Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

“Disbelieving Black Women To Death”; The “Double Jeopardy”: Racism And Sexism Affects Black Women’S Access To And Quality Of Care During Pregnancy, Birth, And Postpartum, Madeline St. Clair

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This paper explores possible reasons why Black women in the United States experience a higher maternal mortality rate than their white counterparts. Using books, articles, journals, documentaries, personal experiences and stories of Black women and mothers, I argue that barriers from the societal to the individual level create health and medical disparities for Black mothers in pregnancy, during delivery, and the postpartum period. The paper concludes with a multifaceted solution and call to action.

“Contact” Sports: Competitive Athletic Experience, Racial Attitudes, And Intergroup Contact, Savana Nawojski

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Allport’s (1954) Intergroup Contact hypothesis suggests that interaction among people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds can reduce prejudice, particularly in situations that involve cooperation and common goals. Although participation in competitive sports may provide opportunities for cooperative interaction among people from different racial backgrounds, and athletic teams tend to be more diverse at higher levels (NCAA 2019), relatively little work has examined the contact hypothesis in this context. Using a national representative data set (N = 966), we examine whether respondents’ levels of competitive athletic experience are related to their attitudes toward African Americans. We find no bivariate relationship …

A Textuary Ray Of Hope For Lgbtq+ Workers: Does Title Vii Mean What It Says?, Eduardo Juarez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Looking Beyond Batson: A Different Method Of Combating Bias Against Queer Jurors, Anna L. Tayman

William & Mary Law Review

On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California’s history, was murdered. He was shot five times, twice in the head. His murderer, Dan White, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served only five years in prison.

The Dan White trial is the most famous example of queer juror exclusion in American history. While White’s defense attorney, Douglas Schmidt, could not directly ask the jurors about their sexual orientation, he had another strategy: find the gays and allies and keep them out, and find the Catholics and keep them in. Schmidt struck a woman who …

Invisible Harm: Verbal Sexual Coercion Among College Students, Char Chezanne

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper provides a review of literature and research on verbal sexual coercion on college campuses by focusing on heterosexual dynamics. The studies involved explore the factors that influence sexually coercive behavior, including parenting styles, heteronormative beliefs, and risk-taking behaviors. Furthermore, this paper reviews current informal and formal responses to campus sexual coercion by focusing on the overlooked power dynamics that influence sexual consent. This paper concludes that restorative justice serves as an alternative to traditional justice for campus-based sexual coercion because of its flexibility and applicability to nuanced sexual assault cases.

Creative Gender Expression Performativity As A Coping Mechanism For Minority Stress, Emerson A. Todd

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Creative Gender Expression Performativity may be a coping mechanism for dealing with minority stress in sexual and gender minority populations. The current study suggests the creation of a new scale that measures effortful presentation rather than directional presentation. Rather than examining whether someone identifies as masculine or feminine – the proposed model would instead look at how much effort an individual is putting into their gender expression. In this mixed methods study, participants (N = 187) completed a survey based on gender expression, minority stress, and mental health, while 10 participants completed a qualitative post-survey interview via email. Multiple regressions …

Love In South Korea: Transformations Of Intimacy And Gender Relations In Korean Romantic Relationships, Alex Joseph Nelson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Romantic love holds a central place in South Korean imaginaries, animating television dramas and pop ballads, but has been largely overlooked in Korea's ethnographic record. Drawing on data collected through 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, survey research, interviews, and analysis of folklore, the present study investigates how South Koreans conceptualize romantic love, how those conceptions have changed over time, and the ways they are transforming with the Korean field of gender relations.

This study documents love's entwinement with marriage in South Korea. Koreans are developing companionate ideals of marriage that shift the focus of kinship from the parent-child relationship to …

Excavating Gender: The Embodiment And (Re)Presentation Of Social Relations In Mierzanowice Communities Of The Early Bronze Age, Mark Paul Toussaint

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The construction of gender in a society is based on a discursive relationship between culture and biology. Ideological components are often translated into structural factors, which condition access to social and biological resources and exposure to risk. Cumulative differential health outcomes for groups can become embodied in ways that affect the skeleton. By conducting population-level analyses of skeletal markers of health and trauma, bioarchaeologists work backwards to attempt to reconstruct social conditions. Archaeological and mortuary context is an important part of this process.

Cemeteries of the Mierzanowice Culture (MC) in southern Poland (2300-1600 BCE) offer a unique opportunity to study …

Shattering The Glass: Will Gen Z Bring Us Closer To Gender Equality In Us Hospitality Leadership?, Denise Holly Ramirez Molintas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The continued underrepresentation of women in senior leadership positions has impaired the hospitality industry’s capacity to achieve the fifth UN Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality. Although the industry has initiated programs to establish gender parity, the innate gendering through traditional leadership prototypes and gender-role stratification requires investigation. Scholars have noted the limited focus on gender-aware issues in hospitality research. Further, as gender is a socialized construct, historical shifts in gender ideologies have enabled changes in gendering at the individual, interactional, and institutional dimensions of society. Grounded in gender as a social structure theory and role congruity theory, this dissertation …

Exploration Of The Intersection Of Social Identities Of Female Leaders In Postsecondary Education: A Phenomenological Approach, Sara Shaw

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of female leaders currently in leadership roles in postsecondary education. This hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted to explore intersecting identities and how the identities affected female leaders’ leadership experiences and decision-making processes. Through the theoretical framework of intersectionality, I explored the relationships among females, leadership, career decision-making, and other categorical social identities. Data gathered from semi-structured one-on-one interviews and demographic surveys with 11 female postsecondary leaders sought to understand how gender and selected social identities affect career decision-making of women in postsecondary leadership positions. The researcher identified seven themes: …

Between Two Cultures: A Qualitative Analysis Of Lgbq American Desis' Published Stories., Shaina Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surveys have shown that Asian-Americans are the least likely of all racial groups to identify as LGBT. South Asians in the United States are especially unlikely to be “out.” However, little research has been conducted to explain this underrepresentation. In this thesis, I conduct a qualitative analysis of texts about a specific group of lesbian, gay, bisexual/pansexual, and queer (LGBQ) South Asian-Americans—namely Bangladeshi-, Indian-, and Pakistani-Americans, or desis. These texts include personal essays, feature articles in newspapers, and video interviews with LGBQ desis. I explore trends in LGBQ desis’ experiences as described in these materials. In particular, I am …

Menstruation Regulation: A Feminist Critique Of Menstrual Product Brands On Instagram, Max Faust

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Much research about advertisements for menstrual products reveals the ways in which such advertising perpetuates shame and reinforces unrealistic ideals of femininity and womanhood. This study aims to examine the content of Instagram posts by four different menstrual product brands in hopes of understanding how these functions may or may not be carried out by social media posts by these brands as well. Building on the body of research about menstrual shame and advertising, I specifically ask: How do the Instagram pages for four menstrual product brands dissuade individuality; how do they prescribe femininity; and how do these functions differ …

Associations Of Sex, Gender, And Gender Role Beliefs With Mental Health Attitudes, Ariel Erazo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mental health stigma is a strong deterrent for individual with mental illness utilizing mental healthcare. Individuals living with a mental illness experience shame and marginalization due to stigma. Stigma is perpetuated through stereotypes created and used by people in the majority. Studies have been done to assess individual’s attitudes toward mental healthcare seeking in regards to gender, age, race, and profession. This study aimed to look at traditional gender role beliefs, sex, and gender expression as predictors of individual’s mental health attitudes and individual’s views of mental health norms. Using a cross-sectional survey, 392 participants completed scales that included the …

Title Ix Effectiveness At American Universities, Corrine K. Girard

Discovery Day - Prescott

The purpose of this research is to contribute to and improve existing university knowledge of the effectiveness of the University Title IX reporting process. After discussing experiences with Title IX with students at ERAU, it is apparent that there is a negative connotation among university students with this program. This research will build off of the research completed last year in which ERAU Title IX processes were compared to that of Occidental College and CalTech. This research aims to provide clarity to Title IX offices at the University to aid in successfully adapting their program to the needs of the …

Social, Scientific, Litigious: The Birth Of A Queer Americanism, Claire M. Fennell

Young Historians Conference

The queer rights movement is often assumed to have advanced because of the collateral benefit of other social rights movements occurring around the same time, in the 1950s and 60s. However, the inception of an organized queer rights movement did not happen in line with any progressive time in United States public thought. In reality, the movement began at a time when America was at its least forward-thinking, during the Cold War. It was not the times becoming more progressive, but rather the shift in the model of oppression the queer community faced which allowed for the advent of an …

Women In Law: Exploring Expectations For Women In A Man's Profession, Taylor Carroll, Jacqueline M. Zalewski Dr.

Anthropology & Sociology Student Work

Over the winter break I read the following about gender inequality in the workforce: (a) Gender Trials by Jennifer L. Pierce, (b) Women in Engineering: Gender Power and Workplace Culture by Judith S. McIlwee and J. Gregg Robinson, in preparation for an independent research project on Women in Law. I am planning to do interviews with several female attorneys that I have contacted via the West Chester University Alumni Association. These attorneys will be surveyed about their experiences with pursuing law as undergraduates, Law School students, and as licensed attorney. Working with Dr. Zalewski, I will then compile the data …

Can Adolescent Girls' Safe Space Clubs Effectively Run Solar-Powered Mobile Phone Charging Stations In Rural Sierra Leone?, Nadia Assad, Sarah Blake

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Access to electricity in rural Sierra Leone is scarce. Estimates on the proportion of households having regular access to electricity range from 1 to 5 percent. Along with mobile phones, which are now common even in settings where phone lines never reached, new energy technologies are beginning to fill in where traditional infrastructure is absent. Solar technologies hold promise for expanding access to electricity while offering sustainable alternatives to expensive, nonrenewable sources for powering lights, phones, tools, and appliances. Recognizing that there is important learning to be done in connecting adolescent girls’ clubs and solar technologies, the Population Council conducted …

Impacts Of Intersectionality In The Lgbtqiap+ Community, Sydney Inger

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

Intersectionality plays an integral role in how a family or society reacts to a youth’s identification within the LGBTQIAP+ community and their chances of overcoming societal challenges that may follow. The intersections of geographic location and religion are predictive of how accepting a family is toward an LGBTIAP+ child, but this is not correlated with every case. When a family is unaccepting, youth can find themselves running away, homeless, in the foster care system, or incarcerated. Beyond continuous rejection at home and in the community, youth are left with challenges finding accepting foster families and applying for jobs and homes …

Evidence Around Engaging Men In Hiv Prevention And Treatment, Julie Pulerwitz, Ann Gottert, Jerry Okal, Sanyukta Mathur

HIV and AIDS

No abstract provided.

Between The Waves: A Historiographical Analysis Of The Long Women’S Movement, Tiffany Clapp

2020 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity

Feminism, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. Historically, the feminist movement has been categorized by two distinct waves. The first wave began around 1890 and is stated to have ended in 1920, after women successfully obtained the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The second wave does not occur until the 1960s and would continue into to the modern era. However, this paper is addressing how historians theorized about the “Long Feminist” movement that occurred between the two distinct …

Lgbtq Training For Aquatic Employees: Impact On Attitudes And Professional Competencies, Austin R. Anderson, Eric Knee, William D. Ramos

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This study examined the impact of a LGBTQ diversity training on the attitudes and professional competencies of aquatic employees within a campus recreational sports setting. While diversity training is often discussed as a key component of inclusive aquatic programming, little empirical research examining the outcomes associated with such trainings exists. As such, members of the research team developed, implemented, and evaluated a four-month long training program consisting of one in-person training session and monthly inclusion handouts discussing issues related to the inclusion of LGBTQ participants. A comparative quantitative research design was used to measure employee’s attitudes towards the LGBTQ population …

Lgbtq+ Journeys And Femininity, Masculinity Throughout Puberty: A Thematic Analysis Of Netflix's Big Mouth, Carter Montgomery

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Media is socially constructed and those who create the message, shape the beliefs and principles that are displayed. The viewers do not merely accept the representations at face value; they consume it, interpret and analyze the validity of it and then express their thoughts on what they see. Media is an influential tool for challenging, maintaining, and expanding consumer’s understanding of the world around them, playing a key role in shaping people’s identities, especially gender and sexuality. It’s important to be able to analyze media to critically think about the worlds that are presented to us that represent the world …

Pilgrimage: True Belonging: Exploring The Human Desire To Belong Through Dance And Storytelling, Lincoln K. Belford

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

The human sense of belonging morphs and changes as we mature and gain life experience. The relationships we make, or choose not to, affect the way we perceive ourselves, which directly correlates to our understanding of how we belong to the universe as a whole. Perception of self and belonging are inextricably connected, therefore by focusing on belonging to ourselves rather than to the world around us, we experience self-acceptance, allowing us to forge deeper, more meaningful connections with those we choose. True belonging is an active practice that takes effort, and involves reflection and critical evaluation of self. A …

Internalized Stigmatization And Rejection Anxiety As Mediators Between Self-Monitoring And Transgender Identity Concealment, Sarah Carlton

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

High self-monitors are more motivated and able than low self-monitors to conceal parts of their identity (Fuglestad & Snyder, 2010). Gay and lesbian individuals will sometimes conceal their identity due to rejection anxiety and internalized stigmatization (Mohr & Fassinger, 2003; Quinn & Earnshaw, 2013). However, these phenomena have yet to be studied for transgender individuals. The purpose of this study is to explore how self-monitoring may predict identity concealment in transgender individuals. Using MTurk, we will sample 100 transgender women and 100 transgender men. Participants will complete the 25-item Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974) as well as modified versions of the …

An Evaluation Of Nursing Student Preparedness To Serve The Lgbtq+ Community, Collin Mullis

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Existing literature on LGBTQ+ health reveals differences in mental and physical health outcomes and differences in health care utilization of LGBTQ+ people compared to non-LGBTQ+ people. While these differences require the urgent attention of medical professionals, research suggests that health care practitioners, generally, are underprepared to serve LGBTQ+ clients and contribute to underutilization of health care services through overt and covert homophobia and transphobia.

Because of their visibility in health care, this project specifically explores nursing students’ preparedness to serve LGBTQ+ clients. In this context, preparedness is defined as having knowledge of LGBTQ+ health topics, the development of relevant clinical …

Religious Conflict And Sexual Identity Among Lgbt Adults, Alana N. Innerbichler

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

The LGBT community is considered a contentious topic of conversation among various religious denominations. This research analyzes conflict between sexual identity and religious beliefs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults. Despite retrospective studies investigating attitudes towards same-sex relations, including negative experiences within religious institutions and facets of integrating diverse sexual identities, the quantitative and qualitative data lacks the perspective of LGBT individuals. This study augments existing literature by utilizing data conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2013. Preliminary findings show that despite the abuse LGBT individuals endure during the “coming out process”, most LGBT individuals do not …

Evaluating The Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day Program, Karinna A. Rodriguez Bs, Karin Rogers Bs, Zoe I. Kennedy, Alexandra Schonning Phd, Susan Perez Phd

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

It is well-documented that women in the United States are underrepresented in STEM fields and engineering in particular. This results in the underutilization of the available range of human resources and diverse problem-solving capacity in addressing the types of problems engineers are trained to solve. The lack of female representation in STEM fields may be associated with gender stereotypes and cultural practices that steer women away from engineering, a process that begins in childhood. This study examined the impact of one type of outreach, a 1-day opportunity for young girls in grades 1 through 5 to learn about and get …

Exploring Communal And Gendered Influences On Sexual Health Practices, Courtney Olds, Luke Lovelady, Emery Hanson, Elizabeth R. Brown

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

In the U.S., 10% of female college students who have an unplanned pregnancy, drop out (UPFO, 2016). Additionally, young adults (15-24) account for half of the new STI’s (CDC, 2017). Previous research has established communal (other-oriented) motivation is positively associated with factors that predict safe sex practices (e.g., condom use intentions) (Phillips et al., 2019). Conversely, gender norms (societal expectations affiliated with gender) are negatively associated with factors that predict safe sex practices (e.g., partner communication and self-efficacy). For instance, although, women who report higher self-efficacy are more likely to engage in partner communication, women who rely on traditional gender …

Painted Nails: The Gender(Ed) Performance Of Queer Sexuality, Justin Rudnick

Communication Studies Department Publications

In this essay, I interrogate my own experiences performing my queer identity through my painted nails. I attest to the ways queer bodies might performatively challenge and/or reinforce rigid norms of sexuality through mundane performances of (gendered) identity. To accomplish this, I engage in an autoethnographic exploration of queer performativity. I recount and analyze a series of anecdotes that illustrate how performances of queer identity in everyday life are accomplished—and policed—in mundane situations. In turn, I reflexively investigate the ways in which these performances situate me within a nexus of aesthetic, embodied, and ethical social interaction and performative resistance. I …

Womanpriest: Tradition And Transgression In The Contemporary Roman Catholic Church, Jill Peterfeso

History

This book is openly available in digital formats thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

While some Catholics and even non-Catholics today are asking if priests are necessary, especially given the ongoing sex-abuse scandal, The Roman Catholic Womanpriests (RCWP) looks to reframe and reform Roman Catholic priesthood, starting with ordained women. Womanpriest is the first academic study of the RCWP movement. As an ethnography, Womanpriest analyzes the womenpriests’ actions and lived theologies in order to explore ongoing tensions in Roman Catholicism around gender and sexuality, priestly authority, and religious change.

In order to understand how womenpriests …