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Articles 1 - 30 of 30
Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
A Woman Unfolding: A Journey Of Motherhood And Creativity How Inviting Play And Honoring Our Thinking Preference Strengthens Well-Being, Laine M. Walnicki
A Woman Unfolding: A Journey Of Motherhood And Creativity How Inviting Play And Honoring Our Thinking Preference Strengthens Well-Being, Laine M. Walnicki
Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects
Seeking to provide a nuanced understanding of how the facets of motherhood, creativity, and wellbeing intersect and influence each other, this investigation and subsequent analysis answers the questions, "How does motherhood affect creativity?" and "How does creativity affect motherhood?" as well as their impact on creative outlook and wellbeing. Drawing on insights from the science of creativity, self-actualization, flow, and play, an understanding is curated as to how humans develop creative capacity, utilize it to foster well-being, and develop their potential for growth and evolution. The significance of play in the context of motherhood is also explored along with its …
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, …
Muslim Woman:Heavenly Body, Communal Autonomy, Shadyar Omrani
Muslim Woman:Heavenly Body, Communal Autonomy, Shadyar Omrani
Sociology Student Work Collection
This project is a quick review and analysis of different socio-cultural impacts that influence the formation of a Muslim woman’s identity through the embodiment of womanhood and motherhood. I will argue that the self-determination of a Muslim woman’s body and autonomous social identity is highly influenced by their cultural and economic notions of self; the ground, based on which their emancipation can be better paved.
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 …
Motherhood, Vulnerability And Resistance In The Elysium Testament By Mary O’Donnell, María Elena Jaime De Pablos
Motherhood, Vulnerability And Resistance In The Elysium Testament By Mary O’Donnell, María Elena Jaime De Pablos
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
Mary O’Donnell’s novel The Elysium Testament (1999) narrates the story of Nina, an accomplished grotto restorer, but a neglectful wife and mother according to the Irish patriarchal symbolic order –the “register of regulatory ideality” (Butler, Bodies that Matter 18). Estranged from her husband, Neil, she sends him a series of letters, her “testament,” where some of the most significant aspects of her life are exposed. Readers discover that Nina’s and Neil’s marriage begins to crumble after the birth of their second child, Roland, to whom Nina attributes a frightening dual nature, which she tries to control through physical and psychological …
Material Girls: Consumption And The Making Of Middle Class Identity In The Experiences Of Black Single Mothers In The Washington, Dc Metropolitan Area, Aysha L. Preston Ph.D.
Material Girls: Consumption And The Making Of Middle Class Identity In The Experiences Of Black Single Mothers In The Washington, Dc Metropolitan Area, Aysha L. Preston Ph.D.
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation explores the ways in which black single mothers in the Washington, DC metropolitan area use material goods and consumption practices to inform their identities as members of the middle class. Black middle class women are challenging stereotypes surrounding single mother households, the idea of family, and class status in the United States, as more women overall are having children while single, delaying or deciding against marriage, and are entering the middle and upper-middle classes as a result of advanced education and career opportunities. Because of these demographic and sociocultural shifts, the romanticized “nuclear family” which consists of a …
The Situatedness Of Mathematics In Motherhood And Academia, Jennifer Schenk Sacco, Jill Shahverdian
The Situatedness Of Mathematics In Motherhood And Academia, Jennifer Schenk Sacco, Jill Shahverdian
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
The authors, a mathematician and a political scientist, examine mathematics, motherhood, and academia, and argue that feminist epistemology is necessary to explain the intersection. Relying on the principles of feminist epistemology laid out by philosophers Naomi Scheman and Marianne Janack, the authors consider how work, the concept of time, teaching, arts and crafts, and decision-making all reveal the situatedness of knowing and using mathematics.
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 …
Bloodlines – Mammalian Motherhood, Biotechnologies And Other Entanglements, Lynn Mowson
Bloodlines – Mammalian Motherhood, Biotechnologies And Other Entanglements, Lynn Mowson
Animal Studies Journal
This paper outlines my current sculptural research project bloodlines focusing on the ways in which dairy cows are entangled with multiple biotechnologies and the wider environment. bloodlines brings extant works such as fleshlumps, boobscape and slink, together with new works, to represent the dairy industry, the environmental impacts of animal agriculture and the biotech innovations of in-vitro meat and bio-fabricated leather. These works are linked together by a web of interconnected fluids: excreta, milk and blood. In this new work, I hope to make the links between the dairy industry and these extended concerns both visceral and visible.
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 …
French Women In Art: Reclaiming The Body Through Creation/Les Femmes Artistes Françaises : La Réclamation Du Corps À Travers La Création, Liatris Hethcoat
French Women In Art: Reclaiming The Body Through Creation/Les Femmes Artistes Françaises : La Réclamation Du Corps À Travers La Création, Liatris Hethcoat
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
The research I have conducted for my French Major Senior Thesis is a culmination of my passion for and studies of both French language and culture and the history and practice of Visual Arts. I have examined, across the history of art, the representation of women, and concluded that until the 20th century, these representations have been tools employed by the makers of history and those at the top of the patriarchal system, used to control women’s images and thus women themselves. I survey these representations, which are largely created by men—until the 20th century. I discuss pre-historical …
Bringing Mothers And Fathers Together: Undergraduate Studies In Anthropology And Sociology, Angela Castañeda, Matthew Oware
Bringing Mothers And Fathers Together: Undergraduate Studies In Anthropology And Sociology, Angela Castañeda, Matthew Oware
Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications
As social scientists in a combined Sociology and Anthropology department at a small liberal arts institution, we approach research questions on mothering and fathering from our respective disciplines. In the summer of 2014 we made plans to experiment with a first year seminar that would bring our distinct courses together: Oware’s Man Up: Unpacking Manhood and Masculinity, and Castañeda’s Global Perspectives on Reproduction and Childbirth. In the fall of 2014, we combined our courses over two-weeks to discuss the roles of fathering and mothering in our research agendas. As we suspected, our courses were unevenly represented on their own with …
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 …
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 …
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.
Attitudes Toward Motherhood Among Sexual Minority Women In The United States, Emily Kazyak, Nicholas Park, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil
Attitudes Toward Motherhood Among Sexual Minority Women In The United States, Emily Kazyak, Nicholas Park, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil
Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications
In this article, we use data from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers—a national, population-based telephone survey—to examine how sexual minority women construct and value motherhood. We analyze the small (N = 43) random sample of self-identified sexual minority women using “survey-driven narrative construction,” which entails converting the structured answers and open-ended responses for each respondent into narratives and identifying themes. We focused on both sexual minority women’s desires and intentions to parent and on the importance they place on motherhood. We found that there is considerable variation in this population. Many sexual minority women distinguish between having and raising …
Becoming Mom: Understanding Challenges And Presentations Of Self Among Mothers, Annakeiko Frink Reichel
Becoming Mom: Understanding Challenges And Presentations Of Self Among Mothers, Annakeiko Frink Reichel
Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato
When a woman becomes a mother it is arguably one of the most life changing and defining moments of their lives. Becoming a mom and the emotions that are involved in the process are often a neglected topic in the United States. It is clear that the social world assumes mothers will automatically adjust to the role of being a mom without asking questions such as, what are the challenges moms face after having children? Or more importantly, how is a mother’s identity shaped after having children and while adjusting to the role as mom? The first author (AR) became …
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.
Mothering And The Functional Self: A Hermeneutic Exploration Of Texts On Perinatal Mood And Anxiety Disorders, Kathleen M. Pape
Mothering And The Functional Self: A Hermeneutic Exploration Of Texts On Perinatal Mood And Anxiety Disorders, Kathleen M. Pape
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Mothering is a rich and complex experience involving challenging tasks, a developing relationship with one's child, and socially defined roles. How mothering is viewed varies depending on the cultural norms and historical era under consideration. This study is a textual interpretation of three books written about perinatal mental health, especially how those texts describe the challenges and struggles of birthing and mothering. I develop understandings about how clinicians respond to those issues and in the process understand themselves, their practices, and their sociocultural roles. I consider the shape of the current social terrain that brings to light the experiences of …
New Matriarchs: Louisville, Kentucky (Fa 768), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
New Matriarchs: Louisville, Kentucky (Fa 768), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Folklife Archives Finding Aids
Finding aid and representative photographs for Folklife Archives Project 768. The collection details the lives of seven women from around the globe (India, Syria, Mexico, Uganda, Russia, Argentina, and Somalia),all recent immigrants to Louisville, Kentucky.
The Irony Of Choice, Cam T. Nguyen
The Irony Of Choice, Cam T. Nguyen
SURGE
We are having the inevitable late night conversation. You talk about your eventual wedding, your marriage to the person you love, the timeline you’ve created for yourself, and your plans for what our future children will do together. I clarify that I don’t want to have children, but you can’t seem to understand that decision. You question how happy, satisfied, or fulfilled my life will be without children, the maternal instincts I’m supposed to be feeling, and my desire to have something to care for and love. You’re convinced that I will recognize how empty my life will be sans …
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.