Women's Studies Commons^™

Women As Victims In Tennessee Williams' First Three Major Plays, Ruth Foley

Masters Theses

Although Tennessee Williams does not openly champion the rights of women in his plays, he presents strong cases against their social alienation in a harsh and brutal world governed by men. Williams' emotional leanings, sensitivity, and intuition enable him to see life through women's eyes. In The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Summer and Smoke, Williams astutely sounds the battle cry for women to fight against male oppression. He shows how Amanda Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, Blanche Dubois, Stella Kowalski, and Alma Winemiller are held hostage to the rules governing patriarchal society and become unhappy marginalized victims. The self-contained …

Conforming To Conventions In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Pride And Prejudice, And Emma, Veronica Olson

Masters Theses

A major part of Jane Austen's novels consists of a critique of the societal conventions that were prevalent in Regency England. Through a study of Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, it can be seen that Austen marginalizes those characters who chose conformity to social conventions. Contrariwise, the characters who exhibit a greater degree of autonomy within their patriarchal culture become the focus of the narrative. In looking at societal conventions concerning money, gender roles, and class status in conjunction with Austen's portrayal of various characters in the three novels, Austen's own views about conformity to societal conventions are …

Fair Trade An Analysis Of The Effects On Poverty Alleviation And Empowerment For Women In Developing Countries, Maribel Concepcion Lora

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This thesis approaches the economic development model of Fair Trade with a critical analysis on determining its success in alleviating poverty and empowering women of the developing world. Because international labor regulations are not consistently enforced in all producer countries, the Fair Trade model has established labor standards that ensure above all, a fair wage and safe working conditions for producers participating in the international market. As a recent strategy of economic development, Fair Trade has made great strides to empower poor producers in impoverished countries; however there has been limited analysis focused on its impact for improving the quality …

Claiming Citizenship: Las Vegas' Conventional Women's Organizations Establishing Citizenship Through Civic Engagement, Cynthia Cicero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many historians of American women portray women's organized civic engagement and work to attain social, economic, and legal equality as feminism. American feminism has been expanded and applied in scholarship. The American feminists of the 1960s wanted to alter the male power structure and redefine conventional notions of womanhood. However, many middle-class women who participated in community and civic organizations valued their roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers, expressing their citizenship and community work as an extension of these roles. Their motivation in pursuing equality was to gain full citizenship status.

In this thesis, I argue that viewing women's civic …

Our Turn: Working Women In The Las Vegas Valley, 1940-1980, Irene B. Scholl Rostine

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis describes three types of working women in Las Vegas, NV who performed non traditional women's work and who, through their ingenuity and hard work rose to the top of their fields. The first group of women were the little known women war workers at Basic Magnesium Inc who produced magnesium that was so importanat to the war effort. The second group of women worked in a corporate structure and, hired in entry level positions, were able to break the glass ceiling and rise to positions of managenemt. The third group of women were Realtors in Las Vegas who …

Man To Man: We Can Stop Sexual Violence, James H. Garrett

SURGE

I was lucky enough to grow up with a loving mother who taught me early on to respect every woman and, more so, to never overstep the boundaries between people unless I am invited to do so with full cognizance of the actions of both parties. To be less philosophical, she was always very clear with me that touching no-no parts with any person (in my case, a lady) without express consent is wrong every time and that I would never forgive myself if I forgot that maxim in a flight of “passion.” At no time in my life have …

Las Abuelas E La Memoria, Doris Cristobal

Archives of an Activist: Celebrating the Donations of Rita Arditti to UMass Boston

Viví en Buenos Aires Argentina durante cuatro años y en mi estadía en ese país aprendí mucho acerca de los efectos que les había dejado la Dictadura militar de 1976. Conocí a hijos, familiares, madres y abuelas de los desaparecidos y de su trabajo importante luchando por la vigencia de los derechos humanos en la Argentina. Aprendí también, que existen fuertes lazos de solidaridad entre el pueblo argentino y los pueblos de Latinoamérica; por ejemplo que el pueblo argentino es muy agradecido con mi país porque durante la dictadura muchos exiliados encontraron protección del gobierno peruano, y que en la …

Remarks By Ann Blum About Rita Arditti, The Abuelas, And Latin American Studies, Ann Blum

Archives of an Activist: Celebrating the Donations of Rita Arditti to UMass Boston

From Ann Blum's remarks:

My own area of research is family history. Students and other scholars sometimes ask me why I study the family when there are other far more important, more politicaltopics. Rita’s activism and scholarship provide a ringing rejoinder. The family is political and it is key to our understanding of politics on intimate, national and global scales. Rita’swork with the Grandmothers centered on family. Her study embraced the complex interactions among three generations as family relations were projected onto national and international politics. The Argentine military regime was brutally astute: they made state terrorism a family affair. …

Yolanda Barco's Impact On The Cable Television Industry, Piper L. Peteet-Kilgore

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to take a detailed look into the life of cable television pioneer Yolanda Barco and demonstrate that her achievements in cable telecommunications have directly impacted the success of the cable telecommunications industry.

The daughter of cable television pioneer George Barco, Yolanda Barco worked alongside her father advocating for the rights of cable television during the early years of the industry. Following a biographical story framework, this research follows a timeline of her career discussing her family life, education, how she became involved in the cable television industry, achievements in cable television and the lasting …

Mobile Activism: What Your Profile Picture Says About You, Laura J. Koenig

SURGE

I know you’ve all been seeing this image all of your Facebook news feeds. All of the sudden a few weeks ago it became everyone’s profile picture. People were sharing it, along with other images, explaining why Prop. 8 and the Defense Of Marriage Act should be repealed, and were generally expressing their support of marriage equality. [excerpt]

Finishing The Job: A Partnership For Diversity In The Construction Workforce, Susan Moir, Liz Skidmore, Janet Jones, Brian Doherty

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues (PGTI) is a regional collaboration of construction industry stakeholders working together since 2008 to tackle the persistent failure of policies enacted to open up good paying jobs in the construction trades to women. Our focus on women explicitly supports efforts to increase all forms of diversity in the construction industry. Following the publication of our 2011 founding document, Unfinished Business: Building Equality for Women in the Construction Trades, PGTI has focused on the development and implementation of best practices for a diverse construction workforce in public and non-profit construction.

Projectserve, Kenneth Andejeski, Kenyora Johnson, Projectserve, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The mission of Strong Women, Strong Girls is to utilize the lessons learned from strong women throughout history to encourage girls and young women to become strong women themselves. By building communities of women committed to supporting positive social change, Strong Women, Strong Girls works to create cycles of mutual empowerment for women and girls.

Project Serve engages UMass Boston students and community organizations in a variety of civic engagement activities in order to create positive change in Massachusetts. There are many ways to get involved in this program ranging from being a leader, coordinator, or a participant in our …

An Open Letter To Netflix, Elizabeth A. Rupert

SURGE

If there is one thing that I will be absolutely ashamed in admitting to you, it’s that I love television. Love it. Not in a turn-it-on-watch-whatever-all-TV-rocks kind of way, but in an I’m-overly-obsessed-with-15-shows-at-a-time kind of way, to the point where I could say that being able to watch the latest episode of Suits or Community could easily be the highlight of my day (week, year…). [excerpt]

Are Women Ready To Lead?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

In a world where Sheryl Sandberg and Hilary Clinton regularly steal headlines, it’s easy to think that the world has become a more egalitarian place for women. Not so, says Marina Mahathir, who goes on to speak about lack of opportunities for women in politics.

Women's, Gender, And Sexuality Studies Newsletter Late Spring 2013, Susana Peña

Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Elle Doit S’Épanouir: The Women’S Entrepreneurial Program And Women’S Empowerment In Dschang, Melanie Meisenheimer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper provides a field study of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Program (WEP) in Dschang, Cameroon. It looks at the obstacles that impede women’s involvement in Cameroon’s economic development and that keep them trapped in a cycle of poverty, especially their access to financing and socio-cultural influences. Notions of ‘women’s empowerment’ are discussed and an overview of the WEP’s functions and goals is provided. This study seeks to explore how access to micro-finance in conjunction with entrepreneurial training has impacted the economic situation of WEP participants as well as any corresponding changes in their culturally dictated roles and responsibilities. The gendering …

[Sabbatical Report], Dawn Hall

Sabbatical Reports

Using a feminist and cultural studies perspective, my project discusses the independent film industry and its treatment of women directors and female oriented narratives. It begins with a snapshot of male filmmakers' challenges and opportunities with a focus on Kelly Reichardt's career, definition of success, and specific model of filmmaking, with a brief comparison to other female filmmakers whose definitions are different and who have chosen a more commercial path. In addition to discussing industry data and feminist film theory, the body of the work focuses on Reichardt's feature films (one per chapter) framing each within her larger political statements. …

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley, University College, Western Kentucky University

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

Women's, Gender, And Sexuality Studies Newsletter Spring 2013, Susana Peña

Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Navigating Body, Class, And Disability In The Life Of Agnes Burns Wieck, Caroline Waldron Merithew

History Faculty Publications

The concerns expressed in Burns Wieck’s letter to Hapgood typify many of the issues that occupied her during the course of her life. She, like many Americans in the early twentieth century, thought that there were economic disparities as well as great cultural divisions between the working and middle classes in a capitalist system. Burns Wieck worried about how nature and environment shaped physical and emotional existence for her as a woman and as a worker.4 A question she asked about childbirth in her letter—“Why, oh why, can’t they find some way to humanize that experience?”—is one that she might …