Women's Studies Commons^™

Old Crimes, New Eyes: Recent Findings From The Scottish Witch Hunts, Carol Lee Campbell

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

^Abstract

^{Most discussions about the Scottish witch trials have been shrouded in a category of superstition, primarily from historians postulating from the era of the Enlightenment one hundred years afterward. Some have distanced themselves from the witch hunts by universalizing the cases within a monolithic framework. But the data shows that the Scottish witch “panic” was disproportionately more intense than other hunts in Early Modern Europe and England.}

^{In the last generation, however, scholars utilizing interdisciplinary approaches have revisited trial records and their supporting documents- such as confessions and testimonies - which appear to reveal more than just trial outcomes. …}

Beyond The Ban: Chhaupadi Abolition And The Governance Of Menstrual Autonomy In Western Nepal, Nikita Paudel

Master in Public Policy Theses

This thesis examines how two decades of efforts to abolish chhaupadi have shaped the everyday conditions under which women and girls experience menstruation in western Nepal. Chhaupadi, commonly understood as menstrual seclusion, has been addressed through Supreme Court directives, national policy, criminal law, municipal implementation instruments, hut demolition campaigns, public health programming, and rights-based advocacy. Yet the practice has persisted, adapted, and in some cases moved into less visible spaces. Rather than treating this as a simple gap between law and practice, this thesis asks how abolition efforts themselves have become part of the regulatory regime through which menstruation is …

Rhetorical Violence: The Rhetorics Of Women's Counter Political Violence, Kylie Rowland

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Protest is omnipresent, and yet not much is known about the efficacy and impacts of its different rhetorical strategies—particularly so for marginalized populations, whose available means of protest are already limited by both material realities and assumptions that govern who and what can make waves. This bind is further exacerbated by gendered and racialized civility politics that determine which bodies can be disruptive and which already are considered “violent.” To address this gap, I turn toward the under-researched rhetorical potentials of marginalized people’s—specifically women and queer folks’—use of symbolic protest “violence,” which works to strategically make evident the larger ongoing …

Military Women In Sci-Fi Films: Breaking Barriers Since 1902, Introduction, Stacy Fowler, Deborah A. Deacon

Law Librarian Scholarship

From its beginnings, science fiction has been about humanity's battle for dominion over "the other," whether that means aliens, giant monsters, or nature herself. Especially in the male-centric military, that same designation of "other" is often assigned to women. Yet in the realm of science fiction, women in the military can attain what is often elusive in the real world—full participation and equality.

Chapters correspond to broad topics prevalent in science fictions films: Conquest, Evolving, Peril, Prey, Ethereal, and Exploration. The book focuses on portrayals of military women in science fiction films, exploring how they are able to excel in …

Good Girl Bootcamp: Performative Femininity, Purity Culture, And Other Things Girls Are Taught, Kiersten Holland

Masters Theses

Performative femininity is a dangerous and controlling idea that subjugates women and places their inherent worth on how well they can conform to societal standards in male dominated spaces. Consequently, the reactionary messaging that surfaced as a result of these social pressures created a series of stereotypical female characterizations often depicted in the material and visual cultures of each period. By comparing contemporary literature with literature from the Victorian time period, it emphasizes the longstanding and controlling gender stereotypes pervasive throughout the past few centuries. This thesis attempts to understand and analyze the way that literature both critiques and supports …

"That’S Not A Meal, Bestie”: Humor, Identity, & Feminized Consumption In “Girl Dinner”., Claire Tudor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the viral “Girl Dinner” trend as a case study in how gendered consumption, digital identity, and feminist humor intersect in digital spaces. Using “Girl Dinner” as a rhetorical artifact, this thesis explores how women use gendered trends to navigate visibility, labor, and autonomy in online spaces. Through thematic analysis of TikTok content, media coverage, and branded adaptations, the research traces the evolution of the trend from a lighthearted joke to a site of cultural negotiation. This study reveals that while “Girl Dinner” may appear empowering and relatable on the surface, it often reinforces traditional gender expectations under …

Influence Of Neo-Colonial Relationships On The Gender Norms Of The Pacific Islands, Katelynn N. Nicholas

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

The intersection between domestic violence and formerly colonized countries has long drawn the attention of scholars and researchers. Many of the Pacific Islands are known for their low Human Development Index scores. Because of their treatment of women, they also often have very low Gender Development Index scores. The understanding that there will be no receipts after the exchange of a human being, usually a child, has encouraged British men to seek out sex work in Thailand. Arguably domestic violence and colonization fully overlap in the sexual objectification of ethnic groups in Oceania and the woman there who fall into …

Unintended Consequences: Assessing The Impact Of Dobbs V Jackson (2022) On The Provision Of Maternal Healthcare In Cases Of Obstetric Emergencies In The United States, Lauren Carson

Women's & Gender Studies Student Scholarship

Lauren Carson ’25, Political Science, Health Policy and Management, and Women’s and Gender Studies major

Faculty mentor: Dr. Abigail Brooks, Women’s and Gender Studies

The goal of this project is to assess the impact of the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) decision on the provision of maternal healthcare in the United States. Since the decision, many healthcare providers across the political spectrum and from a diversity of backgrounds have spoken out about state level restrictions on care, particularly in instances of obstetric emergencies. This project utilizes two case studies, Idaho and Texas, to analyze correlations between highly restrictive …

Critical Discourse Analysis Of Metoo Activism Representation In Nepalese News Coverage: Privileged Bodies, Masculine Gaze, And Absentees Others, Grisha Mainali

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Alongside other women of the world, Nepalese women have been fighting against gender violence and sexual harassment to create a violence-free society for decades. In 2017, the MeToo movement took a turn by becoming a transnational digital movement with 85+ countries adopting and localizing the movement. Despite hundreds of women participating in the movement, the documentation of the MeToo movement in Nepal has primarily been limited to a few newspapers and news articles. This research addresses a gap in scholarship in documenting the Nepali movement and focuses on the case study of the MeToo movement in Nepal to explore how …

Media Literacy, Education, And A Global Pandemic: Lessons Learned In A Gender And Pop Culture Classroom, Jessica Lowell Mason, Ebehitale Imobhio

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

In Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, bell hooks writes that “to engage in dialogue is one of the simplest ways we can begin as teachers, scholars, and critical thinkers to cross boundaries.” Hence, this paper explores, through narrative dialogue, teacher and student perspectives on the pedagogical impact of the global pandemic on the process of engaging with and learning about media literacy. By naming and narrating teacher and student experiences and perspectives from a course on gender and pop culture that took place during the Spring 2020 semester, the paper aims to demonstrate the …

A Journey To A Black Woman’S (Read Black Girl’S) Joy And Her Story Of Coming Home, Brittany Lauren Brock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is an auto/ethnography about the self-actualizing journey of reclaiming storytelling as my native tongue and my journey to joy. Throughout, using my story and the stories of so many others, I not only lay out the wounds (the pain, the loss, then the hope that comes) within the academy and outside in the world but I also use storytelling as a tool of healing—my tool of healing—to show how I wrote myself free.

When Black women (read Black girls) go through The Reckoning (the moment we realize something isn’t right with how we are perceived by others) …

Género Y Resiliencia En La Amazonía Peruana: Las Experiencias Y Respuestas De Agricultoras Indígenas Ante El Cambio Climático, Zoe Klausner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El cambio climático antropogénico está redefiniendo rápidamente las relaciones humano-ambientales, especialmente en la Amazonía peruana, donde más de 66 comunidades indígenas enfrentan mayores sequías y temperaturas, afectando profundamente sus medios de vida. Crucialmente, desde la visión ecofeminista central a esta investigación se subraya que las mujeres indígenas experimentan los impactos del cambio climático más severamente y son a menudo los líderes en el fomento de la resiliencia ambiental. Esta investigación explora cómo las agricultoras indígenas de la Amazonía peruana viven el cambio climático y sus estrategias de adaptación y resiliencia. El trabajo de campo se realizó en la comunidad Ese'Eja …

Academic Women's Studies: An Institutional Failure For Scholarship On Violence Against Women, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Military Women In World Cinema: A 20th Century History And Filmography, Introduction, Deborah A. Deacon, Stacy Fowler

Faculty Articles

From British soldier Flora Sandes to the fame World War II Night Witches of the Soviet Air Force, women across the globe stepped up to defend their countries during every major and minor conflict of the twentieth century, and filmmakers have long attempted to capture their stories.

This book analyzes real and fictional military women's portrayals in world cinema, including movies from Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy, China, France, the Soviet Union, and others. It includes theatrical releases, direct-to-video productions, and made-for-television films.

Chapters, organized by decade, address topics including the women's sexuality, maternal and marital status, leadership skills, actual …

Woman, Queer, Jewish: The Sociopolitical Importance And Impact Of Identity Labels, Megan Polun

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

In this thesis, I trace and analyze the historical, social, and political uses of three identity labels: woman, queer, and Jewish. These three identity categories are personally important to me because I identify as a queer, Jewish woman. The questions motivating this analysis are as follows: How have these words been defined and who gets to define them? What has it meant historically to move through the world with one of these labels, and what does it look like today? What qualifies someone to identify with one of these labels, and what experiences or qualities do we share? What challenges …

Female Politicians And The Way That Gender Stereotypes And The Male-Dominated Power Structure Influence The Way They Run Their Campaigns, Morgan Marckres

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Women only make up 28.5% of Congress even though they make up 50.5% of the population of the United States. This disparity indicates that there are significant barriers that female politicians face when they are running for office. To look for why, an extensive literature review was conducted that gave context about the gender stereotypes that female candidates face and how they navigate the male template of power. Using the material from the literature review, the campaigns of three women and three men who won their election in the recent 2022 midterms were analyzed. The candidate’s campaigns were then compared. …

Women In The Construction Industry, Olivia Emond

Honors Projects in Management

The construction industry is a male dominated field that has been known for its masculine culture. Women have faced many barriers when entering this field of work due to this culture and being the minority. This study will look into the motivational factors that make women want to pursue a career in the construction industry. This research will look at female construction workers and how their experiences have helped shape their perception on the industry. The following study will analyze how females have combated the masculine culture in the industry and what makes females want to obtain leadership positions. This …

Anti-Woman Invective On The Early Modern Stage: Abuse, Degradation, And Resistance, Savannah Xaver

Dissertations

On the early modern stage, gendered epithets like “strumpet,” “mermaid,” “minx,” “hobby horse,” “courtesan,” “drab,” and “whore” are not just markers of misogyny. Instead, these insults harm the male user as well as their female target. My cross-playwright and cross-genre connections show the complex, wide use and impact of anti-woman terms. A wide-ranging study of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries reveals that gendered insults signify masculine mental decline in tragedies as well as comedies and tragicomedies. In tragedy, the increasingly violent language of male slur users – like, for example, the frustrated Othello, who declares, of his wife, …

“Yellow Fever” + Pornhub Statistics: A Sociological Sickness, Patricia Plachno

Audre Lorde Prize

This essay was written to explore the complexities behind "Yellow Fever," or the fetishization of Asian women. In further understanding the origins of "Yellow Fever", shining a light on historical stereotypes and microaggressions assist in problematizing this phenomenon. Pornhub's yearly statistics provide a tangible outline of the sheer volume of participants in racial fetishization.

Análisis De La Mujer: Revista Mensual De Literatura Y Variedades, La Primera Revista Ecuatoriana Escrita Por Mujeres (1905-1906), María Alejandra González Pástor

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The first magazine written by women in Ecuador is a time machine that allows knowing firsthand the thinking of women in the early twentieth century. It is also a catalyst to promote writing and searching for female identity. La Mujer: Revista Mensual de Literatura y Variedades is an unprecedented project conceived by the first Ecuadorian journalist, Zoila Ugarte. She was a multifaceted woman with feminist ideas who encouraged a group of women to express their ideas through literature and journalism.

This research analyzes the literary texts and articles of the magazine from a gender perspective and addresses historical aspects of …

Market Feminism In Morocco, Claire Madsen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite widespread views of “Moroccan Exceptionalism,” Morocco continues to rank poorly on international evaluations of gender equality. This project seeks to understand the extent of the influence neoliberal economic forces in Morocco have had on the feminist landscape. Analysis of Moroccan political history, Foucauldian theories of power relations, and relevant literature on state feminism set the groundwork for the evaluation of the extent state feminism in Morocco can be understood as market-based, in accordance with the definition from From State Feminism to Market Feminsim (2012) by Kantola and Squires. Through interviews of three experts, three meetings with women’s empowerment NGOs, …

Gender Roles And The Social Agent: Framing The Women’S Movement(S) In Postcolonial Morocco, Lily Ross

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For my Independent Study, I conducted a four-week research project on what I will refer to as the “Women’s Movement” in Morocco. My initial goal was to understand the framing and aims of this movement. To do so, I sought to explore the different forces impacting the movement – such as local cultural contexts, religion, globalization and colonization – and to analyze the impact of these forces on how different women conceptualize their goals surrounding gender. I studied a variety of scholarship on the Moroccan Women’s Movement, focusing on a critical analysis of the state, international interests and non-profit organizations. …

Cross-Cultural Performativity Of Gender Communication In Heather Raffo’S Nine Parts Of Desire, Shaimaa M. Saeed

English Language and Literature

Since the mid-twentieth century, the study of gender has constituted a fundamental part of many interdisciplinary research works due to its multi-perspective nature which made it a fertile ground for analysis in diversified fields of science. Discussions over sex/gender distinction and the representation as well as perception of gender ceaselessly exist within controversially enriching, discursive frameworks. In 1990, Judith Butler (1956- ), one of the prominent feminist theorists in the field of gender studies, first coined the concept of “gender performativity,” where she challenged the conventional notions of ethnomethodologists and phenomenologists who restricted the perception and communication of gender to …

Gender Perspective On Tourism's Influence On The Local Community: A Literature Review, Nur Abellan Calvet, Jordi Arcos-Pumarola, Laia Encinar-Prat

Journal of International Women's Studies

The tourism industry integrates multiple actors interrelated through a variety of dynamics and characteristics. To address this complexity, tourism studies integrate different disciplines and perspectives in order to comprehend the tourism phenomenon. One of the main topics of tourism studies has been its impact on local communities. The conjunction of these research lines with the gender perspective discloses how tourism interrelates with the host territory's particular gender dynamics. In this context, the present study aims to explore and analyse the current state of academic research on tourism's influence on the local community from a gender perspective. In this way, we …

Wgs 200: Introduction To Gender Studies Oer Curation, Chealsye Bowley

Curated OER Collections

This OER curation is an annotated bibliography of prospective OER for the GVSU course WGS 200: Introduction to Gender Studies, assembled by request from the instructor.

More Than The Defiant Few: Lost Womanhood And Necro Women Dismantling Nineteenth-Century Gender Ideologies, Vicki Vanbrocklin

English Language and Literature ETDs

Too many scholars still rely on adjectives such as deviant, unruly, dangerous, and wild to describe women who interrogate rigid forms of womanhood, especially women of color. My project intervenes in nineteenth-century womanhood discussions, which have traditionally solidified three main categories: Republican, True, and New Womanhood. Between True Womanhood in the mid-nineteenth century and the late nineteenth-century concept of New Womanhood lies an overlooked category aptly understood as Lost Womanhood. I focus on newspaper archives, archival research, and imaginative literature to find “lost” women who critiqued a patriarchal system that thrives on women living in a status akin to being …

Women’S Studies, Gender Studies, And Lgbt/Queer Studies: Defining And Debating The Subject Of Academic Knowledge In India, Virginie Dutoya

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s Studies is first introduced in Indian academia in the 1970s. There are now more than 150 centres conducting research on women and gender as well as numerous teaching programmes on these topics in India. Research on sexualities and non-heterosexual identities and practices, while less developed, also emerged in the 1990s. As in any academic field, research on Women’s Studies, gender, and sexuality has been marked by epistemic debates, in particular “terminology debates” (i.e., debates about the proper concepts for discussing gender and sexuality in India). Using a corpus of academic texts, course syllabi, and other academic documents as well …

Gender Studies In Nigeria: Growth And Institutional Contexts Of Semi-Autonomous Centres, Adedeji Adebayo

Journal of International Women's Studies

The study discussed a micro-level dimension of the institutionalization of Gender Studies (GS) in Nigeria, emphasizing the growth of semi-autonomous centres over the last two decades. It focused on a case study of one particular centre; the Centre for Human Rights and Gender Education (CHURGE), based in Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) in the southwest of the country, offering an analysis of how funding, institutional politics, and a dearth of specialist researchers have shaped the evolution of GS in 21st century in Nigeria. The study employed a qualitative research approach with samples purposively selected among researchers at CHURGE. Although …

Beyond Victimhood: Female Agency In Nigerian Civil War Novels, Enajite E. Ojaruega

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Enajite E. Ojaruega discusses in her “Beyond Victimhood: Female Agency in Nigerian Civil War Novels” the agential roles women played during the Nigeria-Biafra war as reflected in selected fictional narratives. Female characters are generally impacted negatively by their individual and collective war-time experiences. However, there is another important aspect of women's war-time experiences that has largely been underplayed in most historical or literary accounts on war. Female agency recognizes this gender’s participatory roles during the conflict as they reconstruct their subjectivity in more beneficial ways in the unfolding circumstances of war. Women are depicted as being able to explore their …

Nsfw: Not So Feminist Women - A Media And Cultural Studies Analysis Of Working Women In Popular Media, Josephine Schofield

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

Even though gender diversity of characters has increased in television shows and films, this study hypothesized that female characters who are presented as feminist icons function as feminist backlash and perpetuate negative and harmful stereotypes. This was found to be especially true for career-focused women. Applying a cultural studies approach to reading television and film studies through a feminist lens identified the antifeminist factors that continue to cause the perpetual loop of independent women reverting to dated social roles. This research connects what audiences consume through popular media to how they perceive their female co-workers. The findings of this study …