Women's Studies Commons^™

Dependence On Or The Subordination Of Women? Examining The Political, Domestic, And Religious Roles Of Women In Mesoamerican, Andean, And Spanish Societies In The 15th Century, Christine Alwan

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

What is the value of a woman? In the modern West, one may answer with appeals to human rights and the inherent dignity and equality of the human person. However, before the recognition of human rights, many societies’ ideas about the value of women laid in the specific roles women played religiously, politically, and domestically within a particular society. Through the examination of women’s roles in Mesoamerican Aztec society, Andean Incan society, and Spanish society in the 15th century, one is able to observe how gender ideology influenced the roles women played and how these roles had significant implications for …

Why Don't I Look Like Her? The Impact Of Social Media On Female Body Image, Kendyl M. Klein

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to understand and criticize the role of social media in the development and/or encouragement of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body dissatisfaction in college-aged women. College women are exceptionally vulnerable to the impact that social media can have on their body image as they develop an outlook on their bodies and accept the developmental changes that occurred during puberty. This paper provides evidence that there is a relationship between the recent surge in disordered eating and high consumption of social media. I examine the ways in which traditional advertising has portrayed women throughout history, …

Explaining The “Explained”: An Examination Of The Gender-Based Education Gap In India And Its Impact On The Wage Gap, Kanupriya Rungta

CMC Senior Theses

Analysis of the National Sample Survey Data from 2011-2012 shows that a gender-based education gap exists. Women are more likely than men to be illiterate. Some parents continue to view household duties as more important than education in the case of girls, causing some to drop out in primary and middle school, which leads to lower experience accumulation. However, females are almost equally as likely as males to be enrolled in school, and an equal proportion of males and females earn higher education degrees. More importantly, the difference in resource allocation seems to be minimal. Although education has a strong, …

How Modern Family And Parenthood Represent Equal Parenting: A Feminist Discourse, Samantha B. Coffin

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Within recent discourses about parenting, the concept of equal parenting and fathering is a prominent theme. I have chosen two popular television shows that portray families to see if they represent ideas about equal parenting. I have identified three prominent themes that researchers agree comprise equal parenting: parents' equal power in decision-making, fathers challenging masculine gender expectations by actively nurturing children, and fathers sharing household duties. The findings of this thesis conclude that the television shows Parenthood and Modern Family are contradictory in their representations of equal parenting themes. Parenthood has strong examples of equal parenting, but remains more conservative …

The Emotionally Supportive Sister-Soldier: How The United States Military Values Normative Femininity And Devalues Nonconformist Servicewomen, Kristal Marie Gray

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Women need to be vigilant about the rights and strides they have gained to be sure they are not circling back to feed an oppressive system. Women may be serving in the military but they are filling specific roles as the feminine presence within the ranks. Women are gendered and sexualized from the day they swear in. My research gives valuable insight into the world of the military and how much emphasis is placed on conforming. I explain how servicewomen are expected to act and then interview eleven servicewomen to see if they are behaving according to the military (and …

Women's Gun Culture In America, Laura Browder

English Faculty Publications

A recent article in the New York Times focused on the possible increase in female gun ownership in the United States. This “new” phenomenon of women and guns is of course far from new: as early as the 1870s, trapshooting for women was publicized by gun manufacturers as yet another feminine activity, not far removed from shopping or club work. The ultra-feminine Annie Oakley, who in the 1880s became an international star in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, personally taught fifteen thousand women to shoot. By the turn of the twentieth century, gun manufacturers were promoting hunting as a healthful activity …

Rhetorical Spirits: Spirituality As Rhetorical Device In New Age Womanist Of Color Texts, Ronisha Witlee Browdy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout history African–American women have struggled against oppressions that have stereotyped their identities, scrutinized their character, and ultimately labeled their bodies inferior and inhuman. Despite the debilitating ideologies and barriers African–American women have been forced to operate within, they have fought against these racist, sexist, classist, homophobic environments, crafting their own “new” ethos through writing, as well as entertainment and popular culture. Although Black women remain plagued by history, the New Age of the 1980s as discussed by Akasha Gloria Hull in Soul Talk: The New Spirituality of African–American Women seemed to spark a new spirituality amongst African–American women. During …

Unbearable Weight, Unbearable Witness: The (Im)Possibility Of Witnessing Eating Disorders In Cyberspace, Kristen Nicole Gay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the recent erasure of digital pro-anorexia ("pro-ana") narratives by websites such as Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram represents an attempt to silence female self-starvers and reify the authority of medical associations to speak for female bodies. I draw parallels between these attempts and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's theory of epistemic violence, since the experiences of women are effectively discredited, through metaphors that render the thin body dangerous, to shore up professional medical authority. As an attempt to privilege the experiences of the self-starvers, I analyze one Tumblr blog with eating disorder content to listen to the letters users …

When Celebrity Women Tweet: Examining Authenticity, Empowerment, And Responsibility In The Surveillance Of Celebrity Twitter, Megan M. Wood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a textual analysis of stories in online celebrity news articles about celebrity women and their use of Twitter. It adds to the burgeoning discussion about gendered and racialized bodies online using scholarship from critical feminist, surveillance, and digital media studies. Throughout, my work attends to notions of authenticity and surveillance, examining how what I term a "call to authenticity"--the use of technologies of self-surveillance to verify "authentic" displays of the self--serves to animate contradictory post-feminist paradigms of femininity which function together to discipline and subjugate femininity. I ask: How do post-feminist questions of empowerment and responsibility become …

The Political Economy Of Maternal Health In A Medically Pluralistic Environment: A Case Study In The Callejón De Huaylas, Isabella Chan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines maternal decision-making regarding prenatal care and childbirth in the rural, north-central Andes in the province of Carhuaz. Semi-structured interviews (n=30) and participatory action research workshops (n=7) were conducted with local women to elucidate how they conceptualize, experience, and negotiate the shifting landscape of prenatal care and childbirth practices and providers. Semi-structured interviews with obstetricians, midwives, and social workers (n=9) were also conducted to compare perspectives and identify disconnects in knowledge and practices existing between these two groups in order to facilitate an open conversation on how to jointly improve the maternal experience and reduce maternal mortality and …

Significance Is Bliss: A Global Feminist Analysis Of The Liberian Truth And Reconciliation Commission And Its Privileging Of Americo-Liberian Over Indigenous Liberian Women's Voices, Morgan Lea Eubank

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of my research is to analyze the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (LTRC) lack of attention towards accessing rural Liberian women's voices as opposed to privileged Liberian women residing in urban and Diaspora spaces. By analyzing the LTRC and its Final Report from a critical global feminist perspective, I was able to not only illuminate, but bring a spotlight over issues including access, privilege, and multicultural insensitivity related to Liberia's indigenous tribal cultures. Liberia, being a country founded by American colonials, is socially constructed by Western ideological norms. As Western ideology is mainly normalized and enforced by the …

Listening To Teacher Voices: Using Narrative Inquiry To Understand The Lives Of Beginning, Experienced And Veteran Female English Teachers, Tiffany Michelle Sedberry

Open Access Theses

Research shows that teacher retention is an issue of serious concern. Job dissatisfaction from personal and professional stressors is causing teachers at different experience levels to reevaluate their commitment to the classroom. Veteran teachers who complete their career are also evaluating whether or not teaching is worth what is invested. This project is grounded in narrative inquiry, in hopes of understanding the lives of female English language arts teachers. For the participants in this study, financial concerns and family commitments, issues of student accountability, and educational reform worry them equally. For all teachers, regardless of experience level, student apathy remains …

Jane Eyre And Her Transatlantic Literary Descendants: The Heroic Female Bildungsroman And Constructions Of National Identity, Abigail Ruth Heiniger

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

JANE EYRE AND HER TRANSATLANTIC LITERARY DESCENDANTS: THE HEROIC FEMALE BILDUNGSROMAN AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

by

ABIGAIL RUTH HEINIGER

May 2013

Advisor: Dr. Anca Vlasopolos

Major: English

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation examines the role of fairy tales and fairy lore across the arc of Charlotte Brontë's career from Jane Eyre (1847) to Villette (1853) in order to demonstrate the evolution of the heroic female bildungsroman in Brontë's work. This distinctive narrative paradigm, the heroic female bildungsroman, is incorporated into a perpetual search for a mythology to define womanhood, which ripples out from Jane Eyre's literary descendants …

Where Are All The Gifted Black Girls? Giving High School Girls Voice Via Qualitative Research Approach And Black Feminist Theory, Mary L. Montie

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

WHERE ARE ALL THE GIFTED BLACK GIRLS?

GIVING HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS VOICE VIA QUALITATIVE RESEARCH APPROACH AND BLACK FEMINIST THEORY

by

MARY L. MONTIE

May 2013

Advisor: Dr. Karen L. Tonso

Major: Educational Evaluation and Research

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Gifted programs in the United States under-represent African American (Black) children (Phi Delta Kappan, 1992). In 1993, African-American students were under-represented by 50% in gifted education, and 60% in 1998 (Grantham & Ford, 2003). Further, some speculate that gifted education programs are the most segregated educational programs in the nation (Ford, 1995). This proves especially true for Black gifted …

The Relationship Between Generalized Anxiety Disorder In Women And Hormonal Imbalances, Self-Efficacy And Lifestyle: Implications For Licensed Professional Counselors And Counselor Educators, Gillian Bernadette Robbins

Wayne State University Dissertations

The intent of the study was to conduct a preliminary enquiry of the relationship between Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in women and hormonal imbalances, self-efficacy, and lifestyle. Key consideration was given to the study as it points to implications for licensed professional counselors and counselor educators. A nonexperimental, correlation design was used in the study and conducted in a large urban city in Ontario, Canada. Participants in the study were female clients receiving bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) for a minimum of three month at a Medical Health Spa. A total of 55 participants completed a demographical survey, the Generalized …

Feminism, Breastfeeding, And Society, Jen Bracken-Hull

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

A dichotomy exists among feminists regarding the views and contributions of breastfeeding. Across several waves of feminism women have argued for and against breastfeeding. Until recently, breastfeeding (regarding the bearing and nurturing of children) was seen as a responsibility that prevented women from participating in public circles. This article delineates the general contributions made by women who breastfeed including biological, social, emotional, and personal factors. Changes and accommodations are required for women who choose to breastfeed to not be disadvantaged.

Editor's Note, Rachel Payne

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Awe Editors

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

The Fall Of The Yellow Wallpaper, Rachel Payne

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Many have acknowledged the Gothic influence of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” on Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Critics often examine the opposition of genres in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” arguing it as either a feminist movement or Gothic tale. However, the Female Gothic genre centers the female role inside a Gothic tale. This genre typifies a criticism of oppressive patriarchies and support for female independence. Both “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrate women who overcome repressed voices by finding their expressions through writing.

Front Matter, Awe Editors

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.