Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Faces Of Bg: Diverse Backgrounds, Many Stories, One Community, Holly Shively

Honors Projects

If you ask people who have been around Bowling Green State University for at least a decade, they’ll tell you the university seems more diverse, but some people find that, based on statistics, the university isn’t diverse enough. Despite BGSU having roughly 77 percent of students being between the ages of 18 and 21 years old and 78 percent being white, smaller communities flourish within the larger BGSU community. FacesofBG.com is a website that explores diversity at Bowling Green State University through the motto “Diverse backgrounds. Many stories. One community.” Through educational components like diversity in the local news and …

Emerging Discourses Of Gender And Women In The National Park Service: An Ecofeminist Analysis Of Ranger Newsletter From 1979 To 1999, Emily Sapp

Honors Projects

The key focus of this research is based in ecofeminism, the worldview that the oppression of women is connected to the oppression of nature. This research studies the National Park Service, through the Association of National Park Ranger’s newsletter/magazine Ranger. The study attempts to answer the questions how do issues about gender equality emerge throughout the history of the National Park Service, as looking through the newsletter Ranger? How do ideas of femininity and masculinity emerge and are represented in Ranger throughout time? The study is significant in that it is representative of the NPS, and by revealing …

Reconstructing The African And African Diasporic Woman: Gender, Race, Class And The Making Of A Constructive Radical African Feminist, Patchani E. Patabadi

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation analyzes the story of the African woman migration from a generational perspective. It discusses Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter (1979) as the foundation of the African woman’s migration story and the evolvement in the female identity construction. It then uses Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah as a new, yet different and more contemporary approach to the same subject. In other words, this dissertation explores how the contemporary approach to storytelling and identity construction has changed the African woman’s migration story and her identity construction since Mariama Bâ dealt with them nearly forty (40) years ago. It analyzes the …

Because I Am A Daughter: A Hmong Woman’S Educational Journey, Kaozong Mouavangsou

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This paper is a critical reflection on the author’s educational experience as a Hmong woman. The author draws on feminist theories, and intertwines the Hmong culture and US education. The paper begins with an introduction about the author’s US-centric perspectives she had about her Hmong community. Her narrative focuses on how these perspectives influenced her interpretations of the events that took place surrounding her decision to attend college away from home. To unpack this experience, the author focused on a need to understand Hmong culture and gendered ideologies by deconstructing her then-western-perspective of why her relatives discouraged her. Through this …

A Conversation With Stephen T. Coady

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1999. Highlights of this conversation include Stephen's experience in starting ABiGaLe at Holy Cross, his description of the campus climate during the late 1990's, and his reflections on being an activist during this time period.

Interview keywords: student groups, activism, support, coming out, ABiGale, Chaplain's Office

Hiding Behind The Closet Door: Representations Of The Homosexual Experience In A Streetcar Named Desire, Antonia Piccirillo

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Themes related to homosexuality and the homosexual experience are interwoven in many layers throughout Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. This research paper analyzes contemporary commentary on homosexuality from the 1940s and ‘50s, Blanche’s experiences with light and perception, and moments of homosociality between the male poker players, to interpret how the homosexual experience is represented and exposed on stage through the two main characters in the play, Blanche and Stanley. Williams uses a heteronormative context to portray the homosexual experience, thus mirroring the way gay men had to navigate life in the closet while presenting to the public …

Gender And Spiritual Possession In The Tale Of Genji, Molly Phelps

Undergraduate Theses

This thesis looks at the relationship between gender and the supernatural in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. The goal is to show how Lady Rokujo uses spiritual powers to rebel against the sexual hierarchy of Heian Japan while not fully defying its sexism. This is supported by historical background of the Heian period, examples of the mistreatment of women in the novel, and close analysis of instances of Lady Rokujo's supernatural actions. This analysis shows there is a complicated background to the vengeful spirit trope that still haunts the global imagination.

Destabilizing Domesticity: The Construction And Collective Memory Of Jewish-American Womanhood From 1900 To 1950, Mara Steinitz

History Honors Projects

Using cookbooks, newspaper articles about consumer protests, and children’s historical fiction books, this project explores the construction and collective memory of Jewish-American womanhood in the first half of the Twentieth century through a lens of food. Jewish-American women had intersectional identities and lived lives that contained a complexity of actions that could be both private and domestic and public and gender norm nonconforming. However, Jewish-American children’s historical fiction fails to encompass this complexity or accurately teach the women’s stories to the next generation by placing female characters into a binary of public or private.

Looking At The Onlookers: The Attitudes Of Women's Wwi Poetry, Kaitlyn M. Hodges

Honors College Theses

The poems concerning WWI written by women reflect different attitudes about the concept of war and can be grouped into categories based on their stances toward the Great War. The most familiar feminine voice in the poetry of WWI illuminated a nationalistic and glorified view of war, where fighting (and dying) for a just cause outweighs any possible loss of life or limb. Running counter to this sentiment is a strain of poetry that calls into question the jingoistic and ill-informed opinions of the former group. Alongside these antipathetic groups there was a third, more meliorated, set of voices. These …

Activism, Revolution And War: Mujeres Libres Addressing The Personal And The Political, Martha A. Ackelsberg

Government: Faculty Publications

Mujeres Libres, an organization of anarchist women established during the Spanish Civil War, was characterized by a dual focus on capacitación (empowerment) and captación (mobilization): (a) empowering women to enable them to recognize and act on their own potential and (b) mobilizing them into the organizations of the broader libertarian movement. An exploration of the activist biographies of two of its three founders (Lucía Sánchez Saornil and Mercedes Comaposada), as well as of two of its younger activists (Soledad Estorach and Sara Berenguer), makes clear how reflecting on personal experience within a larger political frame led to the creation of …

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

Queer Mississippi Oral History Project Performance, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Members of Dr. Jessica Wilkerson's Oral History of Southern Social Movements class (S ST 560) gave a presentation on their findings at the end of the semester.

13 Lunas 13/13 Moons 13: A Video-Project About Sexuality And Menstruation, Tina Escaja

Journal of International Women's Studies

The subject of menstruation is filled with powerful socio-cultural implications involving language, religion and gender relations. Yet, the topic is often relegated to silence, considered taboo, and strongly associated with impurity and shame. This schism between the natural reality of menstruation and its socio-cultural damnation highlights the marginal and oppressed condition of women who are considered inferior and impure in many cultures and religions for the mere fact of menstruating, despite ancient practices that validated and celebrated women’s menarche. The multimedia project 13 lunas 13/13 moons 13 allows for the interactive exploration of these themes while reflecting upon the patriarchal …

A Gender Perspective On Role Performance Of Elected Panchayat Leaders In India, P. Sindhuja, K.R. Murugan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender equality is fundamentally related to sustainable development, and globally accepted as a necessity for the promotion of human rights. Gender empowerment is determined by active participation of women and men in social, economic, and political spaces and activities taken in decision-making. In the context of local government, gender equality is critical as women and men face different challenges in full participation, representation and decent work opportunities. Though the constitution provides women the right to be elected in political and public representative institutions, such as parliament and local government bodies, gender inequality, as a collection of interlinked problems existed in …

Changing Equations: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship And The Welfare Of Women, Varsha Raghunandan

Journal of International Women's Studies

The world is a melange of varied cultures and norms. Some are similar, while others are strikingly different from the rest. However, every society has something in common - suppression of their women although the degree and extent may vary. It is not that women are incapable of playing those roles in society which have been dominated by men, but consistent and strategic oppression of the female sex has led many women to consider themselves as weak, powerless and a step below their male counterparts. The waves of feminism and movements to emancipate women have, to a notable extent, changed …

Deliberate Ceiling For Career Progress Of Female Public Service Employees: A Contemporary Transformation Trend In South Africa, Oladapo O. Osituyo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Female employees are rarely found in senior level decision-making roles in the public service sector. Rather they are concentrated in larger number at the lower management levels in the workplace. This study evaluates barriers to female employees’ career progress within the South African public service sector. Prior studies relating to progress of female employees into the senior and top managerial levels within the South African public service sector have revealed an exclusion and inability to climb the decision-making ladder. Employing a questionnaire that included evaluative tools from previous scholarly studies (e.g., the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), Women as Managers Scale …

Boxed Women In Public Administration - Between Glass Ceilings And Glass Walls: A Study Of Women's Participation In Public Administration In The Arab States, Salma Nasser

Journal of International Women's Studies

Inclusive decision-making is necessary in terms of both legitimacy and good policy outcomes. Recognizing this, closing persistent gender gaps in public life has emerged as a critical policy issue as countries increase their efforts to foster inclusive growth and build trust and confidence in public institutions while working towards the SDGs. The public administration determines the manner in which political and economic decisions are implemented and how budgets are planned and spent. Additionally, it is a primary employer for women in many developing countries – particularly in the Arab world. In some countries, women have in fact surpassed parity in …

A Comparative Study Of Influential Factors Impacting Women’S Activities In Traditional And Modern Neighborhood Spaces In Tehran, Iran, Maryam Mohammadi, Arezoo Rafiee

Journal of International Women's Studies

Neighborhood spaces are regarded as the main arenas for women’s social interactions. Thus, women should be completely comfortable in these spaces. Nonetheless, some studies have indicated that women’s presence and activities in such spaces are both prevented or decreased, and accordingly gendered space is established. Gendered spaces play a significant role in gender identity and roles. Thus, it is necessary to identify the factors which formed various spaces. It seems that physical factors which make spaces non-responsive for women, along with socio-cultural factors such as attitudes and social norms can influence women’s activities and their presence in neighbourhood spaces. To …

Imaging The Woman Through Tanzanian Women’S Maxims, Shani Omari, Fikeni E. M. K. Senkoro

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s maxims, as well as other forms of oral literature in Tanzania, are a popular genre. They are verbal arts that can be self-addressed or addressed to a fellow woman among womenfolk. This paper intends to examine the role of these maxims in imaging women in Tanzania. This study was prompted by the findings of previous studies regarding the portrayal of women in Kiswahili literature where, generally, women are depicted as inferior beings compared to men, partly due to the fact that most authors are men. Hence, we found it imperative to investigate women’s maxims that are created and uttered …

The Role Of The Family In Crime Causation: A Comparative Study Of ‘Family Of Orientation’ And ‘Family Of Procreation’ (A Study Of Women Prisoners In The Central Jails Of Rajasthan), Asha Bhandari

Journal of International Women's Studies

Family life and marriage are often considered to be an important lever for criminal desistance, especially among men. The mechanisms that lead to desistance from crime may be general in nature, but men and women do not necessarily respond in a similar way relative to marital status. This paper extends the hypothesis of familial relationships and desistance in crime and provides a perspective to foster understanding of the influence that ‘family of orientation’ and ‘family of procreation’ makes in crime committed by women. For this purpose various factors, including family size, family environment, relationship with family members, gender role …