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Making Herstory: Admission Of Women To The Evening School Of Commerce, Laurel Bowen

Selections from the University Library Blog

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Marriages, Mistresses, And Mockery: Gender Roles And Power Dynamics In The Saint-Aubin Livre De Caricatures Tant Bonnes Que Mauvaises, Madison Short

Art and Design Theses

In a collection of nearly 400 drawings entitled Livre de caricatures tant bonne que mauvaises, Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin (1721-1786) ridiculed every aspect of French culture from King Louis XV and his court, to the poorest pockets of society. For the purposes of this thesis, I will be focusing on Saint-Aubin’s drawings of anonymous women, wives, and mistresses. Along with the depictions of women, I will examine the instances in which he draws men dressed up as women. Charles-Germain uses the image of women to highlight the follies of man. I cannot and will not argue these images are in …

Knowing That My Voice Belonged There: An Exploratory Case Study On The Lived Experiences Of Black Women Composers, Brittney Boykin

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

This exploratory case study examined the lived experiences of Black women composers. The main research question undergirding this research sought to understand how Black women composers describe their identities of race and gender within their careers. It also aimed to understand how Black women composers navigate elements of knowledge, opportunity, and visibility in a profession where they have been traditionally marginalized. Purposive sampling was used to invite ten Black women composers who are active in their careers and have catalogued works that are published and performed. Utilizing a conceptual framework that encompasses Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2009) and Counterspaces (Case …

'We Want Women?': An Examination Of Female Political Leadership During National Public Health Crises, Kelsi Rae Quick

Political Science Theses

While crises of terrorism have often prompted preference for male leadership, COVID-19 poses an ideal situation for examining the impact of gender stereotypes on executive approval in a new type of crisis tied to public health, seen as more of a ‘woman’s domain.’ Employing a survey experiment to examine public perception of male and female political leadership during different types of hypothetical national crises (terrorism v. highly contagious virus), this study ultimately finds that there is not a significant difference in average approval ratings between male and female executives in the virus crisis context, and a small difference with females …

Is The Role Model Effect Related To The Motivation Of Women Running For Office? An Investigation Of The Role Model Effect On Women In The Workforce, Courtney Lawrence

Political Science Theses

This paper focuses on the relationship between the role model effect, and the motivation of women running for office. Many studies have suggested that the role model effect is associated with women entering political races, since women become more politically ambitious when more female candidates appear on the ballot. However, the extant literature tends to have a general focus on younger women and girls as opposed to other groups of women. Therefore, this paper examines the ways in which the role model effect is experienced by women already in the workforce. Five female participants from the researcher’s network, who occupy …

Animus, Parker Grace Thornton

Art and Design Theses

Animus explores the uneasy intimacy between human bodies and nature through soft sculpture, short stories, photography, video, and a deadpan tone. An image of a frozen chicken defrosting inside of a sauna is countered by trail camera footage of hungry birds feeding on a foot that’s been life-cast in suet and birdseed; latex sheets hang like flayed skin, mimicking the texture of the trees’ surfaces on which the sheets were cast. The work posits that human attempts to command and contain nature can be compared to the shifting tectonics of a sexual relationship--in which there is play between dominance and …

Creative Industries: Behind The Scenes Inequalities, Sierra C. Nicely

Sociology Theses

Film has been a major influence since its creation in the early 20th century. Women have always been involved in the creation of film as a cultural product. However, they have rarely been given positions of power in major film productions. Using qualitative approaches, I examine the different ways in which men and women directors approach creating film. I examine 20 films, half were directed by men and half by women. I selected the twenty films out of two movie genres: Action and Romantic Comedy. These genres were chosen because of their very gendered marketing. My focus was on the …

Culturally Targeted Decision Aid Use In Intention To Complete Colorectal Cancer Screening Among African American Women, Cecilia Porcher

Nursing Doctoral Projects (DNP)

Title: Culturally Targeted Decision Aid Use in Intention to Complete Colorectal Cancer Screening among African American Women

Purpose: African American (AA) women experienced approximately 41% more deaths related to Colorectal Cancer (CRC) than White women in 2016. Provider recommendation has been a positive predictor of screening behavior. Along with provider recommendation, decision aids (DAs) can be useful tools to decrease health disparities and increase screening rates in racial, sex, and gender minorities. The purpose of the project is to determine if the use of DAs along with provider recommendation improve intention to complete CRC screening.

Method: 21 AA women ages …

Dignity, Carla Powell, Carla Powell

Art and Design Theses

Dignity is a body of work examining and celebrating the efforts of women who are in challenging circumstances to compel a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. Using the most basic of tools, most notably the hand, women can individually change their outcome, as well as that of their families and their communities. The artwork explores these ideas and focuses on the visual processes and products that women’s hands perform and create around the world.

The Devout Griot, Emotional Keeper., Shanequa S. Gay

Art and Design Theses

The Devout Griot, Emotional Keeper evaluates place, tradition, storytelling, and the experiences of African-American women to develop imaginative dialogues and alternative strategies for self-imaging by uprooting social proscriptions and challenging political norms. Within this installation, the paintings, performance, and monumental sculptural figures create an environment of ritual and memorial, depicting amalgamated new gods and mythical figures whose lives have been impacted by systemic inequalities, resulting in counter and

re-imagined narratives that, at times, live within the duality of physical and spiritual worlds. This work also explores the historic and contemporary social concerns of hybrid cultures through the gaze of …

Living Hysterically, Jessica Caldas

Art and Design Theses

Living Hysterically is an immersive exhibition of multi-disciplinary works that explore the ordinary lived experiences of women and highlight women’s constant relationship with labor and pain. Pain can be considered a uniquely feminine issue. In Living Hysterically, each series of work presents a picture of past, present, and future tied to three generations of women. These stories provide an entry point into the personal experiences, both positive and negative, that fill the lives of women. The work illustrates the forces working in these lives that create a spectrum of violence, from the mundane to the traumatic, and the ways women …

Sexually Nonconforming Pinays Negotiate Relationships With Parents, Partners, And Community, Veronica Salcedo

Sociology Theses

Documentation and analysis of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women’s experiences in the U.S. centers White lesbians in urban settings. This study contributes to the growing literature on sexually nonconforming (SNC) women of color. When women of Filipino descent, or Pinays, are romantically attracted to other women, how do they negotiate relationships with their families of origin and choice? What are the raced and gendered experiences of SNC Pinays? I conducted narrative analysis of 10 in-depth, semi-structured interviews that center the voices of SNC Pinays in the U.S. Through Burawoy’s extended case method, I find that both SNC Pinays and their …

A Narrative Study: Understanding The Intersections Of Race, Class, Gender, And Sexuality In The Pathways To Crime And Incarceration In African American Women’S Lives, Rachelle A. Stewart

Africana Studies Theses

This thesis explores the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in African American women’s lives and the way public policy intervenes in their pathways to crime and incarceration, by way of personal life histories. By exploring their personal life narratives allows for finding a voice that can express a self-defined black woman’s standpoint. Black women’s narratives offer a unique insight into interlocking patterns of oppression that contribute to their incarceration, and how discrimination based on race, gender, and sexuality extends into prison. Through the collection of five in-depth interviews, I examined how certain themes and how the intersection of …

Performing Valor, Redeeming Virtue, Karen Dodson

English Dissertations

John Milton dedicated his life to forming a path to virtue for men to follow that included education, contemplation, divine illumination, and right reason. Milton promises that his path will lead others to a life of reason and a paradise within. Eighteenth-century women responded to Milton’s formula for virtue and appropriated his path for their own enlightenment. This project examines the way in which three eighteenth-century women, Mary Astell, Lady Mary Chudleigh, and Elizabeth Carter, incorporated Milton’s path to virtue into their writing and into their lives to redefine virtue for women.

Differences In Mental, Cognitive, And Functional Health By Sexual Orientation Among Older Women: Analysis Of The 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Kristie L. Seelman

SW Publications

Background and Objectives: This study addresses a gap in the knowledge base regarding whether there are differences in mental, cognitive, and functional health between sexual minority women aged 65 and older and their heterosexual counterparts, as well as whether disparities are moderated by age, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity.

Research Design and Methods: This study analyzes 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 21 states. Multivariate logistic regression is used to test the hypotheses.

Results: Compared to heterosexual women, lesbian/gay women aged 65 and older report worse functional health and bisexual women report worse cognitive health and more difficulties with …

The Changing Role Of Elite Southern Women In The Lower South (1830-1900), Mary Alexandria Fahey

History Theses

The topic of the American Civil War is one that has long been studied by historians. This thesis looks to the often forgotten home front and explores the dynamic changes the elite women of the Lower South faced from the antebellum to the post bellum era. Through the exploration of diaries, journals, memoirs, and newspapers from the mid to late nineteenth century, the changing roles and responsibilities of the elite women during this time period are further explored. The stories of the elite women add to the overall history of the nineteenth century Lower South and allow the reader to …

Social Positioning In Refugee Women’S Education: A Linguistic Ethnography Of One English Class, Nicole Pettitt

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

The present study examined the language and literacy practices of one ethnolinguistically diverse family literacy English classroom for women who recently migrated to the United States as refugees, and whose access to formal, school-based learning was interrupted prior to migration. More specifically, this study investigated how institutionally-valued practices socially positioned the women in class, and how the women discursively negotiated and claimed new or different positionings for themselves. Overall, this study draws on social positioning theories (Davies & Harré, 1990; Harré & van Langenhove, 1999), to attempt to address the relationship between English language education for women and notions of …

Descriptive Analysis Of Mental Health Needs Of Nontraditional Black And White Students, Jordan A. Brown

Public Health Theses

Introduction: Mental health seeking behaviors among nontraditional students, particularly Black students, is an area that should be examined closely with care and strategy. There are a plethora of factors that pose risks to nontraditional students completing their education. There is something to take note of when 38% of nontraditional students leave their first year compared to 16% of traditional students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012).

Objective: This study assessed the risk factors and demographic variables associated with mental health seeking behaviors in Black nontraditional students vs. White nontraditional students at Georgia State University.

Methods: Descriptive demographic data were used …

The Effects Of Psychological Stress On Abdominal Obesity Among African American Women, Sankan W. Nyanseor

Public Health Theses

African American (AA) women have the highest prevalence of obesity than other groups in the US making them disproportionately at high risk for chronic diseases associated with obesity such type 2 diabetes mellitus. Research has shown that stress may be a risk factor for obesity and that it may be more prevalent within AA women. The aim of this study was to identify if there is an association between psychological stress in AA women in the US and abdominal obesity (AO). A cross sectional study design was employed using secondary data from the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey …

Black Women Pursuing Doctorates In Mathematics Education: An Examination Of Stories Of Their Mathematical Experiences, Nathalie Dames

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

The research shows a lack of representation of Black women in mathematics education. The purpose of this study was to explore Black women’s perspectives on how their mathematical experiences influenced their decisions to pursue a doctoral degree in mathematics education. To address this issue the following research questions were explored: What perspectives do Black women who are in pursuit of a doctorate of philosophy degree in mathematics education have about their mathematical experiences? How have those perspectives of their experiences influenced their pursuit of a doctorate of philosophy in mathematics education? For this study purposeful sampling was used to select …

From Plow To Podium: Political Activity Of Poor And Yeoman Women In Civil War Georgia, Dawn Wiley

History Theses

Women in the Civil War era engendered new identities that directly opposed traditional female roles set forth by Southern society. Women belonging to the non-elite classes emerged out of the domestic sphere and became enmeshed in political life. This analysis evaluates the political life of white Georgia women of the poor and yeoman class during the Civil War in comparison to the conclusions set forth by Stephanie McCurry in Confederate Reckoning. An introduction of terms and class structures is followed by a discussion on how women impacted public policy in Georgia through writing government officials, petitioning, and rioting. A …

The Role Of Education In The Assimilation Of Romani Women In The United States, Melanie Covert

Sociology Theses

The Romani are a largely unknown people group in the United States though their plight world-wide is highly visible. The story of Romani in the United States remains largely untold. This study explored the daily lives of 15 Romani women within the United States. The study investigated questions of historical prejudice, gender roles, educational achievement and barriers to assimilation with in the Romani community. Results of the study highlighted that many Romani women encounter significant barriers inside and outside of their communities that impact their ability to pursue higher education and to fully assimilate into mainstream society due to current …

Contractions Or Constructions: A Content Analysis Of Birthing Facilities In Miami, Florida, Shameka Thomas

Sociology Theses

Numbers of caesarean sections, epidurals, and other forms of medical interventions for birthing are rising in the United States healthcare industry. One possible reason is the medicalization of birthing and labor techniques. Another potential reason is the increasing distinction between laboring in a hospital versus laboring in the home or an independent birthing center. The dominance of the medical model of birthing has led to social constructions of birthing that divide women by diagnosis, into either high-risk or low-risk prenatal categories, further perpetuating the medical model’s power to marginalize the midwifery model.

Forty percent of U.S. births are financed by …

Early Sexual Debut And Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection In Central Africa, Emerencienne Kibangou

Public Health Theses

ABSTRACT

Background: A variety of studies identified early sexual debut as a significant risk factor for HIV infection, particularly among young African women. However, little is known about this relationship in Central Africa.

Methods: This study was based on a cross-sectional analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys data drawn from four central African countries, Cameroon and Gabon with high HIV prevalence levels, Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo with low HIV prevalence levels. Relationship between sexual activity initiated before age 15 and HIV sero-status was examined in men and women aged 15-24 years, to determine potential differences in this relationship …

Gendered Racism And The Moderating Influence Of Racial Identity: Implications For African American Women?S Well-Being, Justin L. Williams

Psychology Dissertations

Intersectionality theory has been put forth to explain how gender and race dually impact and act upon African American women (e.g., Settles, 2006; Thomas et al., 2008). Although there is a growing body of literature on the negative effect that perceived racism has on Black/African Americans well-being and that sexism has on women’s well-being, there is a paucity of research on the intersection of racism and sexism (i.e., gendered racism) and its influence on African American women’s well-being (e.g., Perry, Pullen, & Oser, 2012; Thomas et al., 2008). To address this gap in the literature, the current study examined gendered …

Resisting Tropes, Inserting Selves: An Interpretative Biographical Analysis Of The Life Writings Of Mixed Race Women Writers, Erin M. George

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

This thesis focuses on the patterns of racial formation, and epistemological points of entry that are salient to the mulatta experience in the United States, through the use of life writings. The results gleaned from this research are utilized to problematize revived political and social assertions of a post-feminist, post-racist United States.

The Experience Of Exposure Across Racial Groups: Differences In Presence During Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy For Social Phobia Across African-American And Caucasian Women, Natasha Mehta

Psychology Theses

Few studies have looked at the experience of exposure therapy (ET) amongst underrepresented populations. African-American (AA) women may be at higher risk for anxiety and experience treatment differently than their Caucasian counterparts. Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) is suited to examine differences in treatment experiences because a measure of “presence” exists to quantify the experience of standardized VRE. Qualitative methods provide an opportunity to explore the experience of underrepresented populations and individual differences. The current study employed a mixed-method design to compare self-reported levels of presence during VRE across a sample of 24 AA and Caucasian women diagnosed with social …

In Their Words: Women's Holocaust Memoirs, Shana Latimer

English Theses

Sara Tuvel Bernstein’s The Seamstress and Rena Kornreich Gelissen’s Rena’s Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz, both Holocaust memoirs, offer insight into the rise of violent anti-Semitism prior to World War II and the authors’ experiences in concentration camps. The purpose of this project is to better understand the unique trauma women experienced during the Holocaust and the impact of that trauma on their literary responses.

Negotiating Beauty Ideals: Perceptions Of Beauty Among Black Female University Students, Fiana O. Swain

Anthropology Theses

This thesis explores the college lives of Black women who attend or recently attended majority white colleges and universities in the United States. Emphasis is placed on how Black women’s college experience is influenced by the way they define beauty, as well as how they perceive their White peers to define beauty. Through the collection of ten in-depth interviews, I examine how Black women’s perceptions of beauty compare with those of mainstream United States standards and those of the dominant culture of their schools. I explored how the Black women I interviewed responded when confronted with these mainstream beauty standards …

Disappearing Acts: The Mass Incarceration Of African American Women, Christina Faye Meares

Africana Studies Theses

The growth in the number of black women in the prison system necessitates more research become rooted in an intersectional approach. This quantitative study will empirically apply intersectionality to address the unique circumstances of imprisoned black women by comparing and analyzing sentence convictions shared between black and white incarcerated women in Georgia. Drawing on 600 inmate profiles published by Georgia Department of Corrections, this study will address the statistical significance of race, class and gender on the length of sentence for incarcerated white and black women using regression models.