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Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons™
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- Honors Theses (3)
- Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies (2)
- Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects (1)
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- Electronic Theses and Dissertations (1)
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- English Theses & Dissertations (1)
- Graduate Theses and Dissertations (1)
- Honors Senior Capstone Projects (1)
- MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture (1)
- Open Access Theses & Dissertations (1)
- Psychology Theses & Dissertations (1)
- Senior Projects Spring 2015 (1)
- UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones (1)
- Wayne State University Dissertations (1)
Articles 1 - 17 of 17
Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Mothering As Feminism, Meera Patel
Mothering As Feminism, Meera Patel
MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture
This critical essay proposes the concept of mothering-as-feminism, with the intention of interrogating American ideals of mothering and caregiving. Reforming the way we view mothering, as it relates to feminism, requires a re-evaluation of the American role of women and mothers—and how they are portrayed (and therefore seen and understood), valued, and supported. Focusing on the evolution of feminist theory throughout the past 70 years, as well as personal and secondary experiences, I demonstrate how political and social change occurs generationally and is dependent on the education of our children. Ultimately, I show the important role children’s literature plays …
A Cultural History Of Anti-Feminism In Marvel's Scarlet Witch, Madison M. Kooba
A Cultural History Of Anti-Feminism In Marvel's Scarlet Witch, Madison M. Kooba
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Marvel Comics character Wanda Maximoff, otherwise known as the Scarlet Witch, has received significant attention in popular culture due to her recent appearances as the primary protagonist and antagonist in television show WandaVision (2021) and film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). These depictions foregrounding Wanda’s struggles with mental health have made her an admirable character to many who see her drawing power from her emotions as a celebration of aspects of womanhood that have long been shamed by society. Sourcing these contemporary adaptations, however, lies decades of blatantly anti-feminist and sexist comics that villainize and ridicule Wanda’s …
Parenting Skills Of African American Young Mothers Who Transitioned From Foster Care, Tamesha Yvonne Townsend-Simmons
Parenting Skills Of African American Young Mothers Who Transitioned From Foster Care, Tamesha Yvonne Townsend-Simmons
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Prior research indicated there is an ongoing social issue in the United States for young single mothers with foster care experiences and their children. This group of women face poor economic and parenting outcomes without assistance from government resources in the form of effective parenting programs. Yet programming lags and there are ongoing assumptions about young mothers' in foster care parenting skills and abilities. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to better understand the development of parenting skills among a selected group of African American adult young mothers who transitioned from foster care to independence and motherhood between …
Becoming A Mom: Intersectionality And Fashion Consumption For Millennial Latinas And The Role Of Social Media Influencers, Leslie M. Cuevas
Becoming A Mom: Intersectionality And Fashion Consumption For Millennial Latinas And The Role Of Social Media Influencers, Leslie M. Cuevas
Doctoral Dissertations
When it comes to motherhood for women of color, the topic of women empowerment is scarce, and the media mostly portrays Latinas through traditional ethnic stereotypes. The advent of social media has presented women the opportunity to engage in identity formation as they exercise empowerment in choices and self-monitoring online. A good example of this transition in power involves fashion influencers who use their personal influence to change the meaning of motherhood, making it more accessible and realistic to women in general. However, a lack of diversity remains within the influencer industry as white women are the majority. Drawing upon …
Leveraging Maternal Rhetoric, Space, And Experience: La Leche League's Emergence As A Counterpublic, Jenny Lynn Moore
Leveraging Maternal Rhetoric, Space, And Experience: La Leche League's Emergence As A Counterpublic, Jenny Lynn Moore
English Theses & Dissertations
For over six decades, the international, mother-to-mother breastfeeding support organization La Leche League (LLL) has been helping women breastfeed successfully. LLL was formed at a time when the dominant ideology of scientific motherhood framed mothers as obedient adherents to physicians’ strict guidelines, which encouraged bottle-feeding and discouraged close mother-child bonds. LLL has been credited with challenging scientific motherhood, transforming medical discourse and practices surrounding infant feeding, and prompting the medical professional to accept mothers’ active involvement in decision-making; yet, paradoxically, it has also constrained mothers by reducing women to their maternal biology, discouraging mothers from participating in the public sphere, …
Maternal Criticism: Reading Two Middle Eastern Women Writers As Nonviolent Peace Activism, Charlyn Marie Ingwerson
Maternal Criticism: Reading Two Middle Eastern Women Writers As Nonviolent Peace Activism, Charlyn Marie Ingwerson
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation advocates for reading the literatures of two Middle Eastern women writers through a Maternal Critical lens that recognizes the demands of universal vulnerability in characters who resist violence, and responds in Maternal communities of Readers that connect readers to characters, readers to writers, and readers to other readers, carrying the struggle for equity forward. My unfolding argument, centered on Maternal Critical activity in the novels of Palestinian writer Sahar Khalifeh and Israeli writer Ronit Matalon, demonstrates how literature by these Middle Eastern women is part of a narrative context of women’s peacemaking and resistance to violence, a part …
Nasty Women: Television Portrayals Of Societal Anxieties Toward Female Leaders, Emily Sullivan
Nasty Women: Television Portrayals Of Societal Anxieties Toward Female Leaders, Emily Sullivan
Honors Theses
Historically, women have been excluded from leadership positions around the world, while instead men occupy the highest positions of power in society. The lack of female leadership is especially prevalent in the United States, where there has never been a female president, and the majority of high political offices are still held by men. In a similar manner, women have also been excluded from the sphere of comedy throughout history. Women have constantly had to deal with the assertion that women are not funny. This double exclusion from both leadership and comedy has led to the development of my concept …
The Socially Deviant (M)Other In Euripides' "Medea" And Two Modern Adaptations, Christina Faye Kramer
The Socially Deviant (M)Other In Euripides' "Medea" And Two Modern Adaptations, Christina Faye Kramer
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
For centuries male-dominated societies have developed their own culturally constructed images of the socially acceptable and socially deviant mothers. The thesis explores how the Grecian, Caribbean, and Irish cultures of Euripides’ Medea (431 BC), Steve Carter’s Pecong (1990), and Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (1998) respectively, all based on the Medea myth, commonly define the social deviant (m)other and condemn her for her “otherness.” It also discusses the limitations of each society’s decision to label the Medea-figure as socially deviant. Euripides creates an impossible dichotomy between the culturally constructed concepts of heroism and motherhood, which he locates in …
The Gender Wage Gap And The "Motherhood" Effect, Adrianna Decicco
The Gender Wage Gap And The "Motherhood" Effect, Adrianna Decicco
Honors Senior Capstone Projects
This paper discusses the gender pay gap and how motherhood is a major factor toward the inequalities in the workplace. For this paper, the wage gap is defined as the difference between men and women’s yearly income consisting of hourly or salary wages, overtime, benefits and bonuses. It should be noted that men earn more in every category of work, even the categories that are female-dominated professions.
Bisexuality And Motherhood: An Investigation Of Psychological Distress, Parenting Efficacy, And Self Esteem Through Identity Theory, Laurin B. Roberts
Bisexuality And Motherhood: An Investigation Of Psychological Distress, Parenting Efficacy, And Self Esteem Through Identity Theory, Laurin B. Roberts
Psychology Theses & Dissertations
Bisexual individuals are more likely to be parenting as compared to other sexual minority individuals, however a review of the current research on sexual minority parenting and families demonstrates a limited understanding of the experiences unique to this population. Furthermore, the socialization of parenthood as both a heterosexual practice, and one that is intertwined with womanhood suggests bisexual mothers may encounter unique challenges and experiences in negotiating these two identities. Therefore the current study seeks to expand upon the literature with a primary aim of understanding the relationship between bisexuality and motherhood identities, psychological distress, parenting efficacy, and self-esteem from …
Monstrous Mothers: The Politics Of Forced Mothering, Gillian Henry
Monstrous Mothers: The Politics Of Forced Mothering, Gillian Henry
Honors Theses
Can a woman be a woman without being a mother? By studying the control of women's bodies around reproduction, my work elucidates the insistence on women becoming "good mothers" for society. Is the childless woman a monster? Analysis of the Medea trope identifies that the most monstrous woman of all is thought to be the woman who kills her children. And while white women fight for reproductive choice, women of color fight for reproductive freedom, as coercive policies such as forced sterilization deprive women of color as even being considered as potential mothers. Society's insistence on women fulfilling their destiny …
Policemoms: Perceptions Of Motherhood And Policy In Ohio Police Organizations, Lacy Kristine Ellis
Policemoms: Perceptions Of Motherhood And Policy In Ohio Police Organizations, Lacy Kristine Ellis
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Police organizations have a problem retaining female police officers, especially those who are mothers. Women leave the policing profession at higher rates during childbearing and child-rearing years than during any other time in their career. Using feminist theory as a foundation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of policewomen who are mothers and identify factors that contribute to poor retention rates during childbearing and child-rearing years. Data were collected through 11 interviews with policewomen, who were also mothers, in Ohio. These data were analyzed using Saldana's 2-cycle coding procedure followed …
Navigating The Transition Into Motherhood: Women's Experiences Of Control, Emotions, And Social Ideals, Jody Sue Sauer-Sargent
Navigating The Transition Into Motherhood: Women's Experiences Of Control, Emotions, And Social Ideals, Jody Sue Sauer-Sargent
Wayne State University Dissertations
In this dissertation, I sought to give postpartum women their own voices so that they could help define the postpartum experience on their own terms. It fills important gaps within the literature on new mothers’ experiences. A phenomenological approach was used, emphasizing the lived experiences of the women, with an overlay of autoethnography, where the personal experience of the researcher becomes important primarily in how it illuminates the phenomenon being studied. Thus, my personal experience of pregnancy into early motherhood is interwoven throughout this dissertation. Forty-two women participated in the in-depth, face-to-face interview, followed by a questionnaire. The qualitative data …
Sour Milk: Women And The Hindu Nationalist Movement In India, Saumya Dadoo
Sour Milk: Women And The Hindu Nationalist Movement In India, Saumya Dadoo
Senior Projects Spring 2015
Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.
Blogging Through Motherhood: Free Labor, Femininity, And The (Re)Production Of Maternity, Kara Mary Van Cleaf
Blogging Through Motherhood: Free Labor, Femininity, And The (Re)Production Of Maternity, Kara Mary Van Cleaf
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Drawing from a thematic analysis of 47 North American mommy blogs over a 2-year period, I situate the genre in critical discussions of feminism, media, and labor, exploring both the technological and cultural shifts that turn mothers into cultural producers and that turn the experience of motherhood into a commodity. I situate the content of such blogs, or what gets said therein, within theories of media, gender, and labor. Examining the blogs within and against such academic discussions allows me to develop an intersectional analysis of feminism, media, and labor studies.
The Impact Of Interpersonal Communication On Breastfeeding, Jennifer Alarcon
The Impact Of Interpersonal Communication On Breastfeeding, Jennifer Alarcon
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
The medical community has offered a lot of evidence in support of breastfeeding which has led to many of the leading medical associations (i.e. the American Academy of Pediatrics, World Health Organization) to recommend breastfeeding infants exclusively for the first six months of life and for at least a full year, up to two years or whatever is mutually desirable to mother and child. However, in the United States, many mothers do not follow this recommendation. Research shows that instances of women being unable to breastfeed exist but are minimal. Many people have attempted to address the problem of low …
Remapping Nature: Motherhood, Autonomy, And Anti-Mining Activism In Íntag, Ecuador, Ellicott K. Dandy
Remapping Nature: Motherhood, Autonomy, And Anti-Mining Activism In Íntag, Ecuador, Ellicott K. Dandy
Honors Theses
This honors thesis explores the social changes that women engaged in anti-mining activism bring to a region in rural Ecuador. I discuss the ways in which they incorporate their activist techniques into everyday life, using their status as mothers to access public discourses of environmentalism, and ultimately rewrite gender roles locally. Framing the mining conflict as a catalyst for social change, I draw parallels between this movement and indigenous politics in Ecuador, propose new interpretations of the mestizo ethnic identity and assimilation in the Spanish Empire, and finally, make the case for a nature-centric cultural analysis in anthropology.