Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Educating Women To Lead: The Role Of Women-Focused Institutions, Adriana Cortes-Mendosa

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

This paper explores the importance of women-focused institutions in the choice of college major for women. There is ample literature showing that post-schooling specialization, such as occupation choice, has a significant impact on the gender wage gap (Petersen, Trond, and Laurie A. Morgan. 1995, Rita Asplund and Sami Napari 2011, Hsiung 2020, Sterling, Adina D., et al. 2020). However, there is less evidence in the existing literature on how pre-market human capital specialization, such as major choice impacts the gender wage gap. In this research I use institution level data by major from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) …

Telling Our Own Stories: A Study On Hmong-American Women, Identity, And Education, Mysee Chang

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

“Assimilation” is used to describe how immigrants adapt and integrate into the culture and society of the new country (Gordon 1964). The literature on assimilation often focuses on how higher education functions as a way to assimilate immigrants into the dominant culture. The literature is primarily about social mobility and not enough attention has been given to the subjective aspect of assimilation. The purpose of my study is to better understand and explore the lived-realities of second-generation Hmong-American women. How do Hmong-American women come to understand their identities? How does higher education influence this process of identity development? Five second-generation …

Tanks, Guitars, And Wands: Feminine Subjectivity And Phallic Cultural Spaces In Three Contemporary Texts, Rachel Armstrong

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

Applying postmodern theory to three contemporary texts, Rachel Talay’s 1995 film Tank Girl, Patti Smith’s 1975 Horses album, and Hermione Granger’s character in the Harry Potter series, I argue that marginally feminist, or seemingly non-feminist texts can do feminist work when postmodern theories are applied.

Through Tank Girl’s reversal of the male gaze, her co-optation of Water and Power’s tank, and mockery of traditional forms of overly-aggressive masculinity, Tank Girl is a critique of phallic power spaces and the social power we assign to them.

On her album, Horses, Smith occupies the theoretical space of the archetypal male rock performer …

Re-Opening The Story Bag: An Examination Of Korean Folktales And The Role Of Women, Susan Ranae Hallquist

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

Although Korean women are often seen as submissive, colonized, and philosophically speaking have been made invisible, their active roles in their families, communities, and world can be seen by unpacking the rich tradition of Korean folktales. The voices and perspectives of the women within the folktales are often buried under patriarchal retellings. Thus, there is a deep need for a re-envisagement of these stories in order for the women’s narration to become clear.

This project is an exploration of some Korean folktales with a specific focus on the role of women within those folktales. Four folktales are retold from the …