Digital Commons Network^™

Credit Availability For Tanzania's Small Businesses: A Gender Perspective, Josephat Lotto

Business Management Review

The purpose of this study was to examine whether firm and owners ' characteristics are driven by gender and whether gender is attributable to credit accessibility in small and locally-owned firms in Tanzania. The study uses data collected from 400 small businesses through questionnaires and interviews and analyses it using univariate and multivariate statistical tools The findings show that female owners are less educated, have less work experiences and their firms are relatively smaller and younger than in the case for males. Moreover, female-owned firms were more likely to be organised as sole proprietorship or partnerships. Also the findings indicate …

The Effects Of Sexual Orientation And Behavioral Style On Perceptions Of Leadership Potential And Effectiveness, Kristin Elizabeth Mann

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This research explored the influences that sexual orientation and gender norm adherence play in impacting perceptions of a leader’s hirability into and evaluation within a leadership role. Though sexual minority issues in the workplace represent a growing field of research, investigations into sexual orientation’s impact on outcomes relevant to leadership remain scant. As increasing numbers of openly gay and lesbian men and women take positions of leadership, there is a need for more information regarding the experiences of sexual minority leaders, with potential benefits to these individuals, their organizations, and related stakeholders. The research conducted here was intended to address …

Gendered Expression Online: Exploring Gendered Communication On Facebook And In A Collaborative Editing Task, Christina M. Shane-Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

College students are increasingly using digital media, such as social network sites (SNSs) and collaborative editing tools (Wikipedia), as identity exploration tools, aligning or distancing themselves from their offline selves through the online affordances of anonymity and agentic choice. The opportunities for gender fluidity available online (Armentor-Cota, 2011) provide college students with opportunities to experiment with and manipulate varied identities in a safe space where consequences of confronting identity norms may be less severe (Turkle, 1996; Shaw, 1997). Similarly, restrictive offline gender differences may diminish in online spaces, favoring a more flexible and androgynous enactment of gender (Martin, Cook, & …

Using Feminist Theory To Advance Equal Justice Under Law, Linda L. Berger, Bridget J. Crawford, Kathryn M. Stanchi

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pregnant "Persons": The Linguistic Defanging Of Women's Issues And The Legal Danger Of "Brain-Sex" Language, Andrea Orwoll

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Modern Mr. Darcy: An Analysis Of Leading Men In Contemporary Romantic Comedy Film, Amanda Rebekah Roskelley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an observation and analysis of male performance in romantic comedy films released between 2005 and 2015. As a lasting genre, rom-com, like all forms of media, has the potential to influence society. Gender plays a vital role in the generic template of these films. Because women are the dominant consumers of this genre, what they observe as gender performance is important. This genre has been dissected under the eye of feminism and female gender performance but the changes in masculinity have been largely overlooked.This paper identifies common characteristics in leading men of this decade's rom-coms. After establishing …

You Can't Remain Neutral On A Moving Train – Marriage Equality In The States & Ireland: Thoughts On Freedom To Marry, Religious Heteronormativity, And Conceptions Of Equality, Kris Mcdaniel-Miccio

DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law

This title, in part, was one of the famous phrases uttered by the brilliant historian Howard Zinn, a wonderful image that applies to advocating social justice. In the United States, the train referenced by Zinn was the Freedom Train, whether it be toward gender, racial or ethnic parity. Now it is the Freedom to Marry Train and it has not only left the station, it is moving at break- neck speed and almost unstoppable. This Train built with the blood, sweat and tears of the LGBTI community, forged by fire and situated on a justified track. There is no difference …

Potensi Strategi Pembelajaran Problem Based Learning (Pbl), Reading Questioning And Answering (Rqa) Dan Kombinasi Memberdayakan Karakter Siswa Putra Dan Putri Sman Kota Malang Pada Pembelajaran Biologi, Putri Octa Hadiyanti, Aloysius Duran Corebima, Abdul Ghofur

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

The aims of this research were to investigate: 1) The effect of Problem Based Learning (PBL), Reading Questioning and Answering (RQA), and PBL integrated with RQA learning (PBL+RQA) on students’ characters, 2) The effects of gender on students' characters, and 3) the effect of the interaction between learning strategies and gender on students’ characters. The population of this research was all the tenth grade students of state senior high schools in Malang. The results showed that 1) There was not any effect of biology learning strategies on the students’ characters. 2) There was an effect of gender on the students’ …

Split Wounds: Diverging Formations Of Trauma In The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders V, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, And The Rat Laughed, And Once Were Warriors, Emily R. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

Split Wounds interrogates naturalized, normalized trauma wisdom—particularly the individualization and pathologization of sexualized trauma. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of discursive formation, explicated in The Archaeology of Knowledge as a set of conditions that enables history, this dissertation elucidates differing discursive formations of trauma in contemporary medical documents, literary texts, and films. The introductory chapter explicates how founding texts in the field of trauma theory construct trauma as a preverbal, psychological experience that can only be represented through fragmented, non-linear, anti-narrative textual strategies. Chapter two exposes such Euro-American modernist ideology in the American Psychiatric Association’s clinical definition of posttraumatic stress disorder …

One’S A Crowd: Gendered Language In Ursula Le Guin’S The Left Hand Of Darkness, Kayla Stephenson

Senior Capstone Theses

Deconstruction questions the very meaning of words put into an assigned use. Yet how can we imply meaning unto words that do not exist in our language? To have a word for an intended use is to have an implied concept behind it, and where there is no concept there can be no word. Consequently, to construct a concept outside of the realm of human and earthly possibility is to create something outside of the limits of the human language. Concerning gender, to imagine a third or a singular gender is to be unable to describe such a concept without …

Long-Term Effects Of Gender Representation Quotas On Political Interest Within Latin America, Lismer E. Ovalle

Theses and Dissertations

This work measures the long-term effects of gender representation quotas within Latin American countries on various measures of political interest. Measuring effects on 18 countries provides a quasi-panel study with control using non-quota countries. Quotas have positive effects on confidence in government but negative effects on political interest.

The Adolescent Grotesque: Transgressing Boundaries Of Female Sexuality In Edwidge Danticat’S Breath, Eyes, Memory And Jamaica Kincaid’S Annie John, Telia Bennett

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Adolescence is a transitory time in human development, characterized by internal and external bodily changes. Edwidge Danticat and Jamaica Kincaid employ the first-person narrative style in their respective debut novels, Breath, Eyes, Memory and Annie John, to amplify the female adolescent voice and provide unmitigated access to the female adolescent experience. During adolescence, the female body is in sexual flux – steadily losing its amorphousness as puberty runs its course. The adolescent female body peregrinates the biological threshold that distinguishes males from females. In Rabelais and His World, Mikhail Bakhtin describes the grotesque body as “a body in the …

Happy Trails, Elizabeth A. Derby

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My work uses hair as both a subject depicted in drawings, paintings, and prints; as well as a medium for sculpture, installation, and video created with synthetic hair pieces and wigs. I am interested in deconstructing gendered codes of appearance, and visions of the ideal woman and man as objects. I remove all identifiable traits from my characters, apart from their hair which appears to be consuming or erasing them. In doing so, I force the people viewing my work to rely on cultural stereotypes associated with hair to identify my characters. My work is heavily influenced by Drag culture …

An Overture To Equality: Preventing Subconscious Sex And Gender Biases From Influencing Hiring Decisions, Christy Krawietz

Seattle University Law Review

In many industries, women are less likely than men to be hired, and research suggests that this is due to subconscious gender bias rather than meritorious difference. To combat this bias, some orchestras use gender-blind auditions to hire their musicians. Orchestral hopefuls sit behind a screen to play their pieces, and directors listen to determine whom they want to hire. Some orchestras require applicants to remove their shoes before walking onstage, as even the perceived sound of high heels can affect a director’s decision. Before instituting gender-blind auditions, the top five American orchestras had fewer than five percent women players. …

Influences On Fruit And Vegetable Consumption In College Freshmen 18-24 Years Old At Mississippi State University, Laura Coats

Theses and Dissertations

Research has demonstrated that >5 servings of fruits and vegetables (F&V) per day improve health. Eighty-three percent of 18-24 year olds, including college students, do not meet recommendations. For the study, freshmen at MSU were recruited. Included freshmen (n=132), 6 percent, received a sociodemographic and intake survey. Eighty subjects, 61 percent, completed the survey. Of these subjects (n=33), 41 percent, participated in focus groups. X2 analyses assessed intake and sociodemographics. Paired t-test compared BMI and intake. Focus group analyses determined additional influences. Results indicated nine percent of subjects consumed >5 servings, and 23 percent of subjects consumed >3 servings. >3 …

College-Going Experiences Of Male Foster Youth Alumni Who Have Stopped-Out Of College, Felipe D. Longoria

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative research study examined how foster care experiences and masculinities influenced male foster youth alumni’s decision to go to college. The study also sought to understand the in-and-out-of-college factors that led participants to exit college prematurely. Five participants were each interviewed twice for data collection purposes. Findings from data analysis indicated that establishing and maintaining relationships in college were challenging and affected an already vulnerable population in their help-seeking behavior. Recommendations are offered for higher education professionals and areas for future research are noted.

Advisor: Corey Rumann

The Upholding Of Heteropatriarchy: An Ecofeminist Critique Of Peta Advertisements, Marrissa S. Ballard

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

Humans are continually connected and divided by labels, systems, and hierarchies that determine how much power and status is available to each individual person. These hierarchies often aid in upholding the heteropatriarchal structure of society, which holds male dominated heterosexuality as the default and most powerful position. Because our society is structured to pander to heterosexual men, the exploitation of woman is often used to advertise and sell products. The exploitation of women also mirrors the exploitation of the environment, and this parallel serves as the basis of Ecofeminism. This paper aims to utilize ecofeminism to critique the use and …

Physical Activity Differences Related To Gender And Grade Level In Middle School Students, Casey Reeves

Graduate Theses

In the last 35 years, the United States youth has experienced a significant rise in obesity levels, and a significant decline in physical activity levels (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015a; CDC, 2009). A variety of research has been conducted on the implications of decreasing levels of physical activity (PA). However, theories are mixed on when this rapid decline of participation in PA is occurring. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to identify a significant gap in PA levels between females and males and 2) to identify the age/grade in which the projected discrepancy develops. The …

Adopting New Banana Varieties In Uganda: The Role Of Gender And Head Of Household Status, Emily Albertson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Recognizing the gender gap that exists in the adoption rates of improved agricultural technology is crucial in increasing agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. A gender-disaggregated framework is used to examine key variables that guide the adoption decision of improved agricultural technologies by gender and household headship. Drawing on household data collected in two districts in Uganda and constructing a probability model, key variables will be analyzed as to their significance in the adoption decision for improved banana cultivars. The analysis shows that gender alone is insufficient in fully understanding adoption decisions, as other significant factors exist. Using the literature and …

The Gendered Politics Of Natural Resource Management: Gender Mainstreaming In Un-Redd+ Programs In Latin America, Hannah Yore

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper uses a feminist political ecology framework to critically examine rural women’s relationship with UN-REDD programs throughout Latin America. It looks at the ways in which UN-REDD has attempted to integrate women into the larger REDD+ development paradigms vis-à-vis gender- mainstreaming. I pay particular attention to how gender dynamics operate in the context of REDD+ with respect to cultural sovereignty, access to land, and benefit sharing and draw on Ecuador’s National REDD+ Socio Bosque program to illuminate how National REDD+ programs can adversely affect rural women’s livelihoods despite UN-REDD’s discourse of “gender equality”. In light of these considerations, I …

Spaces Of Visibility And Identity, Shelby R. Purdy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

“Spaces of Visibility and Identity” is an exploration on how being immersed in constant visibility has an effect on an individual’s identity. Visibility is not a narrow term meant to signify solely observation; rather, visibility is the state of existing within a world that does not allow for total isolation. To exist within the world is to be visible to others, and this visibility is inescapable. Visibility can be seen as a presentation or a disclosure of oneself to other beings. Existing within the world inevitably implies that one is presenting oneself to others, whether or not the presentation is …

Whiteness In Contemporary Feminist Campaigns : Free The Nipple., Laura Patterson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

A New Kind Of Social Dreaming: Diversifying Contemporary Dystopian Fiction, Brita M. Thielen

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis argues that the dystopian genre lacks diversity not because dystopian novels with a focus on issues of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality have not been written, but because these novels are assigned to other genres. Reevaluating the importance of a future setting to dystopian fiction opens the genre to stories whose characters need not exist in a future temporal landscape because their oppression exists in the present. The entrenched norm of a future temporal setting in dystopian fiction privileges the perspectives of a group of people who largely do not experience systemic oppression in the present: white heterosexual men. …

Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore, And The Collapse Of "Surrealist Photography"., Elizabeth Ann Driscoll Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis probes the photographic oeuvre of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore and their interpretation of Freudian fetishism. Cahun and Moore rework Freud’s theory to disrupt and invalidate various symbols conventionally associated with sexual difference, examining social, fictional, and historical dimensions of gendering and the shift that occurs when their parameters disintegrate. The first section examines the lovers’ portraiture and use of clothing—specifically the androgyny of early-twentieth century Paris fashion—in order to demarcate same-sex gaze, desire, and fetish. The second section covers the four years in which Cahun and Moore’s participation in the Paris Surrealist circles can be traced—from 1933 …

The Effect Of Gender On The Attitudes Of Undergraduates Toward Young-Earth Creationism After Enrollment In An Origins Course, Sean Vinaja

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many Christian students graduate from secondary schools and enter Christian colleges with worldviews that are unbiblical or contain unbiblical components, many of which stem from their beliefs regarding origins. Little research has been done to study the effect of gender on the role of a young-earth creationist (YEC) origins course in shaping students’ worldview. Research has shown that males and females respond differently to science and religion instruction; because the origins discussion is an intersection of science and religion, the study of gender’s effect in developing a Bible-based worldview is important so that Christian colleges might more effectively guide their …

From Overt Contentment To Hidden Space: Examining The Portrayal Of Gender Fluidity In Naylor's Bailey's Café And Walker's The Color Purple, Teneshia Shante Head

All Theses

I am examining the portrayal of gender fluidity in Gloria Naylor's 'Bailey's Café (1992) and Alice Walker's 'The Color Purple' (1992). Both authors show how a break from gender assumptions makes the lives of their doubly marginalized characters easier. My thesis redefines the notion of gender fluidity by examining it through the lens of intersectionality. By looking at how numerous factors such as race and gender work together, I introduce a new concept known as Black gender fluidity, a form of gender fluidity that many African Americans use to fight oppression. Black gender fluidity, unlike gender fluidity occurs because a …

Gender In Stem: An Intersectional And Interdisciplinary Feminist Ethnography, Michelle Chouinard

Honors College Theses

While contextualizing the history of women in educational spheres, it is no surprise to learn that women have faced significant obstacles in sciences and mathematics since the inception of higher education. In her revolutionary challenge of patriarchal historical narratives surrounding knowledge production, historian Londa Schiebinger’s Has Feminism Changed Science? (1999) demonstrates that women have long been influential in the sciences. Christine de Pizan was documenting contributions made by women to the arts and sciences beginning in 1405; however, widespread acknowledgement of women in the sciences did not appear until the dawn of the 20th century, around the time of the …

Media Literacy Curriculum For The Adolescent Young Adult Classroom, Leah Oliver

Honors Projects

The American public education system has been lagging behind other developed nations in its implementation of media literacy curricula throughout all grade levels. As mass media outlets (including television, film, magazines, advertisements, and video games) become more prevalent in our society, the accompanying job market and the everyday use of electronic media platforms require high school and college graduates to have at least a basic understanding of how media can be used to disseminate information and to buy and sell products. Moreover, research studies in the field suggest that exposure to popular culture mass media can greatly influence teens’ self-esteem, …

Out Of Time: Queer Temporalities In The Works Of Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, And Langston Hughes, Lauren Riccelli Zwicky

Open Access Dissertations

Focusing on texts by Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, and Langston Hughes, this dissertation examines the temporally situated body as a gendered, sexed, and racialized site of contestation through which dominant ontological modalities are challenged and ultimately destabilized. This transgressive politics takes the form of an interrogation of the heteronormative time-table that constructs, regulates, and disciplines subjective ontological progress. Specifically, these texts challenge the notion that legibility is produced through a triad of progressive temporal phases: the adolescent/early adult direction of sexuality towards the heterosexual union, normative marriage and family-based kinship bonds, and finally the transmission of cultural values, norms, and …

The Influence Of Gender And Language Complexity On The Credibility Of Expert Witness Testimony, Darcy Egan

Undergraduate Theses

With the increased use in expert witness testimony in civil trials, the decisions that jury members have made based on those testimonies have become very controversial. Previous research indicates that when a testimony is particularly complex, mock jurors will rely on cues outside the content of the testimony in order to determine the credibility of the witness. Research shows that there are different cues that are associated with higher credibility the expert. Common cues include the gender, occupation, and level of language complexity of the expert witness. This study used these three different cues as the independent variables, with two …