Sociology Commons^™

The Priorities And Accomplishments Of Kentucky Legislators : Is There A Gender Difference?, Amanda Allen

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This thesis uses Kentucky as a case study of gender differences in the policy priorities and perceptions of accomplishments of state legislators. The research question is, “are there gender differences in the legislative priorities and perceptions of accomplishments of Kentucky legislators?” The legislative priorities of the legislators seemed to be similar, along with their own classification of women’s issues. The perceptions of success demonstrated that male legislators were not necessarily more likely to attribute success to themselves, whereas women would attribute success to collaboration efforts. The research was completed through confidential interviews with Kentucky legislators and analysis of the 2015 …

Whiteness In Contemporary Feminist Campaigns : Free The Nipple., Laura Patterson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Performing A Thematic Analysis: An Exploratory Study About Managers’ Perceptions On Gender Equality, Carlos Costa, Zélia Breda, Isabel Pinho, Fiona Bakas, Marília Durão

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to present results from an exploratory study that aims to investigate why gender role alterations in leadership positions is slow. The tourism managers’ perceptions of gender equality, within the workplace, were obtained resorting to focus groups. We chose thematic analysis to identify themes and patterns. This thematic analysis enables a methodological systematization of data. Data were coded using webQDA, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software that speeds up the team process of analysis. The systematization of information helped overcome the difficulties to synthesize the various interpretations; thus it was possible to generate more ideas …

Voices Of Oman Magazine, Ashley M. Mendez Ruiz

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

A research project based on the Omani culture that will break down the perceptions and stereotypes we have around Muslim women. A collection of testimony from Omani women about Gender Empowerment and Equality in their country. A combination of academic research, blogs, news articles and testimonies are used to discuss the current role of women in Oman to create a better understanding of what it means to be a woman in their culture.

Unmarried Midlife Adults And Economic Well-Being, Katie Finch

Honors Projects

Much research has been conducted on how married older adults fare in comparison to unmarried older adults. Since the amount of unmarried older adults is increasing, I found it important to see how these unmarried groups (early divorcees, gray divorcees, never-marrieds, and widoweds) stacked up against each other in terms of economic well-being. Using the 2012 Health and Retirement Study, I looked at how demographic factors and economic well-being indicators were correlated to another. The demographic factors examined included gender, marital status, race, and educational attainment. Income, poverty level, and assets were used to assess economic well-being. Similar to previous …

Crossroads: How Race, Class, And Gender Affect Views Of Poverty, Heather Webb

Honors Projects

The existence of poverty in the United States is paradoxical and how people view poverty is complicated. This research provides details about the history of poverty, what causes it, how it is measured, and current statistics. It also provides a condensed history, including relevant types of welfare, of social policies, as well as an overview of social-policy making and current statistics. Secondly, this research analyzes how race, class, and gender affect how we view poverty and policies to amend it. It also uses intersectionality to analyze how intersections between identities contribute to changing these views. The goal of this research …

Is College Making Men Less “Manly?”: The Influence Of Time Spent In A Liberal Arts Environment On Masculinity, Samuel Oakley

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

In Otterbein’s explicitly-named and often-touted diverse and inclusive liberal arts collegiate environment, students are frequently exposed to the institution’s various messages regarding inclusive gender norms via administrative communications, curricular priorities, and the ideological content of extracurricular events. Taken together, institutional histories and contemporary practices demonstrate that Otterbein University purports to offer an environment permeated with an ideology that emphasizes the value of diversity, equality, and inclusion as part of a holistic educational experience.

My study includes three components. First, I administered the Bem (1971) Sex Role inventory (a scale originally designed to measure individual gender performance) to answer the following …

Explaining Demographic Differences In Marital Quality: The Role Of Mental And Physical Health, Kara Henderson, Jessica Harris, Spencer Young, Spencer James

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

A vast body of literature has measured the demographic differences in marital quality. According to literature on marriage, the poorly educated, females, racial ethnic minorities, and premarital cohabitors report less marital satisfaction. The main focus and goal of our study is to link the various demographic differences with poor marital quality. Much of the research on marital quality has found a link between physical health and marital outcomes. The current research neglects the other factors of mental and physical health are related to marital satisfaction and conflict. We want to observe how mental and physical health may serve as mediators …

The Role Of Social Dominance Orientation And Patriotism In The Evaluation Of Minority And Female Leaders, Crystal L. Hoyt, Stefanie Simon

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research broadens our understanding of racial and gender bias in leader evaluations by merging implicit leadership theory and social dominance perspectives. Across two experimental studies (291 participants), we tested the prediction that bias in leader evaluations stemming from White and masculine leader standards depends on the extent to which people favor hierarchical group relationships (social dominance orientation) and their level of patriotism. Employing the Goldberg paradigm, participants read identical leadership speeches attributed to either a woman or a man described as either a minority (Black or Latino/a) or a majority (White) group member. Results show social dominance orientation negatively …

Gender Roots: Conceptualizing "Honor" Killing And Interpretations Of Women's Gender In Muslim Society, Brittany N. Barry

What All Americans Should Know About Women in the Muslim World

The phenomenon of “honor” killing is one that has formed out of deeply rooted concepts of sexuality and gender roles in Muslim societies. These conceptions have been implemented into everyday life and social infrastructure and have created, in some places, a generally accepted power dynamic that subjugates women and generates conceptualizations about women’s sexuality and their assumed obedience. In recent decades the gender constructions of, predominantly, the Middle East and of other Muslim populations have captured the attention of Western thinkers, especially with regards to feminist thought. The Western gaze has produced a number of responses, some of which have …

An Analysis Of Diversity In Nonhuman Animal Rights Media, Corey Lee Wrenn

Diversity and Social Movements Collection

Lack of diversity in the ranks as well as a failure to resonate with disadvantaged groups and other anti-oppression movements has been cited as one important barrier to the American Nonhuman Animal rights movement’s success (Kymlicka and Donaldson 2013). It is possible that social movements are actively inhibiting diversity in the ranks and audience by producing literature that reflects a narrow activist identity. This article creates a platform from which these larger issues can be explored by investigating the actual demographic representations present in a small sample of popular media sources produced by the movement for other animals. A content …

The Gender Revolution: Are We Getting It Right?, Dannah (Barker) Gresh

Alumni Publications

No abstract provided.

Shifting Gears Of Safety: Women Truck Drivers Experience Added Safety Concerns Over The Road, Stephanie A. Sicard

Masters Theses

Of the over 500,000 professional truck drivers within the United States, only six percent are women. Ten in-depth interviews focus on the safety issues that women truck drivers face over1 the road. Stereotypical masculine norms are encouraged in male dominated fields, and it is when stereotypical masculinity is endorsed that sexual harassment and assault is much higher. I argue that women truck drivers are forced into a double-bind situation in which they attempt to make themselves visible as equals, while simultaneously hiding themselves for safety. I aim to not only broaden the understanding of the issues faced by professional women …

An Analysis Of Women’S Access To Acute Opioid Detoxification Services In Maine: Identifying The Barriers To Treatment, Karen E. Conley

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

The lack of treatment facilities and services for opioid use disorder in Maine, combined with an increased prevalence of addiction, creates a potential for health inequity between men and women that may be intensified by barriers in access to care. This capstone study utilized detoxification screening inquiry forms and data obtained from the Milestone Foundation’s acute opioid detoxification program to assess and categorize barriers to access by gender. A barriers model was developed based on existing literature and was to identify potential associations among and between the known barriers to accessing treatment. Barriers were described as internally or externally based, …

Transgressing Gender Normativity Through Gender Identity Development: Exploring Transgender, Non-Conforming, And Non-Binary Identities Of College Students, Enrique Tejada Iii

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study situates current gender social constructions as harmful, inhibitive, and problematic, especially for those that transgress gender boundaries and do not align with their gender assigned at birth. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to critically challenge and deconstruct the social construct of gender and its norms both within and outside of a college campus. This study works to achieve this purpose and answer research questions through careful analysis of the different gender journeys of three separate gender-diverse individuals. These participants’ stories are shared in a case-study format to recognize how each individual uniquely and personally formed their …

Whose Story? His-Story., Meghan E. O'Donnell

SURGE

The essay instructions finally landed in front of me. I passed the extra sheets on and quickly glanced over the page, hoping that the prompt would be inspiring. There were two open-ended options from which to choose: military and social/political aspects of the war. My eyes first fell upon the social option and I pondered using this opportunity to shed light on the experiences of women during the war. I’d done this before – used assignments to explore history’s untold stories – and found it interesting. Then, in a fit of frustration that erupted out of nowhere, I thought to …

Research In Brief - "It's Kind Of Apples And Oranges": Gay College Males' Conceptions Of Gender Transgression As Poverty, Daniel Tillapaugh, Z Nicolazzo

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

This paper explores the ways in which gay males in college make meaning of gender variance and transgressions from the gender binary as a form of poverty. Using epistemological bricolage, the researchers analyzed data from 17 self-identified gay cisgender males attending three colleges in Southern California. Participants represented an array of racial backgrounds and were between 20 and 23 years old. The researchers posit that three key elements influence these gay males’ meaning making: (1) gender coding and policing, (2) hyperawareness of gender transgressions, and (3) reifying hegemonic masculinity.

A Latent Class Analysis Of School Climate Among Middle And High School Students In California Public Schools, Kris T. De Pedro, Tamika D. Gilreath, Ruth Berkowitz

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Research has shown that a positive school climate plays a protective role in the social, emotional, and academic development of adolescent youth. Researchers have utilized variable centered measures to assess school climate, which is limited in capturing heterogeneous patterns of school climate. In addition, few studies have systematically explored the role of race and gender in perceived school climate. This study utilizes a latent class approach to assess whether there are discrete classes of school climate in a diverse statewide sample of middle and high school youth. Drawing from the 2009–2011 California Healthy Kids Survey, this study identified four latent …

Anchors, Habitus, And Practices Besieged By War: Women And Gender In The Blockade Of Leningrad, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

As war challenges survival and social relations, how do actors alter and adapt dispositions and practices? To explore this question, I investigate women's perceptions of normal relations, practices, status, and gendered self in an intense situation of wartime survival, the Blockade of Leningrad (1941–1944), an 872-day ordeal that demographically feminized the city. Using Blockade diaries for data on everyday life, perceptions, and practices, I show how women's gendered skills and habits of breadseeking and caregiving (finding scarce resources and providing aid) were key to survival and helped elevate their sense of status. Yet this did not entice rethinking “gender.” To …

Examining Gender Specific Treatment Programs In Women's Prisons, Marieta Ilieva-Petkova

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The female offender population has been the fastest growing segment of the correctional population. Historically, victimization and trauma are highly correlated with substance abuse and dependency that are known to have a significant impact on females' pathway toward criminal lifestyle, incarceration, relapse, and recidivism. Due to feminists' research, today we know that females offenders' pathways toward substance abuse, criminal behavior, and recidivism differ from those of males. As a result, a discussion about the development and implementation of gender-specific substance abuse treatment programs has been initiated. The purpose of this study is to discover if research recommendations proposed, have been …

Portrayals Of Gender In The Media: A Content Analysis Approach To Identifying Gender Oppression And Legitimation Of Patriarchy In Magazine Advertisements, Autumn M. O’Toole

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Advertisements are among the most pervasive forms of media. Portrayals of gender in advertisements constitute a significant subject of social research based on this pervasiveness and the influence that advertising media have on audiences. This influence is based on the notion that media is an institutional vehicle for ideas about products, lifestyles, and oppression. In this study, the institution of media is examined through an analysis of representations of patriarchy and gender oppression in media advertisements. The primary research question is: In what ways can we identify gender oppression and the support of hegemonic masculinity and systems of patriarchy in …

Bodybuilding Is An Art And Your Body Is The Canvas: An Examination Of Bodybuilders And The Built Body, Caitlin Greaf

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examines the bodybuilding community by conducting interviews and watching the bodybuilding documentaries Pumping Iron, Pumping Iron II, and Generation Iron. Bodybuilders’ performance of the body is not solely acted just on stage for competitions. Rather, bodybuilders are continuously redefining limitations of what we determine a ‘normal’ body looks like. By using the concept of the gaze, I analyze bodybuilders’ bodies as an oddity on and off stage (Mulvey, 1989). The oddity of their body transforms the space it takes up into a stage for entertainment. I then examine gender performances of female and male bodybuilders within the traditionally …

White Women Wanted? An Analysis Of Gender Diversity In Social Justice Magazines, Corey Lee Wrenn, Megan Lutz

Diversity and Social Movements Collection

The role of media in collective action repertoires has been extensively studied, but media as an agent of socialization in social movement identity is less understood. It could be that social movement media is normalizing a particular activist identity to the exclusion of other demographics. For instance, Harper has identified white-centrism in anti-speciesist media produced by the Nonhuman Animal rights movement and supposes that this lack of diversity stunts movement potential. Using the lesser-studied Nonhuman Animal rights movement as a starting point, this study investigates two prominent Nonhuman Animal rights magazines. We compare those findings with an analysis of comparable …

Androgyny/Hermaphroditism: Hebrew Bible, Jennifer J. Williams

Faculty Publications

The Hebrew Bible lacks a term for androgyny or hermaphroditism. The term tumtumim, which identifies persons of indeterminate or “hidden” sex, appears later in rabbinic texts. Nevertheless, sexual fluidity, ambiguity, intersexed persons, and persons with a combination of masculine and feminine characteristics appear in the Genesis creation stories and prophetic texts. While gender transgression is relevant to the general discussion, this entry from The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies: Oxford Biblical Studies Online focuses primarily on ancient understandings, namely those presented in the Hebrew Bible, of those of “both sexes.”

Does Shifting Gender Norms On The Community Level Lead To Increased Hiv Services Uptake?, Project Soar

HIV and AIDS

Project SOAR and partners are building on an ongoing National Institute of Mental Health–funded randomized controlled trial being conducted in South Africa—Community Mobilization for Treatment as Prevention. Specifically, the study aims to strengthen and expand the gender content of the intervention to engage both women and men in critically examining gender norms and power inequalities. This brief presents the particularly timely study that will address a key question in the field as to how gender norms may operate to affect HIV service utilization. Building the evidence base in this area is vital for improving care outcomes as well as creating …

Space, Place, Gender, And Sexuality : Situational Gender In Four Coffee Houses, Kimberly Tauches

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I explore the notion of situational gender in four coffee houses. Drawing on recent theoretical contributions by Barrie Thorne (1993) and Jacob Hale (1997) I determine the ways in which gender changes salience, as well as how gender shifts for individuals in these specific social settings. The crux of my research question focuses on determining the fluidity of gender in everyday life by highlighting the importance of situation while still maintaining a deep understanding of how gender operates as a major social structure. I draw on recent theoretical notions in gender performance, queer theory, and postmodern theory …

All The Single Ladies : How The Intersections Of Race And Family Type Influence Health, Cassandra G. Carter

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Decreasing rates of marriage and the delay of motherhood or decision to forsake childbearing altogether are emergent trends in the United States. Historically, shifts in family composition have always been important, yet the increase in the number of unmarried and child-free adults is rarely acknowledged by health researchers. Race and family type will be used to investigate the health of Black and White unmarried, childless women (SWANS), using intersectional theory, the Social Determinants of Health, and the Sojourner Model. The frequencies of poor health outcomes are analyzed to determine if family type influences health outcomes, and if so, does this …

Male Breadwinner Ideology And The Inclination To Establish Market Relationships: Model Development Using Data From Germany And A Mixed-Methods Research Strategy, Michaela Haase, Ingrid Becker, Alexander Nill, Clifford J. Shultz Ii, James W. Gentry

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

A pattern found in many marketing systems, “male breadwinning,” is contingent upon overlapping and shared ideologies, which influence the economic organization and thus the type and number of relationships in those systems. Implementing a mixed-methods research methodology, this article continues and extends previous work in macromarketing on the interplay of markets, ideology, socio-economic organization, and family. A qualitative study illuminated the main ideologies behind male breadwinning and a model was developed to advance the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of male breadwinning. An experiment in the form of a vignette study was subsequently designed and administered. The qualitative study and …

Gender, Genre, And “Quality” Television: The Field Of Television Production In America From 1951 - 2013, Joseph Andrew Hoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gender has a major impact on how society is organized. Societal processes taking place within fields continually shape and recreate our concepts of man and woman. Within television this is no difierent. Although a field closely tied to capitalistic economic interests, television has been afiorded a slight amount of autonomy that has allocertain shows in certain genres to be engaged with by audiences much like literature that is rich in symbolism and open to multiple interpretations. This study addresses how gender has structured the field over three distinct time periods as it expanded and provided men with opportunities and resources …

Examining Early Childhood Gender Socialization Through Children’S Picture Books, Kendra Leigh Pospisil

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This analysis examines gender representations found in children’s picture books through a symbolic interactionist perspective, employing conceptual ideas produced by West and Zimmerman (1987) and West and Fenstermaker 1995). Through a qualitative content analysis of 20 picture books from the past 15 years, I examine how gender is portrayed through both human and animal characters. I find that children’s picture books reflect our patriarchal society as they are male-centered, male-dominated, and male-identified (Johnson 2014). Children’s picture books depict patriarchal gender portrayals and provide children with examples of gender performances that satisfy patriarchal gender norms. This research has implications beyond books; …