Digital Commons Network^™

What Street Harassment Means, Madison Davis

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper is exploratory research into how college-age women understand their experiences of street harassment. Street harassment is a normative experience for women living in patriarchal cultures, and is an intrusive experience faced regularly in public life. Women told their experiences as part of a narrative that changed over time as they aged from teens into college. Their experiences were not confined to the street, but experienced across public life, and women often carry the weight of harassment in silence. Women resign to the ongoing reality of harassment, and their experiences did not exist in a vacuum but a larger …

Queer University: An Ethnographic Case Study Of The Trans Student Experience Of College Campus Space, Madeline Johnson

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Operating from the premise that physical space becomes a gendered reality through social interaction, this study examines the social formation of self for gender nonconforming college students. Through ethnographic observations of an LGBTQ+ student organization and interviews with self-identified trans students, this research highlights the negotiation of campus space from a queer participant perspective. First, I present the trans student description of cisnormative space, the process of queering space through forming a queer community, and the experience of perceived safe space. This study finds that students experience all on-campus space as pervasively and fundamentally cisnormative, but upon the erasure of …

Running Comes Before Winning: Explaining The Gender Differential In State Legislatures, Marissa Piccolo

Honors Scholar Theses

What factors influence the likelihood that a woman runs for, wins, and holds political office across the country? Is it easier to explain why a woman runs in, than that she ultimately represents, a certain district? I compare a series of state-level and district-level independent variables and relate them to two different dependent variables: that a woman ran for a district seat, and that a woman represents a district. I explore what, and how much, political geography and contextual factors can explain. My preliminary findings show that it is easier to explain the probability that a woman runs, than that …

What It Means To Do Gender Differently: Understanding Identity, Perceptions And Accomplishments In A Gendered World, Joshua S. Smith, Kristin E. Smith

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Recent changes in policies, laws, and public opinion have brought discussions about gender and gender-related topics to the forefront of cultural discourse. In spite of increased acceptance of gender nonconformity in public laws and Supreme Court rulings, we continue to see acts of hostility towards people who express their gender in nontraditional ways on both macro-system and individual levels. Viewing questions surrounding the issues of gender through an identity-oriented lens may shed light on some aspects of this complex topic. The present research utilizes social psychological and gender theories in order to better understand and explore the apparent contradictions in …

“White People Are Gay, But So Are Some Of My Kids”: Examining The Intersections Of Race, Sexuality, And Gender, Stephanie A. Shelton

Occasional Paper Series

A significant body of research examines the roles and characteristics of teachers who identify as allies to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students. Literature notes LGBTQ students’ vulnerability but often excludes students’ racial identities as relevant to LGBTQ identities. Drawing on queer theory and a longitudinal study, this paper examines through individual and focus group interviews the ways that a novice English Education teacher shifted from a bifurcated understanding of race as separate from LGBTQ topics to a position that fully embraced the importance of race as a factor in both serving LGBTQ students and teaching LGBTQ-positive topics.

Girls Just Wanna Be President: How The History Of Female Presidential Candidates Affects Political Ambition And Engagement, Kaycee Babb

History Graduate Projects and Theses

Female political ambition drops around high school, none of the 45 presidents of the United States have been female, and the history of female presidential candidates is largely absent from public memory. This project examines the connection between social perceptions of political involvement and the history of female politicians by creating a resource website of female presidential candidates in the United States. The website is meant to encourage youth political engagement, specifically the engagement of middle school to college-aged female students to lower the gender gap of political ambition. Without representation within American politics, many young women are not inspired …

Do Non-Human Primates Have Gender?, Aaron Pelchat

Senior Honors Projects

As activism for trans rights and gender equality becomes ever more prevalent in the current American political discourse, so too has there been a rise in questions about gender. Are sexuality and gender linked? Aren’t there only two genders? What is the difference between gender and sex? Is there a difference? How does one DO gender? Isn’t gender just something you are born with? Helping the public understand these questions is important to transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in a time when more people are “coming out of the closet” and identifying as genders other than cisgender. As an anthropologist, …

Becoming Women Engineers: Dismantled Notions And Distorted Perspectives, Lisa Zagumny, Holly Garrett Anthony, Sally J. Pardue

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

In an investigation of (non-international) undergraduate students’ experiences with their engineering major, we interviewed 10 young women asking questions about their interactions with instructors, academic successes/struggles, and any challenges they felt they had faced as women/girls in engineering. Initial findings echoed those in previous research serving to affirm held notions of interventions that would improve women/girls’ experiences in engineering. In reflecting on the research methods and troubling its design, we realized that we had approached the data with limited perspectives. A new approach to analysis opened up concepts and yielded findings that offer a different course of action for abating …

The Gender Salary Gap And Race: A Case Of College-Educated Individuals, Giannina Celis

Honors Projects

Despite the fact that today, women constitute the majority of higher education graduates, (U.S. Department of Education 2016) they still earn considerably less than their male counterparts.This study examines some of the different factors that affect salary differentials by race and gender for the college-educated population. Using data from the The National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG), I estimate a series of OLS regressions with controls for geographic location, social demographics, human capital development and occupation to see how they work together to explain these differences in pay.

Becoming Queer In The 20 Th Century: An Analysis Of Print Literature And Changing Queer Identity, Keith Plummer

Sociology Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Lose-Lose Situation : Identity Prioritization And Gendered Communication In Co-Recreational Intramural Basketball., Megan Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Co-recreational sports deserve to be studied due to their relationship between the environment, identity prioritization, and gendered communication for individuals. In spite of the environment’s importance in collegiate student development, few have asked the questions of: how do co-recreational intramural basketball players manage their multiple identities and statuses when playing with or against members of the same or opposite sex; and how do players of both sexes use gendered communication strategies to negotiate predominantly masculine leisure environments, like intramural basketball leagues? Using in-depth interviews from co-recreational intramural basketball players at the University of Louisville triangulated with observations of co-recreational intramural …

Breaking The Cycle Of Silence : The Significance Of Anya Seton's Historical Fiction., Lindsey Marie Okoroafo (Jesnek)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the feminist significance of Anya Seton’s historical novels, My Theodosia (1941), Katherine (1954), and The Winthrop Woman (1958). The two main goals of this project are to 1.) identify and explain the reasons why Seton’s historical novels have not received the scholarly attention they are due, and 2.) to call attention to the ways in which My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman offer important feminist interventions to patriarchal social order. Ultimately, I argue that My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman deserve more scholarly attention because they are significant contributions to women’s …

The Woman Card: Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential Campaign As A Case Study On America's Gendered Politics And Their Impact On Female Presidential Campaign Efficacy, Skylar Mcclain

Senior Theses

I posit that the gendered American cultural expectations for women, although they are not as rigid as they once were, inhibited the efficacy of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and impacted voter behavior. By assessing the indicators most commonly used in gender stereotypes; personality traits, domestic behaviors, occupations, and physical appearance, it is possible to construct a realistic portrait of Clinton’s public gender persona and the resulting electoral response.

The Gender Wage Gap In The Film Industry: A Review Of Literature, Christine Pires

Senior Theses

The gender wage gap is defined as the difference between the amounts of money paid to women and men, often for doing the same work (Cambridge, 2017). The gender wage gap is a reoccurring financial issue in all aspects of the business world. Most all career paths have had a wage gap between men and women. Having equal pay for equal work should be a thing of the past. However, women today are still fighting to close the wage gap and work equally in all fields. The film industry is one of the largest entertainment industries in America and still, …

The Role Of The Speech-Language Pathologist When Working With Clients Who Are Transgender: A Guide Of Gender Identity And Cultural Competency, Brett Welch

Theses and Dissertations

It is within the scope of practice of a speech-language pathologist to work with a client who is transgender for voice. However, regardless of the setting, a speech-language pathologist is likely to encounter a person who is transgender on their caseload. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association mandates that all of its members be culturally competent when working with clients from different cultural backgrounds, including those from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community.

This thesis pulls from sociological, linguistic, and queer theory literature to provide an in-depth understanding of identity, gender, and transgender identity formation. With this nuanced understanding of …

In Pursuit Of A Black Identity In Contemporary South Africa: Culture, Class, And Gender In Wedding Reality Tv Shows, Tv Audience Comments, And Wedding Speeches, Lindani Memani

Dissertations

This research reveals the opaque social hierarchies which work to structure Black life in contemporary South Africa. Using a multi-modal critical discourse analysis, and four theories: hegemony, neoliberalism, post-feminism and African womanism, this study analyzes the representation of weddings in Our Perfect Wedding and Top Billing Weddings, two South African wedding reality television programs. In addition, the study examines the TV programs’ audience narratives in online spaces. Analyzing online conversations helps to show how audiences actively engage with and interpret messages disseminated by the TV shows as they talk back to the shows and among themselves. The study also examines …

"This Was Locker Room Talk": A Content Analysis On The Preservation And Policing Of Rape Culture On Twitter, Allison M. Sheets

All Theses

On October 9, 2016 during the second presidential debate, Donald Trump was asked by debate moderators to respond to a recently released audio recording in which Trump can be heard boasting about grabbing women without their consent. The term "locker room talk" was used by Trump to justify the discourse overheard in the tape. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the way in which registered Twitter users interpret and react to the use of the term "locker room talk" in relation to nonconsensual sexual activities. Using a sample size of 3,280 tweets, this content analysis draws upon …

Gender Differences In Participation In And Motivations For Sexting: The Effects Of Gender Role Attitudes, Masculinity, And Femininity, Katie M. Springston

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Sexting, the exchange of sexually explicit messages, images, and videos through mobile phones, has in recent years become an increasingly publicized and common occurrence in our technologically advanced society (Strassberg, Rullo, & Mackaronis, 2014). The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of gender, gender role attitudes, and self-perceptions of masculinity and femininity on participation in and motivations for sexting. Using a cross-sectional design, a self-administered questionnaire was given to 222 Butler students during the early part of the spring 2016 academic semester. This questionnaire included items regarding demographics, the activity of sexting, personal participation in sexting, self-perceptions …

Terf Wars: Narrative Productions Of Gender And Essentialism In Radical-Feminist (Cyber)Spaces, Jennifer Earles

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation concerns how activists preserve particular feminisms in everyday life, particularly in this postmodern moment as advances in technology create virtual spaces, as feminism experiences generational shifts, and as notions about gender and bodies influence the discursive and political construction of contemporary activism and communities. The particular feminists at the center of this study are self-described radical feminists. While original theories allowed members to question the essentialism of bodies (i.e., sex class), this study focuses on the movement trajectory in which members critique how people assigned male at birth learn masculinity as inextricably tied to the oppression of women …

Is She Worse Than Him: An Attitudes And Perceptions Study, Sydney Mullins

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

There is currently an ongoing debate in regards to the level of equality amongst women and men in American society. Women often feel they are not seen as equal to men, and in most cases, this has proven to be true. However, whether or not this is true when it comes to the way people perceive deviant behavior is up for debate.

The purpose of this research is to assess the attitudes and perceptions, of the general public, surrounding the same acts being committed by males and females. The goal is to determine if a person committing criminal acts is …

The Friend Zone: An In/Inite Place Where Nothing Good Happens: A Comprehensive Study Of Friend Zoning Across Varying Genders And Sexual Orientations, Lillian Harrington, Allison Butler, Mariel Boyle, Taylor Goodman, Shai Katz, Morgan Cinnamo, Ann M. Merriwether, Sean Massey

Research Days Posters 2016-2019

"“Friend zone” is a popular culture term used to describe a friendship where one member in a friend dyad desires a romantic or sexual relationship and the other member does not. Sexual Script Theory (Simon & Gagnon, 2003) and Sexual Strategies Theory (Buss & Schmidt, 1993) suggest that individuals will typically view the friend zone as a Qield dominated by female-to-male interactions, given sexual scripts on women as gatekeepers and men as being more active in initiating relationships. It may be expected then that men and women and individuals who are not exclusively heterosexual may then follow different scripts for …

Necessary But Not Sufficient: The Continuing Inequality Between Men And Women In Educational Leadership, Findings From The Aasa Mid-Decade Survey, Kerry Robinson, Charol Shakeshaft, Margaret Grogan, Whitney Sherman Newcomb

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The gender of school leaders makes a difference in career paths, personal life, and characteristics of workplace. There is additional evidence that men and women are appointed or elected to lead different kinds of educational jurisdictions. Even if those differences did not exist, equitable access to leadership positions for people of different backgrounds would make this an important issue. This article reports gender-related findings from the American Association of School Administrators 2015 Mid-Decade Survey. Findings confirm many of the trends in research on the superintendency over the past 15 years. The profiles of women superintendents are becoming more like their …

Gender And Racial/Ethnic Disparities: Cumulative Screening Of Health Risk Indicators In 20-50 Year Olds In The United States, Alissa Cordner, Adrien A. Wilkie, Timothy J. Wade, Edward E. Hudgens, Rebecca J. Birch, Jane E. Gallagher

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

This study explored potential gender and racial/ethnic disparities in overall health risk related to 24 health risk indicators selected across six domains: socioeconomic, health status and health care, lifestyle, nutritional, clinical, and environmental. Using the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), it evaluated cross-sectional data for 5,024 adults in the United States. Logistic regression models were developed to estimate prevalence odds ratios (PORs) adjusted for smoking, health insurance status, and age. Analyses evaluated disparities associated with 24 indicator variables of health risk, comparing females to males and four racial/ethnic groups to non-Hispanic Whites. Non-Hispanic Blacks and Mexican Americans …

A Narrative Study Of Successful Female Athletic Directors At National Junior College Athletic Association Member Institutions, Charlene Connell White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The lack of representation of women in the role of athletic director at National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) member institutions is an issue that needs to be addressed to open the doores for females to consider athletic administration as a career path. The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to gain a better understanding of waht factors makes successful female athletic directors at NJCAA member institutions. Data was collected using open-ended interview questions with female athletic directors, interviewing the regional director of the study participant, and a combination of photo elicitation and artifacts. Two themes emerged fomr the results …

Modeling The Trauma-Antisociality Relationship As Mediated By World Assumptions: Associations With Gender And Drinking Outcomes, Kathryn Fokas

Psychology ETDs

Previous research has established links between traumatic experiences and externalizing pathology including substance use and antisocial behavior, but little is known about potential mechanisms linking these phenomena. This study proposed a novel conceptual model linking these phenomena via the cognitive mechanism of negative world assumptions, or beliefs about the inherent dangerousness and unpredictability of life and others. Given previous mixed findings, this study also sought to explore potential interactions between gender and these phenomena. It was hypothesized that, within a sample of adults seeking alcohol treatment, world assumptions would mediate and gender would moderate the trauma-antisociality association. It also was …

The Fetal Position: An Examination Of The Validity Of Gender Through The Lens Of Ecological Fluidity Of Behavioral Dimorphisms, Tanya Daughtry

Dialogue & Nexus

Sex and gender is not dichotomous as traditionally thought. Once the biology of sex is understood, perhaps a correction of the teaching about male and female uniqueness can be balanced with Jesus’ teaching regarding eunuchs. Until this is done, persons with gender identity discontinuities will be marginalized by the church. Recognizing that this dichotomous view is incorrect is the first step in correcting the marginalization.

Research Brief: "Just A Girl In The Army: U.S. Iraq War Veterans Negotiating Femininity In A Culture Of Masculinity", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief summarizes an analysis on the experiences of 12 U.S. Army women combat veterans to determine the role of gender within the masculine culture of the military and how it effects their experiences.

Learner-Directed Vs. Instructor-Provided Curriculum Among Undergraduate Students, Christopher D. Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There has been little or no research on the use of a Learning Object in the field of religious studies. The purpose of this research study was to assess undergraduate student knowledge gain outcomes between instructor-provided and learner-directed methods, which is the independent variable, using asynchronous, online, narrated PowerPoint presentations compared to undergraduate student knowledge gain using an online learning-objects unit, in a college-level world religions survey course at St. Petersburg College. This study assessed undergraduate student knowledge gain outcomes between instructor-provided and learner-directed methods among 90 college undergraduate students and determined whether there was a significant difference in the …

The Influence Of Student Characteristics On The Preferred Ways Of Learning Of Online College Students: An Examination Of Cultural Constructs, Linda Barril

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The ongoing popularity and increased availability of online college courses and programs has attracted a greater diversity of students. Along with continued female-majority enrollment, increasing numbers of students of traditional college age and students from a variety of ethnicity groups are taking online courses. The prevailing guiding assumptions that have informed much of the online pedagogical and instructional practices have primarily come from theories of adult learning, particularly andragogy, which has been heavily criticized for not acknowledging student diversity. As online education becomes ever more established in higher education, it is vital to examine the diversity of contemporary student populations …

Do You Really Want To Walk In My Shoes?, Anonymous

SURGE

There is a problematic irony in the philanthropy event, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, which took place on campus this week. [excerpt]