 2018

Assessing The Experiences Of Women Who Have Suffered Intimate Partner Violence Living In Shelters, Queencilla N. Hammond

Theses and Dissertations

According to the Centers for Disease Control on National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence in 2010, more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more than 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Throughout history, someone they knew has most often victimized women. Over the past thirty years, feminist organizers of the domestic violence (DV) movement powered public awareness regarding the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) dominantly. This led to the development of a network of shelters and other support services for victims, …


Moral And Cultural Discourses Surrounding Women Athletes In Egypt, Yasmeen El-Ghazaly Jun 2018

Moral And Cultural Discourses Surrounding Women Athletes In Egypt, Yasmeen El-Ghazaly

Theses and Dissertations

Choosing my thesis topic and title was both no easy task; yet came naturally to me. My thesis titled, “Moral and cultural discourses surrounding women athletes in Egypt” discusses the effects of social spaces, notions of femininities, masculinities, and gendered power relations, social and cultural stigmas surrounding Egyptian women athletes through exploring the daily challenges of a selection of amateur and professional women athletes residing in Egypt as they embark on changing the various social stigmas, stereotypes and limitations facing them in the everydayness of their lives in Egypt as athletic women. The thesis argues that the interplay of the …


Remembrances Reconsidered: Site-Specific Affective Retellings, Melanie W. Lozier May 2018

Remembrances Reconsidered: Site-Specific Affective Retellings, Melanie W. Lozier

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of the ways in which strong affective feelings, trauma, and memories are written about by women through diverse narrative forms. Through storytelling, writers engage with the relationship between deep feelings, significant places, and language, such as the frequent employment of words containing the prefix "re."


Overwhelmed: A Qualitative Study Of The Mental Health Experiences Of Mothers Of Minor Children After Release From Jail And Prison, Ann Elizabeth Stanton May 2018

Overwhelmed: A Qualitative Study Of The Mental Health Experiences Of Mothers Of Minor Children After Release From Jail And Prison, Ann Elizabeth Stanton

Theses and Dissertations

Mass incarceration in US jails and prisons is a major public health concern. Over one million women are released from US jails and prisons each year. Incarcerated women experience disproportionately high rates of mental health issues and most incarcerated women are mothers of minor children. Mothers of minor children who leave jails and prisons with mental health issues face increased risks of experiencing substance use, risky behaviors, homelessness, and recidivism. Their children are also at increased risk for adverse mental health, behavioral, and social outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the mental health experiences of mothers of …


Roller Derby As A Form Of Self-Empowerment: An Examination Of Female Athletes' Resilience To Intimate Partner Violence, Esmeralda Castillo May 2018

Roller Derby As A Form Of Self-Empowerment: An Examination Of Female Athletes' Resilience To Intimate Partner Violence, Esmeralda Castillo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore if playing roller derby can yield one more resilient to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). IPV is a major wellness concern to our present lives. However, there are many who experience violence, yet do not develop debilitating symptoms. The subject of resilience has emerged to account for this. Resilience can be interpreted as “bouncing back” from adversity, and adapting well to sources of stress (American Psychological Association, n.d.). Sport psychologists have recognized sport as a site for the development of resilient qualities. For females, team sports offer a context to experience empowerment. The …


Becoming Women: Gender And Religion/Culture In Novels By Nawal El Saadawi And Gabriel García Márquez, Sherin Hany Abd Rabouh Feb 2018

Becoming Women: Gender And Religion/Culture In Novels By Nawal El Saadawi And Gabriel García Márquez, Sherin Hany Abd Rabouh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines male characters' subjugation of women through religious discourse as a validating institution. Two third world writers' works, Nawal El Saadawi's The Fall of the Imam and Gabriel García Márquez Chronicle of a Death Foretold, explore this subjugation through the social construction of religion, resulting in the preservation of "discourses" such as religion over the years. I use Simone de Beauvoir and Edward Said's theories in my study of how women came to be identified with inferiority while men came to be identified with superiority. Beauvoir's theory addresses women and men directly, focusing on how societies shape women, …


Comparative Effectiveness Of Conventional And Novel Sampling Methods For The Recruitment Of Sexual Minority Identified Women, Sarah M. Piperato Jan 2018

Comparative Effectiveness Of Conventional And Novel Sampling Methods For The Recruitment Of Sexual Minority Identified Women, Sarah M. Piperato

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual minority identified (SMI) women have an amplified risk for risky health behaviors and chronic health conditions. Current research on mechanisms related to health disparities in SMI women is limited. Research targeting SMI women has relied on small, convenience samples to address health disparities. Due to the nature of this population, probability sampling methods are ineffective and inefficient and cost prohibitive. The purpose of this dissertation was threefold. First, we examined the current state of literature to gain insight on prevalent sampling strategies used to access SMI women for health-related research. Second, we compared the efficacy of two sampling strategies, …


De La Captivité À La Mobilité : Représentations Littéraires De La Migration Féminine De L’Afrique Francophone Vers La France, Rokhaya Aballa Dieng Jan 2018

De La Captivité À La Mobilité : Représentations Littéraires De La Migration Féminine De L’Afrique Francophone Vers La France, Rokhaya Aballa Dieng

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the differences between works by and about francophone women migrants at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century as compared to the treatment of migration by women from francophone Africa in the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, in order to analyze how slavery is connected to migration by women. The thesis also looks at what the differences are in the literary representations of women migrants by writers from francophone Africa and the perspective on migration presented by a French woman writer, Claire de …


Chemotherapy Knowledge And Health Literacy Among Women With Breast Cancer, Pearman Detreville Parker Jan 2018

Chemotherapy Knowledge And Health Literacy Among Women With Breast Cancer, Pearman Detreville Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Chemotherapy education is imperative for patients to gain the knowledge to manage side effects, adhere to prescribed cycles, and recognize the severity of symptoms that require immediate provider contact. Two vital factors – the readability of teaching materials and the patient’s health literacy – must be considered during chemotherapy education. However, materials are often not assessed for readability. Further, the influence of a patient’s health literacy level and demographic factors on chemotherapy knowledge has not yet been investigated. The specific aims are to: (1) critique the readability and format of chemotherapy education materials; (2) explore how women with breast cancer …


Intervention For Women In Costa Rica Who Are Discouraged And Have Food Insecurity And Excess Body Weight, Tatiana Martínez-Jaikel Jan 2018

Intervention For Women In Costa Rica Who Are Discouraged And Have Food Insecurity And Excess Body Weight, Tatiana Martínez-Jaikel

Theses and Dissertations

ntroduction: The coexistence of food insecurity and excess body weight has been wellrecognized by researchers, and it has been documented in women, but not men. Both food insecurity and excess body weight have multiple consequences for physical and mental health. Concerns have been raised about interventions aimed to reduce food insecurity because these programs might contribute to excess body weight, particularly in adult women. Our previous in-depth qualitative research in Costa Rica showed that discouragement was the primary link in the coexistence of food insecurity and excess body weight among Costa Rican women, and that the family and existing gender …


Feminist Strategies And The Advancement Of Women In 19th-Century Spain: Press And Freethinking, Benjamín García Egea Jan 2018

Feminist Strategies And The Advancement Of Women In 19th-Century Spain: Press And Freethinking, Benjamín García Egea

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reexamines the rise of feminism in 19th-century Spain. In this historical context, the female writers who received recognition were mostly from the upper-middle classes: Fernán Caballero, Rosalía de Castro, Concepción Arenal and Emilia Pardo Bazán, to name a few. However, at the end of the 19th century there was also a group of female authors from lower-middle classes who were promoting freethinking, secular education and equal rights for women in the press. Unfortunately, their contributions have been largely forgotten and ignored by critics. The main purpose of this study is to give well-deserved recognition to three female authors, …


Finding Homeplace: Exploring The Experiences Of Black Women In The City Of Richmond, Mariah Williams Jan 2018

Finding Homeplace: Exploring The Experiences Of Black Women In The City Of Richmond, Mariah Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The planning efforts of African-Americans in the United States remained largely hidden throughout much of early planning history. Although African-Americans engaged in unique planning practices of their own, ones that significantly shaped the social and economic fabric within their communities, planning literature has tended to problematize them within the urban environment instead of celebrating their unique differences and experiences. Black women, despite their significant contributions to the urban fabric of numerous American cities, remain even more silenced throughout the planning profession. The unique ways they experience the urban environment, what they value in the built environment and how they speak …


"To Conceive With Child Is The Earnest Desire If Not Of All, Yet Of Most Women": The Advancement Of Prenatal Care And Childbirth In Early Modern England: 1500-1770, Victoria E.C. Glover Jan 2018

"To Conceive With Child Is The Earnest Desire If Not Of All, Yet Of Most Women": The Advancement Of Prenatal Care And Childbirth In Early Modern England: 1500-1770, Victoria E.C. Glover

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes medical manuals published in England between 1500 and 1770 to trace developing medical understandings and prescriptive approaches to conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. While there have been plenty of books written regarding social and religious changes in the reproductive process during the early modern era, there is a dearth of scholarly work focusing on the medical changes which took place in obstetrics over this period. Early modern England was a time of great change in the field of obstetrics as physicians incorporated newly-discovered knowledge about the male and female body, new fields and tools, and new or revived …