Browsing by Subject "Gender"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 342

A clash of constructs? : re-examining grit in light of academic buoyancy and future time perspective
(2017-05) Kim, Youngwon, M.A.; Schallert, Diane L.
Grit, defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, has been found to be a powerful predictor of student success and persistence. Yet, it has been recently scrutinized construct due to weaknesses in discriminant and predictive validity of its measure. To investigate these issues further, I examined grit, its dimensions (perseverance of effort and consistency of interest), and other motivational factors--academic buoyancy and future time perspective--to test whether they were distinct constructs, and whether they were predictors of academic achievement, incorporating individual differences in gender, ethnicity, and major. The current study revealed that grit positively predicted undergraduates’ GPA (N = 328) over and beyond demographic and other motivational variables. Regarding individual differences, men and women differed on subscales of future time perspective, and Asian Americans reported lower grit compared to White and Hispanic students, despite higher GPA compared to Hispanics. The relevance of the findings is discussed along with implications for research and practice.
"A great army of instruction" : American teachers and the negotiation of empire in the Philippines
(2013-05) Steinbock-Pratt, Sarah Katherine; Green, Laurie B. (Laurie Beth); Brands, H.W.; Bsumek, Erika; Abzug, Robert; Levine, Philippa; Kramer, Paul A
In the summer of 1901, the United States government began a project of colonial education in the Philippines, sending close to one thousand teachers to the newly-acquired colony. These teachers, called “Thomasites,” were part of a wider justification of empire, which was intimately linked with notions of manly duty, masculine endeavor, and the innate superiority of whiteness. However, all of the American teachers headed for the Philippines, male and female, black and white, engaged with the idea of strenuous living and imperial duty, viewing themselves as personally adventurous, as well as integral members of the imperial project. More so than any other group, these teachers were positioned between the colonial administration and the Filipino people. It was the teachers who were often responsible for implementing colonial policies on the ground and for representing American government and values to Filipinos. Their position as imperial mediators allowed the teachers to create roles for themselves that would not have been possible at home, which both complemented and challenged official visions of empire. Examining these teachers’ negotiations with American officials and Filipinos illuminates the gulf between official policies and the day to day functioning of empire, demonstrating how the implementation of empire on the ground often deviated from the expectations of the colonial state. Rather than construing their experiences as expressions of maternalism – which many scholars argue was the linchpin of women’s Progressive Era politics – white female teachers in the Philippines constructed identities as adventurers, imperial officials and professionals. African American teachers, on the other hand, used their positions within empire to disrupt the linking of civilization and modernity with whiteness. Black teachers argued that their racial sympathy with the Filipino people made them most fit to be benevolent colonizers, and linked racial oppression in the United States to the imperial mission in the Philippines. This dissertation examines how notions of race, gender, and national identity colored quotidian colonial interactions. I argue that these interactions nuance the narrative of American empire and provide deeper understanding of the processes of colonization.
A quantitative study of intended post-graduation plans of undergraduate biomedical engineering students : assessing self-efficacy, value, and identity beliefs
(2020-04-09) Patrick, Anita D.; Riegle-Crumb, Catherine; Borrego, Maura; Markey, Mia; Neff, Kristin
There has been a consistent call to action to attract talented individuals to help bolster the STEM workforce. Yet, the lack of diversity of students attracted to STEM and the inability to retain them in the profession persists. Among STEM fields, engineering is a prime discipline for examining this challenge. However, treating engineering as one monolithic profession is both inaccurate and misleading as there are over 28 accredited engineering programs in the United States alone with varying levels of diversity based on student demographics. Nonetheless, engineering programs remain male-dominated; however, biomedical engineering (BME) is one such discipline with nearly equal proportions of men and women. BME is a unique case in which to study the intended post-graduation plans of undergraduate engineering students as degree holders have been cited to go on to work in a variety of careers in and outside of the engineering workforce. My aim in this dissertation is to address gaps in the biomedical engineering/engineering education literature on undergraduate women’s intended career choices and related implications. In doing so I problematize the binary and often deficit view of “stay or leave” as related to persistence in engineering and instead further contextualize choice by capturing the potentialities of students’ intended post-graduation plans. Drawing from Eccles’ Expectancy Value Theory and models of STEM Identity in engineering education, I investigate this issue. Using quantitative research methodologies, I explore the structural relationships between student gender and the motivational engineering attitudes of academic self-efficacy, interest, utility value, attainment value, and professional identity. Data was gathered from n=716 undergraduate biomedical engineering students from a large public research institution in the Southwestern United States. Using hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis, the results revealed students form five clusters of intended post-graduation plans: Engineering, Job, Non-engineering, All, and School. I further examined the composition of these clusters by student gender and classification; gender differences in engineering attitudes between clusters; and gender differences in engineering attitudes within clusters followed by structural equation models to assess the fit of gender and engineering attitudes as related to cluster membership. Implications and areas of future research are discussed.
A room of her own : romance, resistance, and feminist thought in modern Urdu poetry
(2015-05) Khan, Imran Hameed, 1975-; Hyder, Syed Akbar; Petievich, Carla; Minault, Gail; Visweswaran, Kamala; Hindman, Heather; Mohammad, Mahboob A
This dissertation examines the ways in which the female figure has emerged, and the ways in which women’s issues have been addressed in Urdu poetry in various ways during the twentieth century. In order to track these changes and shifts in the Urdu poetic landscape I examine five poets: Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), Akhtar Shirani (1905-1948), Kaifi Azmi (1919-2002), Parveen Shakir (1952-1994), and Ishrat Afreen (b. 1956). I argue that each of these poets represents a distinct trend in the way women are discussed in Urdu poetry. While looking at these five poets I will consider the social context in which they were writing and how their poetry engages the canonical aesthetics of the past, along with the socio-political agendas of the present. By analyzing their poetry we can trace how through romance and resistance feminist thought developed in increments throughout the twentieth century. This poetry is a reflection of the social and cultural milieus in which it was written; it can help us understand how these poets understood their roles within their culture, as well as how they tried to push the boundaries of accepted cultural norms. Through these poets we can observe how the subject of Woman, women’s issues, and gender ideology evolved in twentieth century Urdu poetry. Furthermore, studying these poets shows us how the space created by earlier poets eventually led to women using the Urdu poetry landscape for overt feminist poetry, lending authentic women’s voices to women’s issues and movements in South Asia.
Academic and social influences of underrepresented adolescents' perceptions of opportunity and plans for the future
(2016-08) Kyte, Sarah Blanchard; Riegle-Crumb, Catherine; Callahan, Rebecca M; Crosnoe, Robert; Muller, Chandra; Raley, Kelly
Sociologists of education have long stressed the importance of students’ expectations for their subsequent success. Yet, an insufficient amount of previous work has considered how academic and social psychological factors guide when and how students develop their expectations for the future, particularly for the socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority students attending our cities’ schools. By using rich survey and administrative data from a large, urban district serving low income and predominantly Hispanic and African American students, this dissertation identifies how these students develop expectations related to higher education in general as well as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in particular at the start of high school. Chapter 2 examines whether Hispanic girls hold higher college expectations than Hispanic boys because they acquire a superior toolkit of academic resources including achievement, attitudes, and relationships, and/or whether girls are better able to leverage these resources. Further, it considers the potentially gendered role of nativity, language-minority, and socioeconomic status in shaping college expectations among Hispanic students. Chapter 3 analyzes how students’ perceptions of the relevance of science outside of school contribute to gender differences in expectations to major in specific areas of STEM, namely the biological and physical sciences as compared with computer science and engineering. Chapter 4 unpacks the extent to which minority students expecting to major in STEM anticipate that gender- or race-based discrimination may act as a barrier to their goals. Taken together, the findings of these studies underscore the importance of perceptions related to schools, society, and opportunity at the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity for guiding students’ expectations, an important precursor to subsequent behavior and success.
Acculturation, gender, and physical/psychological health : the case of Middle Eastern immigrants in the U.S.
(2015-05) Shafeek Amin, 1976-, Neveen Fawzy; Musick, Marc A.; Hummer, Robert A.; Raley, R. Kelly; Rodríguez, Néstor P; Read, Jen'nan G
Previous studies show that health outcomes of immigrants in the United States are favorable compared with U.S.-born whites. Middle Eastern (ME) immigrants are a growing U.S. minority population, yet research on their health is minimal. Using data from the 2002–2012 National Health Interview Surveys, this dissertation addresses key gaps in the immigrant health literature of the ME population through three empirical chapters examining the association between ac¬culturation and various physical/psychological health outcomes of ME immigrants in the U.S. I first examine the association between acculturation and three health outcomes (self-rated health, activity limitations, and chronic health conditions) among ME immigrants, comparing their health to those of U.S.-born whites. Results show that whereas the least acculturated ME immigrants have significantly lower odds of reporting fair or poor health, the most acculturated ME immigrants have higher odds of reporting fair or poor health compared to U.S.-born whites. Additionally, ME immigrants are significantly less likely to report any activity limitations or chronic health conditions compared to U.S.-born whites. I next investigate whether the relationship between acculturation and the three health outcomes varies by gender. Results indicate that, ME immigrants are generally healthier than U.S.-born whites; ME immigrant men are healthier than ME immigrant women. The study finds evidence of an association between acculturation and self-rated health. However, the acculturation pattern does not hold for activity limitations or for chronic health conditions. Male and female ME immigrants of all accultura¬tion levels are less likely to report any activity limitations or chronic health conditions compared to their U.S.-born counterparts.I then examine the linkage of duration status and serious psychological distress (SPD) of ME immigrants comparing their SPD to those of U.S.-born whites and investigating whether this relationship varies by gender. I find evidence that duration status and SPD pattern pertains to ME immigrants, particularly women, who report higher odds of SPD compared to their male counterparts. Results show no statistically significant differences between ME immigrant men and U.S.-born white men with regard to SPD. On the contrary, whereas ME immigrant women with shorter duration are less likely to report SPD than U.S.-born whites, ME immigrant women with longer duration are significantly more likely to report SPD compared to U.S.-born whites.
Achieving Gender Equity in the Labor Market: Successes and Failures of Social Policies in Democratic Chile
(2008-02-09) Correa, Teresa
The Agency
(2018-12-03) Cerna, Michael; Clark, Erin; Ham, Madelyn; Rounds, Caitlin
For this project, we created a comic book based off the show, The Office. We wanted to use scenes from the show to illustrate how situations involving diversity, gender, and brand promises can be handled in a morally correct manner.
Agenda abierta para la educacion de las niñas rurales
(1999-10) Montero, Carmen; Tovar, Teresa
Ambiguity, power, and gender roles in the young adult dating scene
(2013-12) Steidl, Ellyn Arevalo; Raley, R. Kelly
It is well established that patterns of relationship formation in young adulthood are becoming increasingly complex. There is a growing heterogeneity in the types of relationships young adults can form, and there is evidence that the processes of relationship formation are marked by substantial ambiguity. This lack of structure in the young adult dating scene may be accompanied by more flexible gender roles in dating behaviors. Historically men’s roles centered on proactive initiation and women’s roles were characterized by reactive passivity; these gender roles structured the commencement and the progression of early relational ties into formalized unions. However, the deinstitutionalization of dating may have allowed women and men to enact new roles in the pre-relationship phase. This research asks if women and men equally exercise control in both the commencement of relationships and in determining their trajectory. Results indicate that men possess a unique controlling role of the ability to define a relationship, while women typically inhabit a role of clearly communicating their interests levels to men while simultaneously attempting to clarify men’s intentions.
American deaf women historiography : the most silent minority
(2011-12) Nathanson, Deborah Anne 1974-; Jones, Jacqueline, 1948-
The development and current state of the historical perspective of American Deaf women is outlined in the report. Initially this paper reviews the historical study of people with disabilities and for the American Deaf. This paper concludes with a review of the small but significant selections of historical scholarship related directly to American Deaf women along with recommendations to preserve the rich and colorful Deaf-oriented heritage; especially of the women.
Amor a la lucha : women’s narratives of community development and resilience in Los Platanitos, Santo Domingo Norte, Dominican Republic
(2018-06-26) Duranti-Martínez, Julia Katherine; Sletto, Bjørn; Torres, Rebecca M
This project investigates community resilience and gendered empowerment in self-built neighborhoods through the experience of community development organization Mujeres Unidas (Women United) in Los Platanitos, Dominican Republic. Although located within the city limits of Santo Domingo Norte, Los Platanitos is excluded from key city services and infrastructure, as well as from many formal city planning processes. Through qualitative methods of deep hanging out, semi-structured interviews, and participatory action workshops, this study identifies social entrepreneurship, mutual learning, and relationships of care as key dimensions of gendered forms of resilience for Mujeres Unidas. Engaging with social resilience and in particular loving and caring relationships forms part of a larger process of undoing fear of places and people in self-built neighborhoods. The broader impacts of this case study lie at the intersection of planning and development efforts that seek to create more equitable and inclusive urban community development processes, while taking care to avoid simplistic portrayals of communities where this work is occurring. This project also contributes insight into the co-production of urban resilience and vulnerability, which allows for a more complete understanding of complex political, economic, and social processes in self-built neighborhoods. In the face of increasing urbanization and precarity worldwide, such comprehensive understanding of these dynamics is particularly urgent. Practitioners can draw on insights from this study to more effectively engage communities in a collaborative process for transformative planning outcomes.
Appropriating Elizabeth : absent women in Shakespeare's Henriad
(2010-05) Andrews, Meghan Cordula; Rebhorn, Wayne A., 1943-; Bruster, Douglas S.
When scholars look for a Shakespearean analogue to Queen Elizabeth I, they often look no farther than his Richard II, the deposed and effeminate king with whom Elizabeth was known to compare herself. This report seeks to broaden our reading of Shakespeare's Henriad by arguing that, in fact, there are echoes of Elizabeth in both Henry IV and Henry V, successors to Richard II. These traces of Elizabeth reveal the Henriad's fantasy of a male-dominated political sphere as just that: a fantasy. Moreover, this appropriation of maternal or effeminate characteristics is not limited to the Henriad's rulers, but occurs several times in the Shakespearean canon. This absorption becomes another way for Shakespeare's plays to manage their anxiety over threatening women even as they appropriate the authority of an aging Elizabeth.
Are there any machos in the house? : contemporary manifestations of machismo
(2017-05) Aragón García, Seiri Janett; Gonzalez, Rachel Valentina; Lopez, Belem G
This research explores the transnational existence of machismo and its continuous presence among Mexican and Mexican American men as transnational ideologies and attitudes from Mexico into the United States. This mixed methods approach, comprised of in-depth interviews, virtual ethnographic analysis, and textual analysis. These approaches to machismo is dedicated to better understand the social performances of Mexican origin, cis-gendered men living in the United States and Mexico, who find their masculinities bridged through social media, as nationalistic pride, taking pride in their Mexican origin/ heritage risen out of narco culture specifically. These three different interviews are presented in holistic sections titled, Señoras de Las Lomas and Machismo, Traditional ideologies of Mexican undocumented millennial, and The Complexity of Social Media and the Narco Lifestyle. The compilation of these case studies presented, aims to demonstrate how machista ideologies and attitudes continue to persist in contemporary U.S. and Mexican society. This research aims to provide insight on how traits are learned and adopted, (public and private) and how they become manifested in online spaces (not exclusively). Readers will be able to reflect about the oversaturation of machista ideologies, and gendered perspectives on machista ideologies and how these “traditions” have been embedded in Mexican culture, become transnational, circulated, re-circulated, inculcated, and how they persist, even subtly in quotidian life in the 21st century.
The art of manipulation : gender inequity and the picture study movement
(2012-08) Kern, Jasmin Nikol; Bolin, Paul Erik, 1954-; Bain, Christina B
This study locates and examines the relationship between societal gendered expectations in nineteenth century United States and the content of a picture study manual published at the turn of the century: Lucy Langdon Williams Wilson’s Picture Study in Elementary Schools: A Manual for Teachers (1909). Critical analysis of the images, artists, and content of the picture study manual provides insight into the relationship between curricular materials and the social climate during which they were produced. Recognition of this connection will enable art educators and curriculum developers to produce materials and textbooks conscious of the potential bias and marginalization of students.
La asistencia a la víctima de "violencia familiar": tres instituciones sociales no gubernamentales y un ámbito especializado de la esfera juridica abordando un mismo problema social
(2006-07) Brunatti, Olga G.
La asistencia a la víctima de "violencia familiar": tres instituciones sociales no gubernamentales y un ámbito especializado de la esfera juridica abordando un mismo problema social
(2003-07) Brunatti, Olga G.
Asociaciones de mujeres de sectores medios-altos y altos de Lima
(1998-01) Kogan, Liuba
Bear fruit
(2016-05) Lawrence, Grace Lee; Stoney, John; Reynolds, Ann M
This Master’s Report is a discussion of the ideas, research, and methods I have developed over the course of my three years of study at the University of Texas at Austin. My work draws from a multiplicity of traditions from classical figurative sculpture, feminism, mid-century modern design, large-scale outdoor fountains, to Victorian crafts. The fountains use neoclassical figurative sculptures of women as a point of departure. The original sculpture is translated through a feminist lens and recreated using fruit, rearranging and displacing gender specific sexualities by replacing otherwise sexualized bodies with representations of pears or a pineapple, among other fruits. Cultural references to these specific fruits, a pear-shaped body or the exoticism and colonialism inferred with a pineapple, are important contextual references in the transmutation from figurative sculpture to fruit fountain. The high relief wall sculptures, smooth body parts monochromed in soft colors, speak to the fragments of classical sculptures while conflating gender cues. They confuse our ability to stereotype as non-binary representations of body. In all, the work mimics moments of bodily intimacy while playfully dealing with reproduction, eroticism, as well as the problematic aspects of the sculptural tradition embedded within the patriarchal system.
Between practice and the classroom : the making of masculinity and race in the mis-education of Black male student-athletes on a college campus
(2012-05) Yearwood, Gabby M. H.; Gordon, Edmund Tayloe; Franklin, Maria; Richardson, Matt; Smith, Christen; Vargas, João
This project argues that American college sports involving Black male athletes (primarily football and men’s basketball) at Gulf Coast State University (GCSU) actively construct and impact local knowledge about Black masculinity in relation to white, male, hetero-normative systems of authority. These sports, in turn, then impact policy, administrative decisions, and teaching approaches as they relate to young Black men on a college campus. In other words, Black male college athletes on a white college campus offer the opportunity for a reinforcement of systems of authority through the pattern of de-stabilizing their subjectivity (as nothing more than physical entities) in order to provide a revenue-generating resource for the university. I posit that the positioning of Black males in this space as athletes and as students is strategic and intentional, when one takes into account the ongoing dynamic of the hegemonic positioning of white, male, hetero-normative value systems as the unmarked standard of social norms. That these contested meanings become significant within the realm of sport situates sport itself as another, often underutilized, space for social inquiry. I further argue that this categorization is heightened in the context of a predominantly white institution. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I explored the sport (mainly football and men’s basketball) and academic community at GCSU with the goal of understanding how high-profile and high-revenue sports and their participants become central to the understanding and expression of normalized ideas about race, gender, and sexuality. I reason that the predominantly white demography of GCSU, added to the uneven ratio of Black to white males on the football and basketball teams, creates perceptions about race and masculinity that factor into people’s everyday understanding of the term “student-athlete”. The term “student-athlete” becomes racialized and gendered in ways that continually make reference to Black male athletes differently than other students and student-athletes at the university. I believe these effects on the term then impacts the structural mechanisms that affect the daily lives of these Black male athletes both on and off the field, both inside and outside the classroom.