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- All Subjects: Political Science
Description
While women constitute a majority of the U.S. population, they still make up only a minority of political officeholders. Some of the literature in political ambition argues that one of the reasons for the dearth of women in elective office is that women are less socialized than men to want to run for political office. The same literature suggests that such disparity can be traced back to high school. This exploratory paper examines the possibility that the disparity may be due, at least in part, to the different ways in which men and women are represented in civics textbooks. Specifically, because some works already suggest that women are less represented than men in civics textbooks, this work examines whether there are any differences between the way that regular and AP civics textbooks represent men and women. This was done using content analysis on AP and regular textbooks from three schools each from different districts in the state of Arizona. The findings from the content analyses were consistent with the first three hypotheses: that (1) the AP civics textbooks have a higher percentage of women than do the regular civics textbooks, (2) the AP civics textbooks devote a higher percentage of pages to women’s names than do the regular civic textbooks, and that (3) that both the AP and regular civics textbooks discuss women and men with a neutral tone. However, findings were not consistent with the fourth hypothesis, (4) that there will be more female role models among the top mentioned women in AP textbooks than there will be role models among the top mentioned women in regular textbooks. The manifest content analysis revealed that the percent of women mentioned in the AP textbooks sampled was 2.8 to 3 times higher than that of regular textbooks. That ratio increased to 4 to 4.5 times when the percent of pages mentioning women were taken into account. The latent content analysis, which assessed the tone of each sentence, revealed that men and women were generally treated neutrally when compared with one another in all of the textbooks studied—thus strengthening the substantive significance of the aforementioned ratios. Further analyses conducted for Hypothesis 4, however, revealed that in the regular and AP textbooks studied, female role models were mentioned both less often and less strongly than were male role models.
ContributorsWiezel, Adi (Author) / Fridkin, Kim (Thesis director) / Woodall, Gina (Committee member) / Walker, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Over the last 30 years, the public has become somewhat less willing to accept the “feminist” label. However, most Americans indicate support for general feminist ideals. In fact, many of these ideals have become so prevalent in American culture that they are not considered feminist anymore. This thesis will examine the reason behind this disparity and analyze where public opinion began to shift. The disparity between the definition of feminism and the definition perceived by the public will be explored along with the idea that the American people still want and need a “feminist movement,” but that its current state is not resonating with the majority of the public.
ContributorsKasle, Lauren Jessica (Author) / Lennon, Tara (Thesis director) / Woodall, Gina (Committee member) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Education in state politics is critical for undergraduate students in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. At our four-year universities, the only Arizona state politics courses that are taught are to fill teacher certification requirements. This project intends to propose alternative pedagogy to an existing Arizona State University course titled POS 417 - "Arizona Politics". Through reviewing the literature surrounding discipline-based learning, simulations, and active learning findings concluded that students benefit from engagement and active participation in simulated activities, in addition to longer retention of material. In addition to literature, interviews with two former practitioners and responses from a short student attitude survey coincided these findings. Overall, SPGS and Arizona State University would benefit from a simulated Arizona state politics course being available to them.
ContributorsNiehoff, Megan (Author) / Woodall, Gina (Thesis director) / Lennon, Tara (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Comm (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Analyses of the iconic film ”Mean Girls” have often characterized the dominant
clique, The Plastics, as embodying an absolute autocracy, which is a system of government ruled by one person with absolute power. However, I will argue that viewing
The Plastics through the lens of oligarchy offers a more nuanced understanding of
their political behavior and power dynamics. By applying a political framework to
existing psychological and sociological arguments, this study argues that The Plastics
operates under an oligarchical regime, where power is concentrated among a select
few individuals. To test this theory, I conducted a focus group study with thirteen
participants, comprising a mix of graduate and undergraduate students. Results from
the focus group revealed that seven out of the thirteen participants agreed that The
Plastics can be best characterized as an oligarchical regime. By complementing political theory with psychological and sociological analyses, this paper seeks to provide a
comprehensive understanding of the dynamics within ”Mean Girls” and their broader
implications.
ContributorsLerma, Analeigh (Author) / Woodall, Gina (Thesis director) / Simhony, Avital (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Objective. Both the civic education literature and the political ambition literature leave a gap in addressing the impact of political science coursework on political ambition. I address this gap by specifying the relationships between civic education, political knowledge, and political ambition. Methods. I employ paired t tests, chi-square tests, and Fisher's exact probability tests on an original dataset of 174 paired pre- and post-test survey responses. My survey improves upon prior works in the ambition literature (Fox and Lawless 2013) by virtue of its field experiment design. Results. My findings indicate that political science coursework has a positive impact on political knowledge, but only among women, and that political science coursework has a negative impact (among women) on one of the most valid measures of political ambition—how likely one is to run for office in the future. Conclusions/Implications. The results have negative normative implications for those trying to use political education as an instrument to reduce the gender gap (see Lawless and Fox 2010, Fox and Lawless 2013) in political ambition. This suggests the need to explore further options for increasing political ambition, particularly among women.
ContributorsWiezel, Adi (Author) / Kittilson, Miki (Thesis advisor) / Fridkin, Kim (Committee member) / Woodall, Gina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
There is a known linkage between religion and political leanings, though in America, most research is done on Christian denominations. This thesis answers the question of whether denominational choice affects political leanings of Hindus in the Phoenix valley. Through the use of surveys and elite interviews, it was concluded that denominations with higher religiosity scores have a higher percentage of conservative-leaning individuals than denominations with lower religiosity scores. The implication of this study is that scholars should look at denomination when studying the Hindu vote because even the more conservative leaning denominations had a large percentage of liberal members. This data can be useful for campaigns as well in the future.
ContributorsHindocha, Anisha Nileshkumar (Author) / Woodall, Gina (Thesis director) / Devi Dasi, SyamaMohini (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12