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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Gender Disparities Present Within The Legal Profession, Olivia M. Sanders May 2023

Gender Disparities Present Within The Legal Profession, Olivia M. Sanders

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the problem of gender disparities present within the legal profession in order to discover their causes and ways to mitigate them. Currently, there are a variety of gender disparities in the legal profession. Women are paid less than their male counterparts, are exposed to sexual harassment and violence more often, and receive fewer leadership opportunities, to name just a few of these disparities. While these disparities are documented in larger firms, little data exists on the extent of such issues in smaller firms, especially in the southeastern United States. Accordingly, I interviewed eight individuals with their juris …


Associations Between Tiktok Use, Mental Health, And Body Image Among College Students, Alexz Carpenter May 2023

Associations Between Tiktok Use, Mental Health, And Body Image Among College Students, Alexz Carpenter

Honors Theses

Background. Social media use continues to increase globally, and there is a large field of research examining the relationships between social media use with anxiety, depression, and body image. College-aged students are particularly vulnerable to these associations because they are at a unique developmental point of their life. College-aged students also use social media more frequently than almost any other age group, which may put them at increased risk for negative mental health and body image outcomes related to their social media use. TikTok is a relatively new social media app that has exponentially risen in popularity, especially among younger …


The Changing Role Of Women In Journalism, Caroline Derby May 2023

The Changing Role Of Women In Journalism, Caroline Derby

Honors Theses

Throughout the course of time, the role of women in journalism has changed tremendously. Women in journalism were considered inferior to men and had to fight their way up the ladder to be given the same roles and responsibilities as a man. However, when given breaking stories or interviews with heads of states, women still weren't paid as greatly as a man was, despite the level of work they were doing. We see the remnants of this in today's society. However, thanks to groundbreaking women in journalism, women are now able to be in positions, the same positions within a …


“Nails Done, Hair Done, Everything Did!”: Consumption And The Creation Of Black Feminine Selves, Simone Reid Apr 2023

“Nails Done, Hair Done, Everything Did!”: Consumption And The Creation Of Black Feminine Selves, Simone Reid

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how race and gender shape the meaning that Black women associate with their beauty consumption practices and spending. Much of the existing feminist scholarship on beauty has been postfeminist, privileging the concept of agency and empowerment over structural realities. However, the materialist feminist frame has more utility to address how beauty operates within the lives of Black women as a form of distinct gendered racial oppression. The concept of aesthetic capital emerges from the materialist feminist perspective and suggests that beauty demands the investment of considerable economic resources and can deliver economic returns. Despite this, aesthetic capital …


Nous Sommes Tous Des « Djadjas » : La Question De L’Identité Dans La Musique Française Et Francophone Au 21^E Siècle, Molly Earle Apr 2023

Nous Sommes Tous Des « Djadjas » : La Question De L’Identité Dans La Musique Française Et Francophone Au 21^E Siècle, Molly Earle

Honors Theses

Le titre de mon travail fait référence à une chanson qui représente les thèmes de la race,1 du genre, de la transculturalité et de la collaboration musicale : « Djadja », une chanson écrite par la chanteuse franco-malienne Aya Nakamura qui a eu beaucoup de succès en 2018 et puis en 2020 avec le remix en duo avec Maluma, un chanteur colombien. Comme d’autres chansons de Nakamura, « Djadja » utilise des sons africains et urbains, mais l’ajout d’influences latino-américaines a aidé la chanson à toucher une plus grande partie du monde (Nakamura et Maluma). Par exemple, cette chanson est …


"Meatheads" Redefined: An Analysis Of The Union College Football Team, Michaela Wood Jun 2022

"Meatheads" Redefined: An Analysis Of The Union College Football Team, Michaela Wood

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the experiences and representations of the male football player. It provides an anthropological study of Union College football players and a film analysis of the sports film genre, revealing critical insights about relationships among bodies, diet preferences, and gendered stereotypes. These insights move beyond the “meathead” stereotypes that society constructs for the male football player. This thesis combines Anthropology and English to reveal that questions about hegemonic masculinity arise in the minds of the very athletes who embody the stereotypes of ‘the man.’ Moreover, sports films’ popularity lies in themes that entice men to acknowledge their emotions. …


Women Are More Likely To Use Tentative Language, I Think: A Literary And Statistical Analysis Of Ulysses By James Joyce And Debate Speech, Cozette Blumenfeld, Claire Bracken, Tomas Dvorak Jun 2022

Women Are More Likely To Use Tentative Language, I Think: A Literary And Statistical Analysis Of Ulysses By James Joyce And Debate Speech, Cozette Blumenfeld, Claire Bracken, Tomas Dvorak

Honors Theses

Language and its utilization can provide valuable information about individuals and their cultural norms. Negotiation is a major factor of the gender wage gap, perpetuated by gender bias. This paper seeks to discover—does language influence gendered cultural norms? Or reflect it? This thesis is divided into eight sections that engage the relationship between gender and language in literature and debate speech. Through critical literary and statistical analysis of the “Penelope” and “Proteus” chapters of Ulysses by James Joyce, it is evident that the female chapter’s invalidation found in literary criticism is from the reception of her speech, and not the …


Sexual Objectification Of Women: What Can Ancient Rome And Modern Psychology Teach Us?, Noa Raskin Jun 2022

Sexual Objectification Of Women: What Can Ancient Rome And Modern Psychology Teach Us?, Noa Raskin

Honors Theses

Sexual objectification (SO) is an omnipresent experience for women that decreases their quality of life. Researching why SO occurs and is perpetuated can help us understand how to decrease the interpersonal, mental health, and safety consequences women face from being sexually objectified. This presentation looks at sexual objectification through the lenses of two different disciplines: psychology and classics. The psychology component involved an empirical study aimed at better comprehending women’s perceptions of their own SO and the connection SO has to Greek life. Nineteen men from Union College completed two scales to assess their direct and indirect SO of women, …


Demographic Disparities In College Students’ Psychological Adjustment During Covid-19, Anna Marston Apr 2022

Demographic Disparities In College Students’ Psychological Adjustment During Covid-19, Anna Marston

Honors Theses

The goal of the present study was to explore psychological adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic in undergraduate college students. Since March 2020, undergraduates have endured extended lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing efforts that may affect mental health, especially for historically marginalized groups such as women and people of color. Furthermore, research on coping styles suggests that those who cope with a stressor such as a pandemic in healthy, adaptive ways may be protected against psychological difficulty. In February/March 2021 (Time 1) and again in April/May 2021 (Time 2), college students (N = 277) from two residential liberal arts institutions were …


Personality Dimensions Of Male And Female Law Enforcement Recruits Related To Academy Success, Chantel Duda Dec 2021

Personality Dimensions Of Male And Female Law Enforcement Recruits Related To Academy Success, Chantel Duda

Honors Theses

Research has found that male and female law enforcement recruits complete academy training at different rates, with female recruits typically completing at lower rates than male recruits. While the literature on the topic demonstrates a variety of training characteristics that explain some of the difference, it is possible that typical personality differences between men and women play a role in some of the unexplained disparities in academy passing rates. This study attempted to discern differences between personality characteristics among male and female academy recruits using survey data from two major metropolitan law enforcement academies. It was hypothesized that male cadets …


The Rates Of Caries Prevalence By Sex And Age From Individuals In St. Mary Graces And East Smithfield Cemeteries, Elizabeth Houston, Joseph Upton May 2021

The Rates Of Caries Prevalence By Sex And Age From Individuals In St. Mary Graces And East Smithfield Cemeteries, Elizabeth Houston, Joseph Upton

Honors Theses

Caries are a common pathology in past and current populations, and because of the close interaction of dentition with diet, archaeologists are able to infer components of a population’s culture from pathology like caries (Lanfranco & Eggers, 2010). Most literature implies that women have higher rates of caries than men because of cultural practices and natural physiological differences which are thought to put women at an increased risk (Lukacs, 2008). Another established trend throughout literature is that caries prevalence tends to increase with age, regardless of sex (Hillson, 2008). We evaluated data from the East Smithfield (1348-1350 AD) and Saint …


Mamás Trabajadoras: An Evaluation Of Policies That Incite Maternal Participation In The Labor Force In Spain And The European Union, Anna Kate Ferrell May 2021

Mamás Trabajadoras: An Evaluation Of Policies That Incite Maternal Participation In The Labor Force In Spain And The European Union, Anna Kate Ferrell

Honors Theses

While the past few decades have seen women advance their labor force participation, formal work still remains less accessible to them—often as a result of their responsibilities to care for young children at home. This paper investigates the effect that Early Childhood Education and Care policies have on female labor force participation rates across Spain and the European Union through a mixed research design, with both quantitative and qualitative analysis. After a cross-national comparison of case studies, it concludes that these policies increase female labor force participation rates, allowing women to reconcile their identities as both mothers and career women.


The Effects Of Spousal Cues On Candidate Religious And Ideological Perceptions, Joseph Murphy Iii May 2021

The Effects Of Spousal Cues On Candidate Religious And Ideological Perceptions, Joseph Murphy Iii

Honors Theses

The importance of religion, or lack thereof, in determining vote choice has seen a growing body of literature in the last few decades, especially in Europe and the United States. Given the way religion has been ingrained in American society since its inception, it is not surprising that political candidates would use language cues as a way to signal that they share certain beliefs with their voters. These cues do not always have to be uttered by the political candidates themselves as, for example, the spouses of political candidates are often deployed as surrogates for the candidate. The experiment I …


On The Basis Of Sex: Personal Status Law Reforms And Economic Growth, Kylie Bring Oct 2020

On The Basis Of Sex: Personal Status Law Reforms And Economic Growth, Kylie Bring

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how law reform toward gender equity has an impact on economic growth in Arab countries in the Middle East. Personal status law reform granting women economic, social, and personal freedoms is spreading across the region and showing substantial change. Using case studies of major PSL reforms in Tunisia and Morocco, this thesis outlines qualitative and quantitative evidence to support the case that gender equity benefits the economic growth of the given country.


Clothes Make The (Wo)Man: Gender Performed Through Fashion As An Agent Of Socialization, Madison Altman Jun 2020

Clothes Make The (Wo)Man: Gender Performed Through Fashion As An Agent Of Socialization, Madison Altman

Honors Theses

Clothing is a social product, carries social meanings, and modifies social interaction, thus making it into the system of symbols known as fashion. This thesis focuses on fashion as a social agent, with its artistic expression and continual reorganization of styles. I question if fashion has the power to exact social change, or whether it simply reinforces and reproduces social inequality. The thesis looks at how race, class, sexual orientation, and ethnicity are both articulated and challenged through gendered fashion. We will examine the relationship between fashion, clothing, the body and body image, how fashion is a system that can …


Can Cities Be Feminist? A Cross-National Analysis Of Factors Affecting Local Female Representation In Latin America, Katie Davis May 2020

Can Cities Be Feminist? A Cross-National Analysis Of Factors Affecting Local Female Representation In Latin America, Katie Davis

Honors Theses

Women are underrepresented in mayor’s offices and on city councils across Latin America. In this paper, I examine gender-based differences in individual opinions toward running for office in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as conduct a twenty-six country analysis on factors related to female representation in municipal government. Based on these analyses, I make three main conclusions about female local representation in Latin America. The first conclusion is that women in Latin America are significantly less likely to want to run or feel qualified to run for office. The second conclusion is that cross-national variation in the percentage of female …


Why Families Flee: A Study Of Family Migration Patterns From The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Claire Williams May 2020

Why Families Flee: A Study Of Family Migration Patterns From The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Claire Williams

Honors Theses

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented increase in migrant families from the Northern Triangle, the region of Central America comprised of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The mass influx in family migration has important consequences for destination countries like the United States and Mexico as well as the countries which they leave behind. This study aims to answer the question of how family migration patterns in the Northern Triangle of Central America have changed in the past decade and why. I outline the migration decisions of families through a qualitative and quantitative lens. I use newspapers and NGO reports …


Purchasing Products To Make A Difference: A Study Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Gender, And Cosmetic Purchasing Behavior By College Students, Allegra Blomenberg Oct 2019

Purchasing Products To Make A Difference: A Study Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Gender, And Cosmetic Purchasing Behavior By College Students, Allegra Blomenberg

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences that exist in the way corporate social responsibility (CSR) is perceived by college students and how this affects cosmetic purchasing behavior. Two other objectives included finding what drives millennial cosmetic purchasing behavior as a whole and the ways in which millennials are informed of companies’ corporate social responsibilities. Through analyses of interview data from fourteen college-age millennials, the study showed that non-binary participants more positively perceived CSR and actively bought from responsible brands. The male participant perceived CSR positively but had never been sure to purchase products from a brand …


The Diminishing Male Labor Force Population: What The American Time Use Survey Suggests About How Male Nonworkers Allocate Their Time, Rory Nizolek Jun 2019

The Diminishing Male Labor Force Population: What The American Time Use Survey Suggests About How Male Nonworkers Allocate Their Time, Rory Nizolek

Honors Theses

The male labor force participation rate has been declining for decades, dropping from nearly 90% down to 69.3% as of now. Using survey respondent data from the 2003-2017 American Time Use Survey, this paper investigates how nonworking males choose to allocate their time in a day. This paper examines how the time allocation has changed over time for males ages 25-34 as well as for those who have less than a high school degree because these two samples shows significant changes in time allocation. For the other samples, ages 35-44 and 45-54 as well as all education levels higher than …


The 2018 Elections: Gender, Media Representation, And Campaign Strategies, Emily Bobruff Jun 2019

The 2018 Elections: Gender, Media Representation, And Campaign Strategies, Emily Bobruff

Honors Theses

For my thesis topic, I am researching the impacts of media representation of candidates on gender and campaigning. I break down my research based on the type of campaigns, including U.S. senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns. Looking into campaigns for each type of office, I observe how candidates represented themselves in the 2018 elections through their own campaign advertisements. I juxtapose this research with my research on how the media then portrays candidates, and look to see if gender impacts media coverage in 2018. Main questions that my research provides insight to: How has the role of gender in campaigns changed …


Double Jeopardy: Minority Stress And The Influence Of Transgender Identity And Race/Ethnicity, Krystina Millar, Jason Eastman May 2019

Double Jeopardy: Minority Stress And The Influence Of Transgender Identity And Race/Ethnicity, Krystina Millar, Jason Eastman

Honors Theses

This study assessed gender and racial/ethnic differences in gender-related discrimination and psychological distress within a sample of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals. Prior research suggests transgender individuals with multiple minority statuses experience higher psychological stress than their singly disadvantaged counterparts, and both minority race/ethnicity and transgender minorities experience more frequent and severe forms of discrimination than white and cisgender individuals. Using data from a convenience sample of 101 self-identified transgender and gender nonconforming adults recruited through LGBTQ+ organizations from across North America, I analyzed the relationship between race/ethnicity, gender-related minority stress, and psychological distress. Gender-related discrimination and gender-related victimization did …


Who Runs The World: The Impact Of The Gender Of Clerks On The Legal Profession, Taylor Bernstein Jan 2019

Who Runs The World: The Impact Of The Gender Of Clerks On The Legal Profession, Taylor Bernstein

Honors Theses

This paper investigates the role of gender on law clerks from the federal appellate clerks. There has been significant scholarship on the importance of the gender of judges and on the role and influence of law clerks; however, to this date there has been no analysis of how the gender of law clerks may or may not influence the clerkship experience. This honors thesis seeks to address that question and shed light on important aspects of the federal judiciary and the legal profession. I have approached this inquiry through descriptive and qualitative analysis, focusing on law clerks from this millennium. …


Gendered Responses To Stress: Differences Across Type Of Stressor And Mental Health Outcomes, Erin Voichoski May 2018

Gendered Responses To Stress: Differences Across Type Of Stressor And Mental Health Outcomes, Erin Voichoski

Honors Theses

It is well known in mental health literature that men and women tend to manifest distinct mental health outcomes. Specifically, women tend to report higher levels of internalizing symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, whereas men tend to report higher levels of externalizing symptoms, such as alcohol abuse and antisocial behavior. This research will further explore the relationship between stress and mental health, as well as the moderating effect of gender. Drawing from the differential vulnerability hypothesis and self-salience theory, I take a novel approach to examining a variety of stressors and mental health outcomes. I assess whether stressors that …


Gendered Speaking Patterns In Supreme Court Oral Arguments From 1981-2016, Gillain Purser May 2018

Gendered Speaking Patterns In Supreme Court Oral Arguments From 1981-2016, Gillain Purser

Honors Theses

This research attempts to discover whether or not the Supreme Court of the United State is subject to implicit gender biases during oral argumentation, largely through examining speaking time and the number of questions each justice is able to ask during a case's oral argumentation period. While there is substantial research on gender’s impact on communication and decision-making processes, as well as gender’s impact on court decisions, most research stops before it gets to the Supreme Court of the United States. There are two main goals to this research: First, to determine whether or not women Justices are impacted by …


An Examination Of Resilience Over Time Between Men And Women In Psychological First Aid, Leiali'i Ruth Edwards Apr 2018

An Examination Of Resilience Over Time Between Men And Women In Psychological First Aid, Leiali'i Ruth Edwards

Honors Theses

Research has shown that Psychological First Aid (PFA) crisis intervention helps to promote resilience in individuals affected by traumatic events (Everly, 2012). This study examined differences in resilience levels between genders over time by comparing PFA with a Social Acknowledgment (control) condition. Using the Response to Stressful Events Scale (Johnson et al., 2011) to measure resilience, subject responses (N=41) were analyzed using a mixed between-within subjects ANOVA. Results indicated that there were no statistically significant main effects or interactions. These findings do not support the study's hypotheses that there would be a significant interaction between time and gender.


Moving Beyond The "Old Boys' Club" In Environmental Organizations: Investigating The Behaviors, Attitudes And Perspectives Of Men And Women, Kat Pardoe Jan 2018

Moving Beyond The "Old Boys' Club" In Environmental Organizations: Investigating The Behaviors, Attitudes And Perspectives Of Men And Women, Kat Pardoe

Honors Theses

This study interrogates the exclusionary culture of environmentalism with respect to gender, and in doing so, illuminates elements of function and dysfunction with respect to gender dynamics in environmental organizations. I utilize social science-based quantitative and qualitative methods as a foundation for my analysis. My research investigates the role of gender both at the micro level, with individuals, and the macro level, by evaluating the persistence of the “Old Boys’ Club” culture in environmental organizations. Thirteen people participated in interviews, and forty people responded to an online survey. Personal reflections gathered from the survey reveal gendered trends in environmental problem …


Women, War, And Social Memory In Peru: The Posthumous Careers Of Edith Lagos And María Elena Moyano, Meghan Kelly Jan 2017

Women, War, And Social Memory In Peru: The Posthumous Careers Of Edith Lagos And María Elena Moyano, Meghan Kelly

Honors Theses

During the internal armed conflict between the Shining Path and the Peruvian state, women participated in important ways that are under-recognized in the scholarly literature. In this thesis, I examine the lives, deaths, and hero cults surrounding Edith Lagos and María Elena Moyano, two of the best-known women from this period. Edith Lagos, a young, white militant recruited by Sendero, was killed by the Peruvian police in 1982, while Moyano, an Afro-Peruvian activist from a low-income district of Lima, was assassinated by the Shining Path in 1992. I argue that the shifting narratives surrounding Lagos’s and Moyano’s lives and deaths …


Women In Gaming: A Study Of Female Players’ Experiences In Online Fps Games, M Allison Mcdaniel Aug 2016

Women In Gaming: A Study Of Female Players’ Experiences In Online Fps Games, M Allison Mcdaniel

Honors Theses

Existing literature has long been divided over whether the gaming world fosters violence and misogyny or provides a space for people to explore diverse identities. Not enough is known about how women experience videogames, especially the hypermasculine environment of first-person shooter (FPS) games. Competition, violence, and war, are dominant features of these games. The following thesis explores what harassment and discrimination women playing FPS games face, how they respond, and in what ways they find games to be empowering. A survey was distributed online to an international sample of 141 female FPS gamers. This research finds that women who play …


Queering The Production Of Sexual Knowledge: Narrative Strategies, Gender Politics And The Promise Of Feminist Focus Groups, Madeline J. Hunsicker Jan 2015

Queering The Production Of Sexual Knowledge: Narrative Strategies, Gender Politics And The Promise Of Feminist Focus Groups, Madeline J. Hunsicker

Honors Theses

Dominant public discourses structure our interpretations of sexual acts in decidedly gendered ways, shaping our understandings of sexual experiences and embodiment. As a result, current understandings of term such as “virginity” evoke cultural standards of womanhood, whiteness, monogamy, and tradition that both reflect and reinforce contemporary society’s hetero-patriarchal relations of power. The narratives available for girls and women to make sense of the first sexual experiences are policed by dominant sexual discourses that privilege male pleasure (Kozma, 56-59), which can limit the narratives of actual sexual experiences and subjugate gynogentiric discourses of sexual knowing (Medley-Rath 26). In the absence of …


Toys Don't Have A Gender: Gender Play And Aggression In A Small Co-Operative Play Based Preschool, Bryn Peterson Jun 2014

Toys Don't Have A Gender: Gender Play And Aggression In A Small Co-Operative Play Based Preschool, Bryn Peterson

Honors Theses

In this thesis I explore the relationship between gender and free-play in a small, cooperative preschool in Niskayuna, New York. While psychologists and sociologists have studied gender in young children, I found that children had been largely overlooked in the field of anthropology. While some anthropologists have historically believed that children do not fully understand their culture and cannot be reliable informants, I believe that there is much we can learn by understanding children's games - which often reflect our culture. Through observing children's free play I was able to analyze gender conforming/nonconforming play, aggression, and the themes of the …