Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Discussion From Andrea Smith's Book, Conquest: Sexual Violence And American Indian Genocide, Alexis M. Auman

Student Publications

Discussion from Andrea Smith's book, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide

"Nobody Forced My Mom To Stay Home": College Men’S Perspectives On Parental Leave, Marisa Conners

Student Publications

From "The Second Shift" to Claudia Goldin’s Nobel Prize-winning research on women in the labor market, the inequities affecting women in the labor market have been widely documented. However, progress on this issue has been largely one-sided on behalf of women, perpetuating gender inequality. The goal of my research is to understand how social subgroup values influence male-identifying Gettysburg College students’ predictions on how they will engage with parental leave. This project gathered information on ways to increase male uptake of parental leave, which, if implemented, will help improve gender equity in the labor market.

How are male-identifying Gettysburg College …

Little Red Riding Hood Rewritten: The Abject In Angela Carter’S “Company Of Wolves”, Samantha Frohring

CAFE Symposium 2026

This project considers Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to bring attention to the content within Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves." This postmodernist rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood" brings attention to feminist topics such as female sexuality and agency. In consideration with Kristeva's theory of abjection, it sheds light on potentially cringeworthy aspects of our bodies and embraces all of the "filth."

Paternalism Vs. Progress: Chile Under Michelle Bachelet, Sasha Ilchenko

CAFE Symposium 2026

Following the end of Pinochet's dictatorial rule of Chile, the country became a presidential system in which voters could elect their representatives. Michelle Bachelet was elected as Chile's first female president in 2006, and, in 2014, she was reelected for a second term. I aim to compare how her gender influenced her policymaking decisions and the public's reaction to her presidency as well as how those two themes differed between Bachelet's two terms.

Hercules In Myth And Animation: Masculinity And Heroism, Noah Bautista

CAFE Symposium 2026

Disney's Hercules is a model man in today's society who combines the best aspects of both masculinity and femininity. In the myths, however, Hercules was much different and did not act as such a bridge between femininity and masculinity at the time. Through other scholarly works, the way that masculinity, heroism, and instrumentalization are presented and used is examined. Mythological Herakles is found to be a much more aggressive archetype of a man rather than Hercules, who is based upon strength in moderation and a more social society. Each fit into the ideals of the society they come from, perpetuating …

Hillary Rodham Clinton's Roadblocks To Political Power, Molly Hayter

CAFE Symposium 2026

My research delves into how Hillary Rodham Clinton's political career was impacted by misogyny and gendered backlash. She was represented unequally in the media in comparison to male politicians and faced criticism for displaying both male and female characteristics, yet she did not let her focus on gendered policy decisions fade as she tackled foreign policy in her role as Secretary of State.

Instilling Patriotism And Prejudice Through Game Of Battles Or Fun For Boys, Gabby Gavaghan

CAFE Symposium 2026

For my Poster Project, I dove into the underlying socialization and indoctrination embedded within a board game from 1899 called "Game of Battles or Fun For Boys." I explored the overwhelming messages of toxic masculinity, the encouragement of enlisting in the military, and the lack of representation of women and African Americans.

Echoes Of The Goddess: Reclaiming Power-Within In The Modern Workplace, Chloe E. Hanousek

Student Publications

This work examines gender inequality in the American workforce as part of a broader cultural system that consistently devalues care, embodiment, and relational labor. Rather than treating issues such as the wage gap or the motherhood penalty as isolated problems, it situates them within a historical pattern shaped by patriarchal power, medical dismissal, and the domination of nature. Through an interdisciplinary feminist approach, this work traces how the suppression of the feminine influences women’s working lives, health experiences, and relationships to their bodies. By connecting labor inequality to burnout, ecological harm, and the erosion of inner authority, it argues that …

Indigenous Women’S Reproductive Traditions: Reclaiming Sovereignty Through 500 Years Of Colonization, Stephanie A. Sellers

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

In Indigenous Women’s Reproductive Traditions, Stephanie Sellers delves into the rich history of Indigenous women’s reproductive practices before European colonization. The book highlights traditional methods such as birth control, abortion, and child spacing, which were integral to maintaining agency over their bodies. Sellers explores how these practices were disrupted by European patriarchal structures and examines the impact of forced sterilization in the 20th century. Today, Indigenous women are reclaiming their rights through movements for reproductive justice, advocating for a return to their ancestral practices and redefining concepts of womanhood and motherhood on their own tribal terms.

Mapping Trends In Gender-Inclusive Legal Language Between Circuit Courts In The United States, Juliette M. Rhinow

Student Publications

This study examines the use of gender-inclusive legal language in federal circuit court opinions in the United States between 2020 and 2024, with a focus on how judicial political ideology influences linguistic behaviors. Drawing on postmodern feminist theory and utilizing content analysis, the research compares six federal circuit courts by coding 46 court opinions for inclusive and exclusive linguistic practices related to transgender and non-binary individuals. Inclusive practices included the use of self-identified names and pronouns, affirming decisions, and acknowledgment of transgender identities, while exclusive practices involved misgendering, outdated terminology, and restrictive rulings. Results show that progressive circuits demonstrated significantly …

Aesthetic Exclusion Within American Capitalist Culture: Lgbtq Students At Gettysburg College And The Creative Reappropriation Of Clothing To Forge Personal And Communal Identity, James M. Mikulski

Student Publications

For LGBTQ individuals whose identity expression transgresses heteronormative aesthetic values, mass production and its prioritization of a heteronormative consumer base for profit create feelings of otherness and ostracism. Previous anthropological theory on mass production and advertising recognizes the transference of meaning onto material culture through marketing and identifies the generic symbolic meaning that carbon-copy, mass-produced products hold. Theory and research surrounding colonial encounters attest to power imbalances wherein material culture is imposed on a powerless group, and marginalized individuals react through rejection or creative reappropriation of the material culture, which provides a basis for examining the power imbalance between corporations …

Mythos And Logos: Foucauldian Subjectivities Of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Hayley R. Cisney

Student Publications

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography details a centuries-long battle between Orlando and the sexual structures of repressive power in England. The biographical framework of the novel implies its contribution to objective, historical fact, while the miraculous nature of Orlando’s sexual transformation directly conflicts with constituted epistemologies of being. This paper examines these contrasting forces through Michel Foucault’s post-structuralist considerations of knowledge, power, and sexuality, in addition to the incorporation of other scholarship on Woolf’s conceptions of gender. I specifically follow the timeline of Foucault’s interpretation of the repressive hypothesis as it unfolds throughout the course of Woolf’s novel. By establishing …

The Necropolis Of Lattara: An Examination Into Gender, Socioeconomic, And Ethnic Identities In A Funerary Context Following The Roman Conquest Of Mediterranean Gaul, Heather Fusco

Student Publications

This paper investigated how material goods both represented and actively created ethnic identity, gender, and socioeconomic status in a funerary context during a colonial period. Relying on evidence collected from a Roman-period necropolis from Lattara in Mediterranean France, these results were then examined alongside funerary evidence from the necropolis of the nearby Iron Age settlement of Ambrussum to compare pre-Roman and Roman funerary practices. Specifically, within the two necropolises, the grave goods, inscriptions, and biologically sexed remains were the main points of comparison. This paper also utilized the ideas and concepts from the subdivision of funerary archaeology, as well as …

Battling History: A Discussion Of How Controlling Images And The Matrix Of Domination Causes Recreations Of Oppression Affecting Black Female Athletes In Gymnastics Today, Nicole T. Cesanek

Student Publications

The history of the slave era led to the creation of several different tropes of African American women used throughout history including the jezebel and the strong Black woman. Coupled with the matrix of domination, researchers are able to understand how this history has led to recreations of oppression among Black female athletes. This has been particularly evident among the sport of gymnastics in which several athletes have experienced severe oppression, which in many cases, has prevented them from speaking up about other serious concerns within their sport such as sexual assault and mental health. The creation of tropes for …

More Care And Less Pay: The Phenomenon Of Low Wages Among Care Occupations, Allison B. Dayton

Student Publications

This research examines the phenomenon of care occupations paying less than other occupations with similar levels of human capital investment. The paper evaluates the high concentration of women, especially Black women, the resulting wage penalties, social closure theory, temporal flexibility, and positive externalities as possible explanations for this problem. Potential solutions like raising the minimum wage and subsidizing education for care workers are also addressed.

Gendered Stem Beliefs And Major Choice, Nicole T. Cesanek, Benjamin J. Durham

Student Publications

Beliefs and expectations about who can and should pursue STEM careers contribute to a student’s sense of STEM identity and may help to explain the gender gap in pursuing STEM in higher education. The formation of these beliefs is a long and complex process, starting very early on in an individual’s life. We analyze how gendered STEM beliefs of students, parents, and teachers in ninth grade affect a female student’s probability of majoring in STEM in college. We add to an analysis done by Sansone (2019) in an appendix of his paper by using actual majors instead of intended majors. …

Botticelli's Marvelous Mystery: Idealized Portrait Of A Lady, Alessia M. Buoso

CAFE Symposium 2023

A detailed visual analysis of Sandro Botticelli's "Idealized Portrait of a Lady" that incorporates gender roles in Renaissance Florence and discusses Botticelli's hidden messages and common themes within his works.

Magical Girls: Queer Identity In Japan, Keira Mcdevitt

CAFE Symposium 2023

Queer themes have long been interlaced with feminist ideals and "magical girls" within Japanese anime culture. The subject is explored within two iconic magical girl anime, "Madoka Magica" and "Revolutionary Girl Utena", as well as the history of queerness in Japan and its relevancy to modern ongoing franchises.

The Affordable Care Act And Women’S Self-Employment In The United States, Margaret Blume-Kohout

Economics Faculty Publications

The United States’ Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 improved and expanded availability of non-group health insurance. Previous studies have shown that women in the US workforce value health insurance more highly than men do. Because prior to the ACA self-employed individuals did not have guaranteed access to affordable health insurance coverage, women’s relatively lower rate of self-employment may partly have reflected their greater “job lock” due to employer-based health insurance. This article employs nationally representative survey data for 2009–18 and a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference modeling approach and finds that unmarried women’s probability of self-employment increased by 1.2 percentage points in …

The Asian Five Dragons: What’S The Relationship Of Confucianism And Gender Inequality?, Danny S. Craddock

Student Publications

Confucianism is not only a historically important belief system, but it also continues to be rooted in many societies today, particularly in East and Southeast Asia. The growing influence of some of these Confucian-ingrained societies on the international stage justifies expanding the limited literature present on Confucianism and its societal implications. Using a conceptualization of heavily influenced Confucian societies previously set out by earlier research, this paper evaluates the validity of the common age-old assumption that Confucianism is correlated with greater gender inequality, as determined by the World 2016 dataset. Specifically, research suggests that the opposite correlation might just as …

Co-Education And Collaboration: Women At Gettysburg From 1945-1955, Olivia N. Taylor, Mckenna C. White

Student Publications

Women studying at Gettysburg College in the years following World War II (from 1945 to 1955) were given many freedoms and opportunities not previously experienced by female students of the college. The inclusion of sororities and co-educational social clubs open to both men and women expanded the social lives of female students at Gettysburg. Meanwhile, the dormitory environment and intramural sports teams helped women at Gettysburg create a sense of community through healthy competition. With all of these new social, academic, and extracurricular opportunities, there were still setbacks for women. Rules dictated how a woman could dress in certain settings …

The Relationship Between Women In Parliament And Globalization, Lilian A. Morrell

Student Publications

I examine the relationship between women in national parliaments and globalization. Existing scholarship has thoroughly examined how globalization affects women’s representation but there is a distinct lack of research examining the obverse relationship. I seek to examine whether the saturation of women in the legislature has a significant impact on the level of globalization within a given nation and, more specifically, whether a curvilinear relationship exists between these two variables. I hypothesize that there exists a significant relationship of a concave nature, with parliaments that have no or a small percentage of women exhibiting low levels of globalization and globalization …

The Effects Of Social Globalization On Access To Abortion, Dallas M. Hardee

Student Publications

What effect does social globalization have on access to legal abortion? I contend that social globalization positively influences access to legal abortion. This is because mechanisms of social globalization such as gender parity, internet access, freedom of the press, and civil liberties all have a significant effect on access to abortion. Therefore, as countries become more socially globalized, access to legal abortion will increase. Using cross-national time-series data for the period 1997-2011, I test the relationship between social globalization and access to legal abortion. I find support for the hypothesized relationship. In light of the state of abortion rights around …

Complacency And Conformity: The Female Experience At Gettysburg College, 1956-1966, Greer Garver, Emily B. Suter

Student Publications

Women at Gettysburg College from 1956-66 received unequal treatment at a predominantly male school. Despite the 1960s being seen as a time of radical change, the majority of women on campus were content with the rules and social norms which held them in place. Changes and complaints were not widespread or outspoken, but they did exist in organizations such as the Women’s Student Government Association. Examinations of campus policies, dress codes, and dorm regulations illustrate the different standards men and women were held to on campus. Meanwhile Greek life, beauty contests, athletics and first hand accounts of social life reveal …

Lenses, Focus, And Fluidity: Lessons From Medieval Queer History, Reese Hollister

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The Medieval era is sometimes overlooked within the field of Queer and Transgender History, but a recent shift in focus has revealed new discoveries and interpretations. This historiographical analysis posits that in the Middle Ages, gender and sexuality were much more fluid than previously believed.

Frankenstein’S Creature: Monstrous Chicken Or Grotesque Egg?, Alexandria B. Acero

Gettysburg College Headquarters

Some scholars believe that due to the negligence of Victor in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the creature became an attention-craving murderous monster. Other scholars believe that the unaffectionate and unnatural way Victor birthed the creature caused his monstrous form. The argument over “Nature versus Nurture” in relation to the creations is irrelevant, however. The creature is only pushed away by Victor due to his hideousness which stems from the environment in which the creature was born. Victor’s societal view on nature and its connection to womanly attributes creates a paradox of a loveless creation and an affection-craving creature within the novel.

Sexual Violence As A Tool Of Indigenous Genocide, Katherine E. Elser

Student Publications

Throughout American history, sexual violence against Native Americans has been an all-too common phenomenon. This ranges from outright rape to less obvious examples, including the desecration of native bodies and the separation of native children from their parents, such as at the boarding schools. Analyzing "Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide" by Andrea Smith, along with a variety of other sources, this article argues that sexual violence against native peoples reinforces the colonial idea that they are subhuman and "rapable." Additionally, I also argue that this violence is used to subjugate not just native women, but all women, particularly …

Lucretia's Hand: The Influence Of Myth And Sexual Violence On Artemisia Gentileschi's Lucretia, Sarah Paul

Student Publications

Artemisia Gentileschi, a female Baroque Artist from the 17th century, was an exceptional artist who dealt with difficult themes and female subjects. While there has been a plethora of analysis of her Judith series, there has been less focus on her Lucretia. I look at Artemisia Gentileschi's "Lucretia" (c. 1621), through the various narratives of Lucretia and the history of sexual violence to analyze the strength and female agency that is emphasized. I argue that the strength and musculature in the hands of Lucretia emphasize her female agency and autonomy to make a choice following her sexual assault. I highlight …

Hidden Secrets And Private Moments In Vermeer’S Paintings Of Women And Letters, Lauren C. Mcveigh

Student Publications

This paper discusses the visual details and symbols in Johannes Vermeer's paintings of women and letters that allude to secret affairs going on behind the scenes.

Integrating Objectification And Social Role Theories: A Proposed Framework For Analyzing Media Objectification Of Female Athletes, Isabella Clemens

Student Publications

Despite the tremendous strides that women have taken in terms of their participation in sports the representation they receive from the media is still lacking. In addition, when they do receive media attention research has found that female professional athletes are more likely to be seen and focused on their appearance rather than their success and capabilities. This is a trend that has been persistent in the sports world. This paper will provide a review of the research by looking at two theories, the objectivation theory, and the social role theory. These theories have helped explain the inequalities that women …