Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

A Civil Society: The Public Space Of Freemason Women In France, 1744–1944, James Smith Allen

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

A Civil Society explores the struggle to initiate women as full participants in the masonic brotherhood that shared in the rise of France’s civil society and its “civic morality” on behalf of women’s rights. As a vital component of the third sector during France’s modernization, freemasonry empowered women in complex social networks, contributing to a more liberal republic, a more open society, and a more engaged public culture.

James Smith Allen shows that although women initially met with stiff resistance, their induction into the brotherhood was a significant step in the development of French civil society, including the promotion of …

The Pandemic Penalty: The Gendered Effects Of Covid-19 On Scientific Productivity, Molly M. King, Megan E. Frederickson

Sociology

Academia serves as a valuable case for studying the effects of social forces on workplace productivity, using a concrete measure of output: scholarly papers. Many academics, especially women, have experienced unprecedented challenges to scholarly productivity during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The authors analyze the gender composition of more than 450,000 authorships in the arXiv and bioRxiv scholarly preprint repositories from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis reveals that the underrepresentation of women scientists in the last authorship position necessary for retention and promotion in the sciences is growing more inequitable. The authors find differences between the …

"Everyone's Always Going Through Something, Aren't They?": J.D. Salinger, Sally Rooney, And The Desire To Connect In The Face Of Distress, Emily O'Malley

Honors Program Theses

Literature is often centered around the human desire for connection and the struggle to understand one another. This tension is heightened in novels centering adolescents and young adults, who are often insecure in their own identities. J.D. Salinger's fiction is a hallmark of this thematic exploration, yet he fails to interrogate dimensions of gender and class in a meaningful way. Sally Rooney's contemporary work subverts Salinger's within plot structure, distanced communication as a device, and self-synecdoche of distress, as well as her open engagement with class and gender. She demonstrates the power of reckoning with one's own identity, revealing how …

"Our Women Are Made Of The Right Stuff": Gender, Politics, And Conflict In Civil War West Virginia, Amanda Romain Shaver

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

“’Our Women Are Made of the Right Stuff:’ Gender, Politics, and Conflict in Civil War West Virginia” examines the lives and contributions of white West Virginia women and argues that they were not merely victims of the war, but dynamic participants whose opinions were influential and whose actions determined the ability of both the Union and Confederate armies to wage war in Appalachia. Striking a balance between the antebellum standards of “True Womanhood” and the emerging ideals of the women’s rights movement, West Virginia women became politically engaged in both the statehood movement and the Civil War. They transformed their …

A Devised Ethnodrama: Conscious Voices, Sonia Pasqual

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Using techniques of storytelling, dance, poems, and monologues in the process of re-enacting life stories, the ensemble display issues that may be impeding society’s growth—discrimination against body image, blackness, females, and LGBTQ individuals. In addition, engagement in storytelling and performance can help the audience increase their cognitive skills, empathy, and ability to live a communal life. This evidence-based practice can transform lives and society. It has the potential of continuing to other faculties and with other departments, such as film, musical, and additional narratives. This specific work could be extended out beyond art and education into populations of any communities …

Historical References And Literary Allusions In Ahab’S Wife, Joanne E. Gates

Presentations, Proceedings & Performances

In Sena Jeter Naslund’s 1999 novel Ahab’s Wife, books and their details of remembered passages are embedded in consciousness, especially in times of crisis. Ahab’s Wife is at once a sure-fire page-turner worthy of status as book club selection as well as a deeper text, overtly paying homage to Melville’s dense narrative. Moreover, this novel invites at least one re-reading and becomes more appealing with further study. The richly allusive text is powerful not simply for its grand scope of female adventure--one that the New York Times asserted was overdone optimism--but for its layered and interwoven references to works …

Et Cetera, 2019-2021, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Exploring Potential Determinants Of Sexual Victimization Disparities Among Young Sexual Minoritized People: A Mixed-Method Study, Corey E. Flanders, Nicole Vankim, Raeann E. Anderson, Lesley A. Tarasoff

Psychology Faculty Publications

Young sexual minoritized people report elevated rates of sexual violence in comparison with their heterosexual peers. This health disparity is largest among lesbian and bisexual people, and in particular bisexual women. We know little about what drives this health disparity, which is critically necessary information for developing effective sexual violence interventions. Recently, sexual stigma has been identified as an important factor related to sexual victimization among sexual minoritized people. The current article details a concurrent mixed-method study investigating what factors contribute to young lesbian and bisexual people’s vulnerability for experiencing sexual violence, and in particular the similarities and differences between …

Mobilization Of Women In Africa: The 2019 Sudanese Uprising, Mahder Habtemariam Serekberhan

African American Studies - All Scholarship

In 2019 we witnessed the possibilities of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-gendered democracy and a bottom-up democratization process led by women. Sudanese youth and women led and participated in mobilization and demonstration that not only reflected the mass character of the social formation, but also managed to subvert the Islamist military dependent capitalist state (and its apparatus). Over the span of 30 years, the regime, under Omar al-Bashir, managed to entrench and escalate structures and systems of exploitation and oppression necessary for capital accumulation. The intensified neoliberalization and militarization, at the expense of women’s super-exploitation, was made possible …

Cares, Labors, And Dangers: A Queer Game Informed By Research, Amy Schwinge

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Queerness as a quality has a permanent fluidity. Videogames as a medium are continually evolving and advancing. Thus, queer games have a vast potential as an art form and research subject. While there is already a wealth of knowledge surrounding queer games my contribution takes the form of both research paper and creative endeavor. I created a game by interpreting the queer elements present in games research. My game reflects the trends and qualities present in contemporary queer games, such as critiques on empathy and alternative game-making programs. This paper details what research inspired elements of my game as well …

Sexual Orientation And The Disclosure Of Unwanted Sexual Experiences, Rebekah Kanefsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, and other non-heterosexual orientations (LGBQ+) are significantly more likely to experience a sexual assault. To date, research on barriers to sexual assault disclosure (i.e., telling someone about a sexual assault) has been conducted almost exclusively on heterosexual women. Participants ages 18 to 30 participated in a cross-sectional, online study that assessed unwanted sexual experiences, disclosure of those experiences, perceptions of the police and perceptions of belonging to the LGBQ+ community. Findings demonstrated that survivors who identified as LGBQ+ took longer to initially disclose their sexual assault and had greater negative perceptions of …

Assisted Living Transitions: Experiences Of Family Members Of Older African American Women, Carol A. Shaw Burns

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractLong-term care, also known as aging services, is evolving to meet the needs of the aging population in the United States, which is increasingly ethnically and racially diverse. The objective of this qualitative multiple case study was to understand how immediate family members experienced the transition of older African American women as they moved into assisted living facilities. Black feminist theory provided a theoretical framework. Narrative interview data were collected from four adult children family caregivers who facilitated the move. Three themes emerged from the content analysis: (a) Transition is not planned in advance and does not happen until a …

Gender Equality And Equity Narratives Amongst Women In Nongovernmental Organizations, Barbara Etta Austin-Lucas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gender equality and equity narratives of women members of registered nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been largely unexamined relative to their lived experiences in healthcare, education, socioeconomic status, and political participation. The purpose of this study was to explore the narratives of women members of registered NGOs located in the Northeastern United States. The gender equality and equity narratives of women in registered NGOs related to their experiences with healthcare, education, socioeconomic status, and political participation were explored. For this qualitative narrative research, the conceptual framework was the narrative policy framework theory, which explores how narratives influence public opinion, policy dialogue, …

Pushing Against Patriarchy: Indonesian Muslim Women Using Islam As A Form Of Resistance, Ariana Siddiqui-Dennis

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

Seldom has Islam been understood in mainstream discourse as a means of achieving gender equality and resisting patriarchal powers. However, Indonesian Muslim women organizers did just that. This project analyzes how patriarchal culture, colonialism, the state, and religious powers have shaped current gender norms regarding women in the public and private sphere since the twentieth century. Centering how Javanese Muslim women have used Islam to resist patriarchal authorities, I analyze sociological, historical, and gender and sexuality studies. This project challenges conservative interpretations of Islam used within Muslim communities to limit women’s rights, and challenges Islamophobic misconceptions that frame the religion …

Night Of Awakening: Strength And Empowerment In The Young Adult Fiction Genre, Shelby Ann Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Young Adult Fantasy genre is often written off as a useless, or immature form of writing. However, there are studies that prove that this specific genre is not only engaging, but it is also empowering for young readers. By writing toward adolescent readers, authors are able to promote various ways in which their characters adjust or interact with their surroundings, which also influences their readers’ self and social awareness. By representing feminist perspectives and depicting the effects of trauma, YA literature fosters progressive social change and conveys the importance of mental health. In writing my own novel, The Night …

Making The Violin Fashionable: Gender And Virtuosity In The Life Of Camilla Urso, Maeve Nagel-Frazel, Petra Meyer Frazier, Antonia Banducci

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

In the late nineteenth century, the violinist Camilla Urso (1840-1902) was widely recognized as the preeminent female violinist in the United States. As a nationally famous celebrity, Urso became a pedagogue and role model to subsequent generations of female violinists. Both the wide-ranging geographic spread of Urso’s career and her direct advocacy for women violinists played a pivotal role in changing cultural ideals of violin performance from a militant and masculine bravura tradition into a fashionable pursuit for young women. A classmate of HenrykWieniawski (1835-1880) and a concert rival of the Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull (1810-1880), Urso’s career rested on …

A Tale Of Two Trans Men: Transmasculine Identity And Trauma In Two Fairy-Tale Retellings, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Transgender identities in fairy tale retellings are rare, but can reveal much about gender fluidity. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel Boy, Snow, Bird conflates transgender identities with mirrored falsehoods and fairytale spells, pathologizing a trauma victim who turns out to also become an abuser, while Gabriel Vidrine’s novella “A Pair of Raven Wings” depicts a queer transgender man with dignity, making it clear that the trauma he suffers is at the hands of bigots rather than being an invention of a sick mind or the cause of his transition. Pairing these fairy-tale retellings illuminates the topic of gender fluidity in fairy tales …

Building The Fat Girl Table: Excavating Cultural Memory Of Queer Fat Activism In The ‘90s, Rose Gelfand

Scripps Senior Theses

When we recount the histories of social movements, there is a tendency to imagine either a steady, linear march towards progress or a slow descent from radical ideas into complacency. The feminist movement gets painted in waves, progressing from white to intersectional, while in the LGBTQ+ rights movement the contrast of the Stonewall Riots & ACT UP with late 2010s focus on gay marriage and the corporatization of Pride is understood as a watering down and betrayal of the movement’s origins. Cultural memory is a constant process of construction and revision, and of course the truth of movements’ trajectories are …

Mothers Behind Cameras: Mother-Artist, Mother-Child Dyads In Sally Mann’S Immediate Family And Elinor Carucci’S Mother, Hayley A. Pierpont

Scripps Senior Theses

Women, particularly mothers, are often made invisible within narratives of their own family and domestic spaces, despite their role as creators and maintainers of those spaces. This perpetuation of invisibility is threaded throughout the history of artistic practices, (photography especially). Contemporary mother-artists Sally Mann and Elinor Carucci confront and unapologetically reflect their singular experience(s) with motherhood through their photography, which addresses the symbiotic dyads of mother-child and mother-artist. This thesis focuses on an analysis of four images: Mann’s The Wet Bed and Lee’s Dirty Hands, and Carucci’s Trying to Protect Emanuelle and I Will Protect You. In both …

The Intersection Between Black Hair And The Environment: Hair As A Site For Environmental Justice And Sustainability, Dafina Matiku

Scripps Senior Theses

Currently, we are facing several global crises that include but are not limited to climate change, food insecurity, pollution of the body and environment, as well as racial, gender, and class inequities. This thesis seeks to understand how the natural hair movement, which strives to omit toxic chemicals while embracing textured hair, can be a tool of reconnecting to nature. As humans we are intrinsically part of ecosystems and nature, we must find our niche in it instead of occupying and destroying our environment entirely. The methodology includes compiling a small array of experiences that show the nuance of hair …

Andrea Revised: Andrea Dworkin: The Feminist As Revolutionary By Martin Duberman, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Forgotten In Local Jails: A Carceral System Created To Fail Women., Hayley Jackey

Online Theses and Dissertations

The United States has seen an influx of incarcerated women since the 1980s with a 750% increase between 1980 and 2017. There is a substantial amount of literature about how women experience prison and the unique challenges they face as they reenter society such as motherhood, previous abuse, mental health, and housing. Conclusions drawn suggest that the current structure fails to prepare women for a society that denounces women who have been incarcerated. What is less known is how this research translates to the jail environment. For reasons to be discussed, it is likely that local jails are even less …

Career And Mentorship Experiences Of Women Educational Administrators In Rural Community Colleges, Diane Ashley Gibson

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the topic of current women administrators and their mentorship experiences. The purpose is to examine if these individuals had a mentor at all and how that relationship evolved. There is a universal graying of administration in Higher Education Leadership and many institutions lack a long-term plan to mentor and replace the administrators after retirement. Many of the current leaders in rural education are approaching retirement opening many opportunities for new leaders to come in. Not only that, but there is a large disparity in the number of women educational leaders. One study by Wallace & Marchant (2009) …

Are We Doing Enough?: A Look At Current Issues Affecting Lgbtq Students At The University Of Kentucky, Colton Barton

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

This paper takes a look at the culture surrounding the LGBTQ community at the University of Kentucky and the university’s efforts to make the campus more safe and inclusive for LGBTQ students. The resources offered by the Office of LGBTQ* Resources are analyzed as well as the current infrastructure in place to determine whether or not the University of Kentucky is doing enough. Various solutions are provided including the addition of a course in the UK Core, the inclusion of an event centered on diversity during freshman orientations, and the construction of gender-neutral bathrooms for transgender and gender-nonconforming students. Interviews …

The Lineage Of Abby Benson (1801/02 - 1866), Of Sharon, Litchfield County, Connecticut, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Among the individuals I researched in compiling my “Charles H. Smith: A Direct- Line Ancestry, Since Colonial Times” (published online in 2020) was one Abby (aka Abi, Aby, Abbey, Abigail) Benson, of Sharon and Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut. Abby, who married Chester Fowler (1800-1878) about 1823 (based on the date of birth of their first child William in 1824), is one of my third great-grandmothers. As of 2020 I was unable to identify Abby’s parents, though she has always been listed as a Benson. There were other Bensons in the immediate area, though historically the family had roots extending back …

Soar: A Holistic Approach To Supporting Survivors, Sabrina Glass

West Chester University Master’s Theses

In this thesis, I address the systemic issue of sexual violence and rape culture that affect students on college campuses at an alarming rate. By utilizing critical action research, I propose the creation of the Department of Survivor Outreach and Response (SOAR), a holistic and collaborative department that focuses on supporting and advocating for survivors of sexual violence while also conducting prevention and education initiatives. I emphasize the importance of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality (1993), encourage the use of the Social Change Model of Leadership (Astin & Astin, 1996), and empathy within leadership. SOAR is designed to ensure sexual …

Who Contrives The Moment? On Cyberfeminist Dating, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

Really Fake takes up story, poetry, and other human logics of care, intelligence, and dignity to explore sociotechnological and politico-aesthetic emergences in a world where information overload has become a new ontology of not-knowing.

Risk Factors For Workplace Sexual Harassment In Female Truck Drivers, Kimberly Marie Riddle

Theses and Dissertations--Nursing

Sexual harassment is one of the most common forms of workplace violence in the United States. Sexual harassment is defined as unwanted verbal and physical behaviors of a sexual nature (e.g., physical advances, requests for sexual favors, inappropriate sexist or sexual comments or jokes, pornography, or other unwanted conduct) that creates an uncomfortable working environment or interferes with the employee’s job responsibilities. In general, it is estimated that nearly one in every two women have experienced sexual harassment at the workplace over their lifetime. In male-dominated occupations, such as truck driving, law enforcement, firefighting, and construction, females may have a …

Mothering Through Our Pain: Single Black Mothers’ Narratives, Yolanda E. Surrency

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Black women’s voices and historical contributions have been dismissed, and even excluded, making it difficult for their cultural knowledge to be transmitted to future generations. Black women battle with an unsettled consciousness from subscribing to the normalization of what dominant culture defines as good mothering. This study uses Black feminism to examine single Black mothers who navigate the negative images of the welfare queen and the matriarch. This narrative study uses Black feminism to examine the stories of single, Black mothers and their daughters. The purpose is to investigate Black mothers’ lived experiences to understand their struggles and resistance. Purposeful …

Perspectives On Consciousness-Raising: A Modernist Intersectional Feminist Agenda, Ariana Cacoulidis

MA Theses

My thesis objective is to extend women's understanding of the impalpable second-wave feminist term, "consciousness-raising," and its applications through curating a fictitious exhibition. My fabricated exhibition "Great Women Artists: Consciousness-Raising among Intersectional Feminists" will juxtapose the works of iconic feminist artists who practiced consciousness-raising with emerging and iconic female artists to advocate consciousnessraising's applicability for practicing women artists. Curating "Great Women Artists" will support the idea of raising a female class consciousness via mass consciousness-raising. I will utilize the voices of iconic second-wave feminists, such as Kathie Sarachild, who have discussed consciousness-raising’s impacts and supported the founding female class consciousness …