Sociology Commons^™

Gendered Divisions Of Fertility Work: Socioeconomic Predictors Of Female Versus Male Sterilization, Andrea Bertotti

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Research

Domestic labor researchers have examined a multitude of duties disproportionately performed by women, yet the responsibility associated with navigating a couple's fertility—fertility work—has been overlooked. Using data from the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth (N = 1,415), the author examined how racial and socioeconomic factors affect the division of contraceptive fertility work among married and cohabiting women who rely on either their partners' vasectomies or their own sterilizations. Drawing theoretical connections between fertility work and housework, resource- and gender-based perspectives were used to assess whether women's or their partners' characteristics are stronger predictors of sterilization type, and whether women's …

Black & White Running Bodies: Masculinity, Muscularity & Femininity, Jenny Lee Lendrum

Wayne State University Theses

Women as a population have been marathoning for less than thirty years, many are fresh and new to the sport, and are making such sacrifices by squeezing the sport into their full lives along with their career and familiar responsibilities. Many women, Black and White, some with family responsibilities, others with demanding careers, several with both, are running. By doing so, they are challenging male dominance and demand an equality on and off the road. Women have created meaning in their lives as a result of marathoning. Their lives, perceptions and experiences, and bodies have changed in the process.

Intersectionality: Mapping The Movements Of A Theory, Devon Carbado, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Vicki M. Mays, Barbara Tomlinson

Faculty Scholarship

Very few theories have generated the kind of interdisciplinary and global engagement that marks the intellectual history of intersectionality. Yet, there has been very little effort to reflect upon precisely how intersectionality has moved across time, disciplines, issues, and geographic and national boundaries. Our failure to attend to intersectionality’s movement has limited our ability to see the theory in places in which it is already doing work and to imagine other places to which the theory might be taken. Addressing these questions, this special issue reflects upon the genesis of intersectionality, engages some of the debates about its scope and …

Interracial Lesbian And Gay Couples: Navigating Private And Public Experiences, Anne Bubriski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the private and public experiences of Black/White interracial lesbian and gay couples. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory and intersectional feminism, this research focuses on how the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality influence relationship experiences and family processes in both private and public spaces for interracial same-sex couples. This study is based on 19 in-depth interviews with individuals in Black/White lesbian and gay relationships. Participants’ stories highlight intersectionality in terms of the ways interracial lesbian and gay couples navigate these interpersonal and public spaces. Participant experiences suggest that the dichotomy of private/public is …

Making Sense Of Motorcycle Brotherhood: Women, Branding, And Construction Of Self, Kimberly Michelle Maas

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This project focused on the motorcycle culture as evidenced in the definition of motorcycling brotherhood, the role of women in motorcycle culture, branding, and construction of self-identity. This study is intended to provide an in-depth analysis of these four areas for every-day bikers rather than outlaw motorcycle gangs. Previous research to date has focused on the culture and context of brotherhood among outlaw motorcycle gangs. I use these four sections to determine what the everyday bikers understanding of brotherhood is, what women's current place is in motorcycle culture compared to men, the effects of branding and logos on motorcyclists, and …

Showcasing Self: An Intersectional Analysis Of Body Type Presentation In Online Daters, Andrew Latinsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from the online dating site Match.com, this paper performs a content analysis examining the relationships between race, gender, and sexuality as both independent variables and as intersections on impression management strategies in online dating. Impression management strategies form a foundational core of how people interact with others in social situations. This analysis focuses on impression management strategies by examining how people advertise their body type in a public arena. Analysis also draws upon the types of bodies these people desire in an ideal date, as a second method of looking at the norms surrounding the ideal body …

Gender Differences In The Effects Of Exposure To Violence On Adolescent Substance Use, Gillian M. Pichevsky, Emily M. Wright, Abigail A. Fagan

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

To date, research exploring gender differences in the relationship between exposure to community violence and substance use has been limited. This study employs longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) to assess the exposure to violence–substance use relationship and explore whether this relationship varies by gender. We find that the two forms of exposure to violence—direct (primary) and indirect (secondary)—independently increase the frequency of subsequent alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana use among males and females. One gender difference emerged, as females who had been directly victimized engaged in more frequent binge drinking than males …

The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data To Identify And Reach The Most Vulnerable Young People—Rwanda 2010, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data to Identify and Reach the Most Vulnerable Young People: Rwanda 2010” is part of a series of Population Council guides that draw principally on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to provide decisionmakers at all levels—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and advocacy groups—with evidence on the situation of adolescent girls and boys and young women aged 10–24 years. The data are presented in graphs, tables, and maps (wherever possible), providing multiple formats to make the information accessible to a range of audiences. Section I is the Foreword. Section II offers brief technical notes specific …

The Effectiveness Of Educational Support To Orphans And Vulnerable Children In Tanzania And Uganda, Mary Shann, Malcolm Bryant, Mohamad Brooks, Paul Bukuluki, Denis Muhangi, Joe Lugalla, Gideon Kwesigabo

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Little evidence is available to assist policy makers and donors in deciding what kinds of programs in developing countries are more likely to be effective in supporting the entry and continuation of OVC in secondary schools. This is particularly important for females whose education has direct bearing on child mortality in the next generation. This study gathered four kinds of educational outcome measures in two East African countries ravaged by the AIDS/HIV pandemic. The goal was to determine whether direct scholarship aid to individual students versus various forms of block grants would be more effective in promoting lower rates of …

Normalizing The Deviance: The Creation, Politics, And Consumption Of Sexual Orientation And Gender Identities In Online Fan Communities, Dianna M. Fielding

Departmental Honors Projects

Communities of fan producers have been creating and consuming works labeled deviant by both laypeople and academics for decades. Fan producers take the popular media they enjoy and rewrite it to fit their needs and desires. Online, these fan producers have found a new space to re-write what it means to be normative. These fan producers often write about slash, which depicts homosexual relationships as normal, and genderswap, which plays with the idea of gender by physically switching characters’ sex. Understanding how norms are created within fan productions can help us understand how norms are created more broadly. Through content …

Dragged Into The Future : How Interent Communications And Media Legitimacy Facilitate Lagging Gender Norms, Skylar C. Gremillion

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Social interaction is the driving force of human society and extends far beyond one-on-one conversations – it is how we learn about the behavioral expectations, beliefs and symbols of our culture. Sometimes these beliefs and expectations are related to celebrations and events that bring cultures together. Through interaction we learn that we are expected to bring a gift to a birthday party and why we even choose to celebrate birthdays at all. Yet that same framework – which is tied to the way humans categorize each other to make interaction easier – also allows cultures to share biases about different …

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

Generations Apart: A Mixed Methods Study Of Black Women’S Attitudes About Race And Social Activism, Carolyn D. Love

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Since the beginning of slavery in the United States, Black women have been actively involved in the creation and formation of Black civil society. The abolitionist, Black women’s club, and civil rights movements challenged White supremacy and created institutions that fought for political, social, and economic justice. Historically, Black women have engaged in the struggle for group survival while at the same time fighting for institutional transformation to eliminate or change discriminatory policies, practices, and procedures. With each passing generation, Black women have led efforts of resistance against racial discrimination, gender bias, and class exploitation. However, with each passing generation, …

Minority Women In Stem: A Valuable Resource In The Global Economy, Ezella Mcpherson, Diane R. Fuselier-Thompson

Journal of the International Association for the Study of the Global Achievement Gap (Archived)

While there is an expected demographic shift of the ethnic minority population in the United States to become the majority population by 2020, few minority women successfully attain baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields. To address this gap, this article employs critical race feminism and narrative analysis methods to examine minority women’s challenges while pursuing undergraduate STEM degrees. Findings suggest that limited access to the field, isolation and alienation, and affordability create barriers that result in many minority women leaving STEM majors. Implications for practice include targeted institutional efforts to increase recruitment and retention efforts towards …

Dismantling Glass Ceilings: Ethical Challenges To Impasse In The Academy, Debora Y. Fonteneau

Journal of the International Association for the Study of the Global Achievement Gap (Archived)

This article uses numeric and qualitative data to interrogate the impact of affirmative action policies on shattering glass ceilings and resolving impasse in the academic lives of African Americans. This work takes its trajectory from previous research on glass ceilings (Marina and Fonteneau, 2012). Two brief case studies from both PWIs and HBCUs are mentioned to ponder complex attitudes toward race, gender and power. In extracting meaning from the policies, practices, and cases, it became clear that attitudes toward power and authority are influenced by context, but even more, by an individual’s sense of right and wrong. This work is …

Women Faculty Of Color: Success Stories From The Margins, Bridget Turner Kelly, Kristin Mccann

Journal of the International Association for the Study of the Global Achievement Gap (Archived)

Based on data from a larger, longitudinal study of 22 women faculty on the tenure track, this qualitative study examines the socialization experiences of four women faculty of color (WFOC) who earned tenure at two public, research extensive, predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the U.S. This study gives voice to WFOC who broke through the glass ceiling of tenure and were promoted to associate professor. Although these women earned tenure, their adjustment as newcomers to the academy was fraught with marginalization for being both women and persons of color. Specifically, the WFOC experienced challenges to their role clarity, self-efficacy and …

Rethinking Critical Mass In The Federal Appellate Courts., Laura Moyer

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This article draws from critical mass studies of gender in other political institutions to inform an application to the US Courts of Appeals. The results demonstrate the utility of considering court-level aspects of diversity. As mixed-sex panels become more common within a circuit, both male and female judges increasingly support plaintiffs in civil rights claims, though the magnitude of the effect is larger for women. The presence of a female chief judge is also positively associated with pro-plaintiff decisions by men and women in sex discrimination cases.

Multidimensionality Is To Masculinities What Intersectionality Is To Feminism, Athena D. Mutua

Journal Articles

Committed to intersectionality theory in her feminist work, the scholar Juliet Williams expressed the sentiment that “multidimensionality is to masculinities theory, what intersectionality is to feminism.” She did so in the context of a debate about whether intersectionality theory might capture the complexity of men’s lives, particularly men of color’s lives, as well as does multidimensionality theory, given that the latter is based in large part on the former. This paper, briefly explores the intellectual history of multidimensionality theory, concedes that intersectionality, a powerful analytical tool that has matured and gone global, could easily be used and is in part …

Pagkababae At Pagkalalake (Femininity And Masculinity): Developing A Filipino Gender Trait Inventory And Predicting Self-Esteem And Sexism, Vivienne Velez Valledor-Lukey

Child and Family Studies - Dissertations

This study focused on the construction of a gender trait inventory from a Filipino perspective, guided by social constructionist, symbolic interactionist, and feminist theories. Traits that were identified as being typical of Filipino men and women were grouped into positive (i.e., socially desirable) and negative (i.e., socially undesirable) subscales. Development and validity testing were conducted using data from 296 Filipino university students. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to develop the subscales of the instrument. The Filipino femininity subscale included positive traits such as being caring and supportive and negative traits such as being timid or keeping things to one's …

Gender, Hegemony, And Country Music, Ashley R. Richards

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Since its inception, country music has proven to be a powerful medium of communication and expression in contemporary culture. Reining as the most popular musical format in radio today, the themes expressed by contemporary country musicians, particularly female country musicians, are diverse and varied, proving the importance of evolution in this once considered homogeneous format. This study explores how modern female country musicians use their lyrics as tools for highlighting dominant, hegemonic gender roles in culture. Guided by Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding theory (1980) and feminist communication theory (Rakow & Wackwitz, 2004) this study utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) …

Personality And Religiosity: The Influence Of Normative Personality On Black Sunni Muslims' Religious Attitudes And Practices, Halim Khidher Naeem

Dissertations

There is a dearth of literature on Black Sunni Muslims in the field of psychology. More so, there is no literature specifically analyzing the influences upon Black religiosity. The literature has established that personality has significant influence upon religiosity. The literature also says that females are more religious than their male counterparts. The present study analyzed the influence of personality, gender and social class upon religiosity for Black Sunni Muslims. The following hypothesis was investigated: Personality, gender, and social class will affect religious attitudes and practices.

A canonical regression analysis using SPSS revealed that personality, gender and social class had …

Midwest Or Lesbian? Gender, Rurality, And Sexuality, Emily Kazyak

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Research suggests a gendered dimension to the geography of sexual minorities, as gay couples are more likely to live in cities than are lesbian couples. Using data from 60 interviews with rural gays and lesbians, this article employs an intersectional analysis of the mutually constitutive relationships among place, gender, and sexuality in order to assess how acceptance of gays and lesbians in small towns is gendered. Findings indicate that femininity aligns with gay sexuality but not rurality. In contrast, masculinity underpins both the categories “rural” and “lesbian.” Furthermore, both lesbian women and gay men gain acceptance in rural areas by …

Gender Equality And Social Cohesion : Reflection On The Experiences Of Strengthening Teacher Education In Pakistan, Dilshad Ashraf, Kausar Waqar

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Widening The Social Context Of Disablement Among Married Older Adults: Considering The Role Of Nonmarital Relationships For Loneliness, David F. Warner, Scott A. Adams

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Utilizing the stress process and life course perspectives, we investigated the influence of non-spousal social support on the associations between marital quality, physical disability, and loneliness among married older adults. Using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), we found that the association between physical disability and loneliness was partially accounted for by the fact that physical disability was associated with less supportive nonmarital relationships. While physically-disabled older adults in higher-quality marriages were buffered from loneliness, supportive non-martial relationships did not offset elevated loneliness among those in low-quality marriages. These associations were largely similar for men …

Brazen (Fall 2012), Hollins University

Brazen - Gender & Women's Studies Department Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Gender Differences In Work Values In China, Lulu Nie

All Theses

Based on a nationally representative sample of 10,332 adults from the China General Social Survey 2005 (CGSS2005), this study examines gender differences in work values in China, the mediating effects of marriage and family status, the mediating effects of SES and occupational characteristics and the interaction between gender and family status. Results from ordinal logistic regressions show that women are more likely to rank high earnings, job security, short work time and job autonomy higher, while men are more likely to rank job prestige, job authority, job interest, job promotion, serving others and sense of achievement higher. Marriage and family …

Gendered Effects On The Child Welfare Agency Decision-Making Process, Brandon Crawford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research on child abuse and neglect suggests that there may be gendered relationships between child victims and case outcomes. Specifically, although agency practices may generally regard most male and female children as equally vulnerable, agency attributions regarding the culpability, need, and suitability of parents may be highly differentiated based on gender. Explanations for this pattern may lie in the cultural ideologies and organizational beliefs that distinguish between the perceived rights, responsibilities, and relative importance of mothering and fathering roles. That is, one function of Social service agencies is to uphold Social constructions of parenting and promote our larger cultural …

The Effects Of Body Modifications And Dress On Perceived Professionalism And Competency Of A Female Model, Ashley Donell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through the norms of a society, people must meet certain expectations in order to survive and provide for their family. For example, job expectations driven by human judgment on appearance creates a norm that society must follow. The question is how much appearance attributes such as dress and hair color effect others' interpretation of who a person may be? The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between specific appearance and body modifications (dress and hair color) of a young female professional and perceived competency level as determined by a convenience sample of students in selected senior level …

Gender Differences In Trait Emotional Intelligence: A Comparative Study, Salman Shahzad, Nasreen Bagum

Business Review

The objective of present study is to determine the difference between male and female on the variable of trait emotional intelligence. After the detailed literature review the following hypothesis was formulated; There would be a difference between males and females on the variable of trait emotional intelligence. The sample consisted of 100 university students. The entire sample divided into two groups. The sample consisted of 100 university students, recruited from University of Karachi, including 51(51%) males and 49 (49 %) females. The age range of both groups were from 18 to 30 years (Mean age =23.78 years) with males (Mean …

Research Brief: "A New Generation Of Women Veterans: Stressors Faced By Women Deployed To Iraq And Afghanistan", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study analyzes the effect of experiencing combat on the physical and mental health of female veterans as compared to male veterans. For policy and practice, the research shows that female veterans who experienced combat might not reach out for health services, and therefore those barriers should be identified and addressed. Suggestions for future research include conducting studies with larger sample sizes and representative samples, as well as addressing the interpersonal stress female veterans experience.