Women's Studies Commons^™

Pro-Life And Pro-Choice: What Shapes The Debate Over Abortion In America?, Kevin S. Ganjon

Student Publications

The topic of abortion in the United States of America is one that is surrounded by immense political controversy, particularly surrounding the legality of the practice. While some individuals believe in varying levels of freedom of choice, many others believe that the overall practice is unjust and wrong in most, or all circumstances. What are some of the underlying factors that may shape an individual’s stance on abortion? This research paper examines various significant factors such as religiosity, level of education, and age with regards to their potential correlation with an individual’s stance on abortion. By examining this data, this …

The Imposition Of White Beauty Standards On Black Women, Sabrina E. Robinette

Student Publications

This paper explores the impact of racist beauty ideals on black women through a survey of personal testimonies and an examination of media’s role in perpetrating white beauty. Without sufficient black representation in media, Western beauty standards have excluded black women from defining beauty, which inflicts psychological, physical, and even economic harm on women of color. Companies make profits off of black women’s insecurity from products such as skin lightening cream, chemical straighteners, and hair dye, all of which are an economic burden on black women at best and are life-threatening at worst. Often, black women are forced to turn …

The Macro Drawbacks Of Microfinance, Meghan E. Guy

Student Publications

For decades, microfinance has been utilized as a tool to reduce global poverty rates. Many communities become entangled with microfinance institutions (MFIs) with the hope of achieving the financial independence, security, and empowerment that these institutions promise their clients. This paper highlights the negative consequences of relying on microfinance institutions to improve the development status of nations. Specifically, high interest rates attached to microloans, strict loan repayment schedules, and corrupt microloan officers threaten the safety and increase stress on majority-female microloan borrowers. MFIs fail in their mission to transform economic and social structures in developing nations.

Sex Trafficking In Asia: The Impact Of Policy, Economic Opportunity, And Globalization, Emma C. M. Lavoie

Student Publications

This paper examines the prevalence of sex trafficking in Asia and considers factors that make it stand out among other regions of the world. It explains the consequences of poorly designed policy on sex trafficking, using the Chinese One Child Policy as an example. It also looks at the lack of economic opportunity in countries like Thailand and Cambodia, that can incentivize the selling of women to traffickers. Finally, this paper considers the role of globalization in making the transport of sex trafficking victims easier as well as the effect of modern communication technologies on trafficking.

Testing The Gender Role-Perception Theory: A Proposed Explanation For The Lack Of Maternity Leave Policy In The United States, Erica R. Boucher

Student Publications

The United States is the only industrialized country in the world to not have a federally mandated paid maternity leave. While there is an obvious lack of maternity leave policy in the United States, there is not adequate explanation of this lack. There are some current theories used to explain this problem, such as Hofstede’s theory of individualism, and historical influence, but they are not able to fully explain why there is not maternity policy in the United States. A new proposed theory, the Gender Role-Perception Theory combines gender roles in the United States and attitudes/perceptions towards working mothers to …

Skin Lightening, Bleaching, Whiting Phenomenon, Tamiyah P. Miller

Student Publications

This research paper will examine skin lightening practices around the world focusing on places like Asia, Africa,the Caribbeans and the United States.This paper will be looking at reasons that people bleach their skin. Last but not least this paper will examine how the media industry has played a major role in why people around the world want to bleach their skin.

Uncovering Shakespeare's Sisters In Special Collections And College Archives, Musselman Library, Suzanne J. Flynn, Lauren J. Browning, Madison G. Harvey, Hannah C. Lindert, Emma J. Poff, Cameron N. D'Amica, Teagan Lewis, Merlyn Maldonado Lopez, Audrey J. Nikolich, Mariah L. Beck, Phoebe M. Doscher, Chloe Dougherty, Hana Huskic, Samantha L. Burr, Elizabeth F. D'Arcangelo, Logan Shippee

Student Publications

Foreword by Professor Suzanne J. Flynn

I have taught the first-year seminar, Shakespeare’s Sisters, several times, and over the years I have brought the seminar’s students to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. There, the wonderful librarians have treated the students to a special exhibit of early women’s manuscripts and first editions, beginning with letters written by Elizabeth I and proceeding through important works by seventeen and eighteenth-century women authors such as Aemelia Lanyer, Anne Finch, Aphra Behn, and Mary Wollstonecraft. This year I worked with Carolyn Sautter, the Director of Special Collections and College Archives, to give my …

Jane Eyre And Education, Cameron N. D'Amica

Student Publications

Charlotte Brontë created the first female Bildungsroman in the English language when she wrote Jane Eyre in the mid-nineteenth century. Brontë’s novel explores the development of a young girl through her educational experiences. The main character, Jane Eyre, receives a formal education as a young orphan and eventually becomes both a teacher and a governess. Jane’s life never strays far from formal education, regardless of whether she is teaching or being taught. In each of Jane’s experiences, she learns invaluable lessons, both in and out of the classroom environment. Jane excels in the sphere of formal education, which allows her …

Jane Eyre: The Bridge Between Christianity And Folklore, Teagan Lewis

Student Publications

Charlotte Brontё’s acclaimed novel, Jane Eyre, was first marketed as an autobiography. The story, told from the point of view of a poor orphan girl, takes on a narrative similar to that of a fairytale. In this way, a reader may find difficulty in believing this novel to be a work of nonfiction. Charlotte Brontё employs aspects of both Christianity and fantasy in her novel not to discourage her readers from believing its validity but rather to emphasize how even poor orphan girls like Jane have forces of good guiding them. Jane Eyre is fictional, yet the hardships she …

Gender Quotas And Women’S Political Participation In Slovenia And Croatia: When Similar Historical Developments And Homogeneity Of Design Yield Different Outcomes, Colin J. J. Yandam

Student Publications

This paper aims at summarizing the knowledge surrounding gender quotas – which are a quick gate-way to women’s political participation – and at assessing the efficacy of their different means of implementation. Through the cross-national study of Slovenia and Croatia (two countries similar on almost every political, social, and historical development except for women’s political representation) and in tandem with an extensive review of previous works in the literature, this paper sheds some light on the techniques the civil society and feminist/women’s movements could use to maximize their political impact and overall gender-quota effectiveness. Indeed, this paper finds that by …

Oh, Lilah, R. A. Montross

Student Publications

"Oh, Lilah" is a feminist retelling of the story of Samson and Delilah. It is a verse poem divided into five sections. It is narrated by Delilah, putting a unique, contemporary twist on the renowned Biblical tale.

Winning The Game: Muslim Women And Sport, Claire F. Benstead

Student Publications

Female Muslim athletes face a number of obstacles when playing sports, both at home and abroad. For example, those who wear hijabs may be banned from playing a sport in certain countries or international arenas because their headscarves are deemed unsafe by the organization’s standards. By contrast, they may be required to wear a headscarf in other countries if they wish to compete publicly. By examining case studies from a variety of sports and countries, this paper explains how female athletes have worked to overcome these obstacles and fought for equality and the right to join the game.

What About Susan? Gender In Narnia, Emma G. Schilling

Student Publications

Critics of C.S. Lewis argue that his misogyny is present in his portrayal of female characters. While Lewis himself was self-contradictory in his attitudes towards women, his depictions of female characters in The Chronicles of Narnia are both realistic and progressive. Both the male and female characters throughout the series demonstrate individual strengths and weaknesses that are not dependent on their gender. The criticism against Lewis focuses on his treatment of Susan, especially regarding her being the only child not to return to Narnia at the end of the series. Unlike what the critics argue, however, Susan is not excluded …

What All Americans Should Know About Islamic Feminism, Caroline M. Bosworth

Student Publications

The concept of Islamic feminism depicts the history of Muslim women seeking gender equality on the basis of religion. Through rooting gender equality in the texts and practices of the Qur'an, Muslim women demand acknowledgement in society based on Islamic teachings. A common theme persists in American society, which perpetuates the misconception that Muslim women lack agency. In reality, numerous Muslim women have actively worked to ensure their rightful place alongside men in society, which is evident in the cases of both Egypt and Iran.

Women And Peace: Female Political Empowerment & The Prevention Of Civil Violence, Piper D. O'Keefe

Student Publications

Today conflict mainly occurs within nations (as opposed to between nations), and the importance of women in creating and maintaining peace (which can be most simply defined as the absence of violence) through informal and formal leadership roles has also become known, offering much for the possibility of the reduction of violence within nations. Testing this relationship through a Poisson regression for the hypothesis that countries that have higher political empowerment for women will have less civil violence in their nations than countries with a lower level of political empowerment for women, this study is able to reject the null …

Female Madness In Greek Tradition And Medicine, Caitlin T. Connelly

Student Publications

This paper considers the similarities and differences in Greek thought concerning female madness among both traditional views of madness and medical views. It identifies three broad types of female madness – Dionysian madness, most often associated with maenads and maenadism; desire-induced madness, associated with Aphrodite or Eros; and the medical views of madness of the Hippocratic Corpus, Plato, and other writers. Divinely-inspired madness was considered an assault on the individual from the outside, while the physicians considered madness to be an affliction from within. However, while desire-induced madness and medical madness were seen as the results of women avoiding men, …

History Of Key Events In Women’S Health Care, Zoё M. Chambliss

Student Publications

In 1973, ninety-three percent of all American doctors were men (Ehrenreich and English). Gender based inequity permeates all spheres of women’s health care from employment to access to treatment to biologically-based myths of male superiority, yet women once presided over the health and spirituality of their communities and their own bodies. All of the earliest human societies worshipped the Earth Goddess and respected women as holy givers of life. This tradition persisted until the rise of the patriarchy and Western “Civilization” increasingly forced women out of positions of power and rewrote the religious stories to give supremacy to male sun …

In Search Of Health, Freedom & Identity: An Analysis Of Isabella Bird's And Margaret Fountaine's Renovation Of Self Through Travel & Travel Writing, Mikki L. Stacey

Student Publications

“An Analysis of Isabella Bird’s and Margaret Fountaine’s Renovation of Self through Travel & Travel Writing” tracks three interdependent facets of identity that become apparent in the travel literature of Victorian ladies Isabella Lucy Bird and Margaret Fountaine. These facets are:

• the socialized self (the identity developed as a result of the society in which one grows up)
• the renovated self (the identity developed through interacting with and adapting to other cultures )
• and the edited self (the identity one creates when she writes about her experiences—for my thesis specifically, the identity the author creates to reconcile her socialized and …

How History Shaped Women's Healthcare, Josephine M. Rivera

Student Publications

At the beginnings of civilizations around the world, many of these inhabitants worshipped goddesses that connected them to the world and earth. However, invaders from male-dominated civilizations worked diligently to eliminate the faces and ideas of a woman in power. As time progressed, other events like the witch craze continued to minimize the influence of midwives and healers, creating a medical dynamic where only men “knew” the ways of a woman’s body. Thus, the birth of gynecology and American medicine put notions into place that did not allow women to pursue medical careers, further eradicating the possibility for a woman …

Niki De Saint Phalle: The Female Figure And Her Ambiguous Place In Art History, Lucy Kay Riley

Student Publications

Niki de Saint Phalle had a fearless approach in her representation of women and her invitation of audience interaction. Born in 1930, she lived through the years of very male dominated areas of art: Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Neo-Dada. Niki de Saint Phalle provided a unique treatment of the female figure through drawing, painting, writing, found object sculpture, large public sculpture, and installation. One of the pieces I will primarily focus on embodies her fascination with audience interaction and the portrayal of the female figure: her controversial and temporary installation of 1966, ‘SHE – a cathedral.' In comparison to …

Goddesses Versus Gynecologists: An Analysis Of The History Of Women’S Healthcare, Marion A. Mckenzie

Student Publications

Starting from the downfall of Goddess cultures in Europe, women's health care has been negatively impacted for generations. The rise of the white, male Indo-European "dominator model" along with the witch craze, caused the end of widespread wise women traditions and pharmacopeia methods. After women's traditional voice was silenced, medical colleges were established to pronounce new, "professional" knowledge. Only those who attended these universities were allowed to legally practice medicine; however, during this time, medical research and treatments for women primarily included mutilation and painful, nonsensical regimens. The horrifying state of women's healthcare has since improved, but was originally a …

Two-Spirit Indigenous Americans: Fact Not Fiction, Casey S. O'Higgins

Student Publications

This paper examines the narratives of Two-Spirit Indigenous Americans who have been oppressed by heteropatriarchal norms of colonization. Two-spirit creation stories are explored to show the prevalence and importance of their identities prior to contact with Euro-American settlers and the evolution of violence, exclusion, and marginalization due to colonization.The term "Two-Spirit" is examined as a cultural identity of the Indigenous Americans. Finally, the paper looks at how Two-Spirit scholars are looking to combine Queer Theory with Indigenous Studies to deconstruct colonial heteropatriarchal America.

Muslim Head Coverings, Raven C. Waters

Student Publications

I researched female head coverings in the Muslim culture, to see how the veils affected society and society's response to the covering.

The Effect Of Women In Government On Government Effectiveness, Abigail L. Tootell

Student Publications

A critical factor of gender and development is the political empowerment of women. Beyond this equality, however, what are the effects of women in government? This paper investigates these effects by examining the relationship between the percentage of women in parliament and overall government effectiveness. The research strongly supports the theory that women are more effective political leaders than their male counterparts.

Liberation Through Domination: Bdsm Culture And Submissive-Role Women, Lisa R. Rivoli

Student Publications

The alternative sexual practices of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism (BDSM) are practiced by people all over the world. In this paper, I will examine the experiences of five submissive-role women in the Netherlands and five in south-central Pennsylvania, focusing specifically on how their involvement with the BDSM community and BDSM culture influences their self-perspective.I will begin my analysis by exploring anthropological perspectives of BDSM and their usefulness in studying sexual counterculture, followed by a consideration of feminist critiques of BDSM and societal barriers faced by women in the community. I will then address the …

Investigating Sexual Violence As A Weapon Of War In The Democratic Republic Of Congo (Drc) Through Critical Discourse Analysis, Amanda R. Kaste

Student Publications

This paper addresses the large-scale sexual violence that has taken place (and still continues) within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) using critical discourse analysis. Disturbing statistics have resulted in the identification of the DRC as the "rape capital of the world," and a variety of national, regional, and international actors have employed sexual violence as a weapon of war. Victims frequently receive little assistance, perpetrators act without fear of serious repercussions, and the government of the DRC fails to successfully implement relative legislation. Through an investigation of the discourse surrounding victims, perpetrators, and political institutions respectively, I will develop …

Beyond Rodin: Revisiting The Legacy Of Camille Claudel, Shannon R. Callahan

Student Publications

French sculptress Camille Claudel has gained recognition in the past 30 years due to a focus on her tragic life rather than her artistic talent. Despite critical acclaim and respect amongst her peers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, her affair with Auguste Rodin and her struggles with mental illness have cast a dark, dramatic shadow over modern interpretations of Claudel’s oeuvre. Considering how difficult it was for a woman to be working as an artist at this time, Claudel’s sculptures should not be outweighed by her personal life. In order to challenge the reader not to accept …

“Welcome To The Feminist Cult”: Building A Feminist Community Of Practice On Tumblr, Sarah M. Connelly

Student Publications

Over the course of the last twenty years, the internet has become a powerful tool for the mobilization of social movements because of its ease of access, its allowance for greater control of organization and communication, and its rapid spread and dissemination of ideas. Tumblr, a micro-blogging site that is comprised of 227.6 million blogs and 106.3 billion posts by March 2015, is one of the most significant locations of social activism online. In recent years, Tumblr has become a platform for highly involved feminist dialogue because of the ability for like-minded users to follow and reblog posts regarding feminist …

Broken Promises: The Case Of Mothers Of Srebrenica Vs. The State Of The Netherlands, Victoria E. Mohr

Student Publications

Critical discourse analysis of the legal proceedings of the Mothers of Srebrenica case brought against the UN and the Dutch government. This analysis explores the nature of culpability and blame-making among international actors.

Running Through Gender: Exploring The Effects Of Hegemonic Masculinity And Femininity On Gettysburg Cross Country Athletes, Olivia D. Powell

Student Publications

The general consensus regarding athletic participation is that it is beneficial to a person’s overall well being. The Women’s Sports Foundation states that girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem, lower levels of depression, a more positive body image, and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports. In fact, girls who play sports are more likely to get better grades in school, and are more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports.1 These statements are circulated as being universal truths. Despite many studies …