Women's Studies Commons^™

Baby Fat -- A Legacy, Brandi M. Gard

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of A Woman's Work: Refugees, Statelessness, Nationality, And The Women's International League For Peace And Freedom, 1918-1931, Monica Burney

Masters Theses

This work analyzes how the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) sought to influence how the League of Nations approached questions of nationality and statelessness between 1918 and 1931. Especially important were the WILPF's efforts to aid women and children who remained in Turkey following the Armenian genocide, as well as the organization's efforts to address the statelessness crisis that arose following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Their activism helped to pressure the League of Nations into creating the Commission of Enquiry on Deported Women and Children in Turkey and Asia Minor. Their efforts to end statelessness culminated in …

A Photo Illicit Study Of Black Women's Sense Of Belonging At A Predominately White Institution, Kayla Alexandria Slusher

Masters Theses

This qualitative study sought to examine how Black women define and create their sense of belonging while attending a predominately White institution using a photovoice approach. The women took photographs of spaces that they frequently occupy and then engaged in a face-to-face interview to discuss the photographs. The researcher also investigated four Black women, ranging from junior to graduate level, to identify how they developed a sense of belonging at the research site institution. Results of the study showed that a feeling of comfort was most important when identifying belongingness in a space. The participants were able to create a …

Women Autonomy In Household Decisionmaking In Nigeria: Analysis Of 2013 Demographic And Health Survey Data, Temiyemi Akinsuyi

Masters Theses

Wealth generated in a household unit is very instrumental to the economy at large through involvement in economic activities. A modest step to improving women's voices and participation in the society is to allow them a full range of choices. Consequences of limiting the rights of women is detrimental to households, communities and the economy at large. The specific objective of this study is to examine the association between women's autonomy and household decision making. I do this by analyzing the data from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. The methodology employed in investigating this relationship is the Ordered …

Girls In Graphic Novels: A Content Analysis Of Selected Texts From Yalsa's 2016 Great Graphic Novels For Teens List, Tiffany Mumm

Masters Theses

This study examined the portrayal of female characters in selected texts from the Young Adult Library Association's 2016 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list. Appearances, conversations, and behaviors of preteen and teenage female primary characters were coded. Results indicate that progress is being made in the portrayal of female characters in graphic novels. Diversity in appearances, relatable conversations, and a break from stereotypical behaviors have led to more complex characters that provide readers with better role models. While some stereotypical conventions remain, the progress indicates a positive change for all readers.

Defining Afghan Women Characters As Modern Archetypes Using Khaled Hosseini’S A Thousand Splendid Suns And Asne Seierstad’S The Bookseller Of Kabul, Alexandra Andrews

Masters Theses

Middle-Eastern women, specifically Afghan women, are often misunderstood. Yet, authors Khaled Hosseini and Asne Seierstad use the method of storytelling to show that Afghan female characters are not completely subjugated, voiceless, and powerless—despite how they are often depicted in media. Instead, in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul, Afghan female characters are represented as assertive, risk takers, and heroic. By applying Joseph Campbell’s theory regarding the archetypal heroine to the lives of Mariam and Laila from A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Sharifa and Leila from The Bookseller of Kabul, it is clear that these Afghan …

Female Anti-Heroes In Contemporary Literature, Film, And Television, Sara A. Amato

Masters Theses

The anti-hero character has steadily become more popular in contemporary literature, film, and television. Part of this popularity is due to the character's appeal to the audience. This character type often commits acts that challenge the regulations of society. These acts, however, can become wish fulfillment for some audience members, making the acts of the character a vicarious experience as well as making the character more relatable because of the character's flawed nature.

This study will trace some of the evolution of the female anti-hero by discussing an ancestral character of the female anti-hero—Hester Prynne the protagonist of Nathanial Hawthorne's …

"Fine Dignity, Picturesque Beauty, And Serious Purpose": The Reorientation Of Suffrage Media In The Twentieth Century, Emily Scarbrough

Masters Theses

Throughout the first half century of the woman's suffrage movement, the women of the movement were depicted as dastardly, masculine women who usurped the family structure with their penchant for politics. In the twentieth century, a new generation of woman's suffragists took command of their appearance in the media. Instead of controversial figures, woman's suffragists were envisioned as normal, beautiful women and mothers. Through the use of mass media, woman suffragists restructured their campaign to convince the general public that society needed women to clean up politics. In doing so, suffragists sacrificed their goals of sexual equality in favor of …

Same-Sex Peer Influence On Female Undergraduate Body Image Perception, Caitlyn Buchanan

Masters Theses

Regardless of age, race, or socioeconomic class, women throughout western cultures are well documented for having body image related insecurities. These insecurities can be the result of pressure to look and behave a certain way from a variety of sources including media and peers. This study explored the role that same-sex peers play in undergraduate women's perception of body image. Four undergraduate women at a public, Midwestern university who lived within campus housing were interviewed. Results of the study showed that same-sex peers did not play a significant role in the women's perception of body image. The results of this …

Informal Institutions And Women’S Rights In Afghanistan, Mariam Amiri

Masters Theses

In political science a lot of attention is given to institutions and their role in shaping behaviors in a polity and society. In this thesis I examine the conflict between formal and informal institutions. I believe in many societies informal institutions play a major role in shaping political behavior. In Afghanistan these informal institutions can easily undermine formal institutions. Many of the studies that are conducted about informal institutions in Afghanistan have prized them for being capable of dealing with different problems. However, it is also important to find out whether the way they deal with different problems and solve …

Sexual And Political Affairs: Representation Of Women In American News Media, Melissa Beal

Masters Theses

Explores representations in American news media of women who have been involved sexually with male politicians and women who are politicians through a critical rhetorical lens. Through the use of poststructural feminism, the term "mistress" is problematized. Attention is given to the news media's focus on women's bodies as sites of dangerous sexual temptations as well as the media's constant attention to women's physical features, which reduces women to objects. It is shown that similar coverage regarding bodies is not given to men. Also discusses the news media's frequent interrogation of women's minds. Explores aspects of confession and apology through …

Performative Gender And Pop Fiction Females: "Emancipating" Byronic Heroines Through A Feminist Education, Joy Smith

Masters Theses

"I can be a regular bitch. Just try me." With this phrase emblazoned across her t-shirt, Lisbeth Salander, pierced, tattooed, and bedecked in leather, waltzes from the pages of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This woman who subverts authority, maliciously tattoos and sodomizes a man, and intentionally distances herself from close relationships of any kind has somehow managed to capture both the attention and admiration of the American audience. This disheartening phenomenon stems from a renewed interest in the Byronic heroine, a female possessing those traits traditionally assigned to Byronic heroes and men, and the rise of …

A Discursive Analysis Of A Pregnancy Center: How Pregnant Women Are Encouraged To Develop A Sense Of Self-Worth And Emotional Wellbeing Through The Use Of Rhetoric And Imagery, Jessica Postma

Masters Theses

This study presents and alternative approach to how pregnancy is interpreted in western society and how settings such as a pregnancy center both challenges and reinforces these social standards. The promotion of abstinence, the aversion to abortion, notions of truth and morality, religious narratives, and the standard of care are all integral components to this analysis of pregnancy, language, and culture.

Women As Victims In Tennessee Williams' First Three Major Plays, Ruth Foley

Masters Theses

Although Tennessee Williams does not openly champion the rights of women in his plays, he presents strong cases against their social alienation in a harsh and brutal world governed by men. Williams' emotional leanings, sensitivity, and intuition enable him to see life through women's eyes. In The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Summer and Smoke, Williams astutely sounds the battle cry for women to fight against male oppression. He shows how Amanda Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, Blanche Dubois, Stella Kowalski, and Alma Winemiller are held hostage to the rules governing patriarchal society and become unhappy marginalized victims. The self-contained …

Conforming To Conventions In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Pride And Prejudice, And Emma, Veronica Olson

Masters Theses

A major part of Jane Austen's novels consists of a critique of the societal conventions that were prevalent in Regency England. Through a study of Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, it can be seen that Austen marginalizes those characters who chose conformity to social conventions. Contrariwise, the characters who exhibit a greater degree of autonomy within their patriarchal culture become the focus of the narrative. In looking at societal conventions concerning money, gender roles, and class status in conjunction with Austen's portrayal of various characters in the three novels, Austen's own views about conformity to societal conventions are …

"His Head Rolled Forth Onto The Floor:" Women, The Abject, And The Male Gaze In Old English Poetry, Jaime Michelle Myers

Masters Theses

Old English poetry features several female characters who challenge androcentric authority by violently killing men. I argue in this thesis that three of these women—Modthryth, Grendel’s mother, and Judith—are linked together by their rejection or reversal of the male gaze. In their forceful refusal to be visually objectified, each character is portrayed as abject—outside of normal and outcast from community. They cause disorder, illustrate the fragility of androcentric control, and force a confrontation with death. In so doing, they create ambiguity and, at times, reverse the subject/object and masculine/feminine gender binaries.

I'M The Same Me: Communication And Renegotiation Of Identity In The Weight-Loss Surgery Experiences Of Women, Heather D. Schild

Masters Theses

Adult obesity rates are on the rise in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control (2009) which has led to an increase in obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Weight-loss surgery (WLS) has become accepted as a "cure" for obesity by the medical community. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of obese individuals electing to undergo WLS every year; 82% of these individuals are women (AHRQ, 2007). More women may be electing to undergo these procedures than men due to the pressures women face in American culture to achieve social standards of …

Gender And The Boundaries Of National Identity: U.S. Women As A Citizen Class In The Long 1960s, Sara Bijani

Masters Theses

This text analyzes the public ideologies and institutions that underpinned women's unequal status within the national collective of United States citizens during the long 1960s, paying particular attention to the executive office of Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the national security establishment. Women were frequently framed within these institutions as a separate special class of citizen, with rights and responsibilities not akin to those of the elite—male bodied—members of the national collective. Allowing for the imaginative construction of "women" as a subject class in U.S. society, this text argues that even with the guarantee of formal political rights in place, women …

Hoodie Today, Gown Tomorrow: An Ideological Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender-Neutral Clothing, Meridith Irene Styer

Masters Theses

The fields of psychology and sociology have long understood the importance of clothing in self-formation, this study extrapolates this social-science understanding into the realm of rhetorical analysis. This study looks at gender-neutral clothing and its role in meaning making and self identification for women. With a rhetorical basis from Richards and Ogden, this research uses the feminist works of Brummett and Butler to uncover both the positive and negatives effects of gender-neutral clothing on a woman's self-identification and perceptions. Through the presentation of a diffuse narrative and evaluation of the same, gender-neutral clothing is read and decoded for meaning. This …

Changes In Female Athletes' Physical Self-Esteem Across A Competitive Cycle And As A Function Of Athletic Identity, Michelle C. Reed

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine if female athletes' physical self-perceptions are different when comparing their Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP) scores within their competitive season with their scores during the off-season. The second purpose was to determine if physical self-perception varied as a function of their athletic identity. A secondary objective was to evaluate female athletes' physical self-esteem in an individual sport setting compared to a team sport setting. Eastern Illinois University female collegiate athletes in six different sports, track (n=15), softball (n=16), soccer (n=11), tennis (n=3), volleyball (n=5), and rugby (n=19) were given the Athletic Identity Measurement …

John Irving, Female Sexuality, And The Victorian Feminine Ideal, Tara Coburn

Masters Theses

In an interview about The Cider House Rules, John Irving states, "It is never the social or political message that interests me in a novel" (qtd. in Herel, para. 18). However, in book reviews, jacket blurbs, literary criticism, and Irving's own writing, readers and critics and Irving often assert that he is a neo-Victorian novelist, and the Victorians were a notoriously political bunch. Though Irving does not admit to the political nature of his writing, the way he treats feminist politics in his fiction has drawn particular notice by the media, who often label him as a feminist writer. …

Journey To The Frontiers Of Perception: How Women Wrote About The Westward Movement During The Nineteenth Century In Relation To Land, Animals, And The Domestic Sphere, Brandi Dale Spelbring

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

African-American Life Writing: Harriet Jacobs And Bell Hooks, Luo Yi

Masters Theses

Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and bell hooks' Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood share a common concern with emancipation and employ complementary rhetorical strategies. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl presents Harriet Jacobs' journey of personal self-discovery through various relationships with others, and her personal narrative finally serves the larger goal of emancipation for her people. Jacobs' narrative is full of other voices, or personae. Even the narrator, Linda Brent, is pseudonymous, or "other," in this sense. Jacobs invokes these personae in her autobiography; she explores her experiences as a web of …

Social Support Among Women In Families: A Descriptive Study Of Support In Intergenerational Relationships, Gina L. Bauswell

Masters Theses

This study examines the effects of social support in intergenerational relationships among women in families. The research examines ethnography as a study, some of the benefits of research done in intergenerational communication, changes in this communication over the time span of the intergenerational relationships, the transmission of this communication, social support, the positive effects of the phenomenon of this type of communication for all those participating in this dynamic process, and the heuristic value of this research. The participants were forty women in my extended family, and this study is based upon their answers to a questionnaire and focus group …

The Female Sport Experience: History, Development, And Psychological Implications, Dawn A. Whittington

Masters Theses

This paper reviews the literature related to women in athletics with a focus on the psychological perspective. The paper is divided into three major parts.

Chapter I traces the historical antecedents with specific emphasis on the development of sports psychology and women's gradual integration into amateur and professional athletics. Chapter II reviews literature devoted to the psychosocial issues related to the female athlete. These issues include personality traits and patterns, psychosocial problems associated with women entering and maintaining status in athletics, stereotypes, homophobia, socialization issues and the incidence and etiology of eating disorders among female athletes. Chapter III addresses the …

The Influence Of Higher Education And The Perceived Effects On Women And Their Interpersonal Relationships With Significant Others, Tracy L. Conn

Masters Theses

This study of professional women holding advanced degrees examined the influence of doctoral education and the perceived effects on women and their interpersonal relationships with significant others. It was found that half of the women believed that their level of education affected their relationship status. Though there were a group of women who reported that their level of education limited them in their interpersonal relationships, the majority of the women reported being in gratifying relationships with supportive significant others. Therefore, it is not surprising that the majority of the women reported that their significant other was one of the greatest …

A New Sense Of Time In Female Development: Linearity And Cyclicity In Atwood's Surfacing And Cat's Eye, Diana L. Unes

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Aggressive Dating Behavior Among College Students, Felicia D. Flowers

Masters Theses

Past studies have revealed that people with traditional gender role views are often involved in dating violence. This study examines both male and female athletes and non-athletes in terms of traditional gender role views and dating violence. Athletes and non-athletes are an important focus because literature is virtually silent on these two populations in terms of dating violence. The researcher surveyed 188 undergraduate students attending Western Michigan University on their attitudes and experiences concerning gender role views, athletic involvement, and history of dating violence, respectively. The results indicate that gender role views and athletic participation appeared to have no significant …

Dr. Professor Mommy: Working Mothers' Gender Role Self Images In The University Community, Dawn Renee Krywanio

Masters Theses

A common misperception exists that working mothers experience their professional lives differently than other working women. This is often the basis for differential treatment of mothers in the workplace. This thesis describes gender role self image among university women in administration, faculty, and staff positions who are also parents; it relates to professional relationship satisfaction in the workplace. Data were collected through the use of open ended surveys of 185 female employees at Eastern Illinois University, follow up interviews, and a Likert scale survey within the same population. Content analysis of the data and qualitative results are the descriptive basis …

A New Reading Of Ruth Suckow, Judith Pierson

Masters Theses

By 1950, after three decades of writing, Ruth Suckow (1892-1960) was a well-respected writer whose work seemed headed for a permanent position in the canon of American literature. Instead, Suckow's fiction steadily became less known through the following decades. The question of why her work came to be ignored and why such a position is unwarranted is addressed in A New Reading of Ruth Suckow. The conclusion is that a regionalist categorization and a related gender bias in the literary canon have adversely affected Suckow's works.

Gender bias is reflected in the critical assumptions which ascribe an inferior position to …