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- All Subjects: Women's Studies
- All Subjects: Girls
- Creators: Fonow, Mary Margaret
- Creators: Appleton, Nicholas
Description
ABSTRACT For more than thirty years the gender gap in science and related careers has been a key concern of researchers, teachers, professional organizations, and policy makers. Despite indicators of progress for women and girls on some measures of achievement, course enrollment patterns, and employment, fewer women than men pursue college degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. According to the results of national assessments, the gender gap in science achievement begins to be evident in the middle school years. Gender and school science achievement involve a complex set of factors associated with schools and child/family systems that may include school leadership, institutional practices, curriculum content, teacher training programs, teacher expectations, student interests, parental involvement, and cultural values. This ethnographic case study was designed to explore the context for science education reform and the participation of middle school girls. The study analyzed and compared teaching strategies and female student engagement in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade science classrooms. The setting was a middle school situated in a district that was well-known for its achievement in reading, math, and technology. Findings from the study indicated that while classroom instruction was predominantly organized around traditional school science, the girls were more disciplined and outperformed the boys. The size of the classrooms, time to prepare for hands-on activities, and obtaining resources were identified as barriers to teaching science in ways that aligned with recent national science reform initiatives. Parents who participated in the study were very supportive of their daughters' academic progress and career goals. A few of the parents suggested that the school's science program include more hands-on activities; instruction designed for the advanced learner; and information related to future careers. Overall the teachers and students perceived their science program to be gender fair. Eighth grade participants who had career goals related to science and engineering, indicated that their science instruction did not provide the rigor they needed to improve their critical skills for advanced placement in high school. Recommendations include the need for professional development on inquiry-based science, equitable student achievement, and diverse perspectives in science education.
ContributorsSmiley, Bettie (Author) / Powers, Jeanne M. (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Macey, Donna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
In the past two decades, the population of so-called "foreign brides" in Taiwan has increased significantly. "Foreign brides" are female immigrants from Southeast Asian countries who have married Taiwanese men through marriage brokers. The term "new immigrant women" is used in this study to describe this particular group of women because it is a self-identified, less derogatory term. New immigrant women's families are at significant disadvantages with their low social class, the commodified nature of marriage, and societal discrimination against them. Guided by a feminist epistemology and grounded in family studies and eco-cultural theories, this study explores this particular group of immigrant women's educational beliefs, practices, and agency manifested through their motherhood. The following research questions guide this study: 1) How do new immigrant women experience their motherhood? 2) How do new immigrant women conceptualize and contextualize their mothering experiences? 3) How is agency developed and displayed in new immigrant women's mothering practices? How does agency influence new immigrant women's mothering practices? 4) What are new immigrant women's mothering beliefs and practices? 5) What are the specific practices related to children's schoolwork in which new immigrant women are engaged? 6) What are the implications of new immigrant women's perspectives on motherhood for their education, including adult education and parenting education? Twenty-five immigrant women originally from various Southeast Asian countries who had at least one child participated in the study. They were interviewed at least two times and the interview duration ranged from one hour to four hours. All interviews were audio recorded and conducted in Mandarin Chinese, Holo Taiwanese, and English by the researcher. Constructionist grounded theory was utilized to analyze data. The findings suggest that new immigrant women's educational beliefs, practices, and agency are strongly influenced by interaction between their original cultural background, social class, family-in-law, and the ecology of the community in which they are situated. New immigrant women demonstrated dynamic mothering practices and developed agency from their mother role. The results can help policy makers to refine a framework to develop educational programs for these parents that are effective and more supportive of their children's development.
ContributorsChen, Tzu-Hui (Author) / Moore, Elsie (Thesis advisor) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Committee member) / Kochenderfer-Ladd, Becky (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Dominant discourses of health and fitness perpetuate particular ideologies of what it means to be “healthy” and “fit,” often conflating the two terms through conceptualizing the appearance of physical fitness as health. The discourse of healthism, a concept rooted in the economic concept of neoliberalism, fosters health as an individual and moral imperative to perform responsible citizenship, making the appearance of the “fit” body a valued representation of both health and self-discipline. This perspective neglects the social determinants of health and ignores the natural variation of the human body in shape, size, and ability, assuming that health can be seen visually on the body. Through a case study of one particular location of a popular commercial gym chain in an urban city of the Southwestern United States, this study employs a critical discourse analysis of the gym space itself including a collection of advertisements, photographs, and signs, in addition to participant observation and semi-structured interviews conducted with diverse women who exercise at this gym to explore how women resist and/or (re)produce discourses of healthism related to health, fitness, and body image. Ultimately, critical analysis shows that the gym itself produces and reifies the discourse of healthism through narratives of simultaneous empowerment and obligation. Though women in the gym reproduced this dominant narrative throughout their interviews, internal contradictions and nuggets of resistance emerged. These nuggets of resistance create fractures in the dominant discourse, shining light into areas that can be explored further for resistance practices through sense-making, necessitating a language of resistance.
ContributorsPreston, Summer Lane (Author) / Lederman, Linda C (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Olga I (Committee member) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
ABSTRACT
This dissertation examines contemporary U.S. women writing about war, with primarily women subjects and protagonists, from 1991-2013, in fiction, memoir, and media. The writers situate women at the center of war texts and privilege their voices as authoritative speakers in war, whether as civilians and soldiers trying to survive or indigenous women preparing for the possibility of war. I argue that these authors are rewriting scripts of war to reflect gendered experiences and opening new ways of thinking about war. Women Rewriting Scripts of War argues that Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Almanac of the Dead juxtaposes an indigenous Story concept against a white industrialized national “Truth,” and indigenous women characters will resort to war if needed to oppose it. Silko’s and the other texts here challenge readers to unseat assumptions about the sovereignty of the U.S. and other countries, about the fixedness of gender, of capitalism, and of how humans relate to each other‒and how we should. I argue in Essay 3 that the script of “the body” or “the soldier” in military service can be expanded by moving toward language and concepts from feminist and queer theory and spectrums of gender and sexuality. This can contribute to positive change for all military members. In each of the texts, there are some similarities in connections with others. Connections enable solidarity for change, possibilities for healing, and survival; indeed, without connections with others to work together, survival is not possible. Changes to established economic structures become necessary for women in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible; I argue that women engaging in alternative modes of economy subvert the dominant economic constraints, gender hierarchies, and social isolation during and after war in the Congo. In Essay 5, I explore two fictional texts about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Helen Benedict's novel Sand Queen and Katey Schultz’s short story collection Flashes of War. The connections in these women’s texts about war are not idealized, and they function as the antithesis to the fragmentation and isolation of postmodern texts.
This dissertation examines contemporary U.S. women writing about war, with primarily women subjects and protagonists, from 1991-2013, in fiction, memoir, and media. The writers situate women at the center of war texts and privilege their voices as authoritative speakers in war, whether as civilians and soldiers trying to survive or indigenous women preparing for the possibility of war. I argue that these authors are rewriting scripts of war to reflect gendered experiences and opening new ways of thinking about war. Women Rewriting Scripts of War argues that Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Almanac of the Dead juxtaposes an indigenous Story concept against a white industrialized national “Truth,” and indigenous women characters will resort to war if needed to oppose it. Silko’s and the other texts here challenge readers to unseat assumptions about the sovereignty of the U.S. and other countries, about the fixedness of gender, of capitalism, and of how humans relate to each other‒and how we should. I argue in Essay 3 that the script of “the body” or “the soldier” in military service can be expanded by moving toward language and concepts from feminist and queer theory and spectrums of gender and sexuality. This can contribute to positive change for all military members. In each of the texts, there are some similarities in connections with others. Connections enable solidarity for change, possibilities for healing, and survival; indeed, without connections with others to work together, survival is not possible. Changes to established economic structures become necessary for women in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible; I argue that women engaging in alternative modes of economy subvert the dominant economic constraints, gender hierarchies, and social isolation during and after war in the Congo. In Essay 5, I explore two fictional texts about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Helen Benedict's novel Sand Queen and Katey Schultz’s short story collection Flashes of War. The connections in these women’s texts about war are not idealized, and they function as the antithesis to the fragmentation and isolation of postmodern texts.
ContributorsStamper, Cambria A (Author) / Clarke, Deborah (Thesis advisor) / Hogue, Cynthia (Committee member) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the lives of highly educated Navajo women who, with their children, left the comfort of their homeland to pursue their careers. Using qualitative research methods, five Navajo women were asked to reflect on their lives while on the reservation and in their new location off the Navajo reservation. Among the topics explored were the principal factors as to their leaving the reservation, barriers and supports they faced in their careers, what cultural transitions they experienced, and the effects on their careers, their families and to their personal sense of self.
ContributorsMiller, Sherri S (Author) / Spencer, Dee (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Yazzie, Lamont (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
An underrepresentation of females exists in the STEM fields. In order to tackle this issue, work begins early in the education of young women to ensure they are interested and have the confidence to gain a career in the STEM fields. It is important to engage girls in STEM opportunities in and out of school to ignite their interest and build their confidence. Brigid Barron's learning ecology perspective shows that girls pursuing STEM outside of the classroom is critical to their achievement in the STEM pipeline. This study investigated the impact after-school STEM learning opportunities have on middle school girls by investigating (a) how the length of engagement in after-school programs can affect the confidence of female students in their science and math abilities; (b) how length of engagement in after-school programs can affect the interest of female students in attaining a career in STEM; (c) how length of engagement in after-school programs can affect interest in science and math classes; and (d) how length of engagement can affect how female students' view gender parity in the STEM workforce. The major findings revealed no statistical significance when comparing confidence in math or science abilities or the perception that gender plays a role in attaining a career in STEM. The findings revealed statistical significance in the areas when comparing length of engagement in the girls' interest in their math class and attaining a career in three of the four STEM fields: science, technology, and engineering. The findings showed that multiple terms of engagement in the after-school STEM programs appear to be an effective catalyst to maintain the interest of girls pursuing STEM-related careers, in addition to allowing their interest in a topic to provide a new lens for the way they see their math work during the school day. The implications of this study show that schools must engage middle school girls who are interested in STEM in a multitude of settings, including outside of the classroom in order to maintain engagement in the STEM pipeline.
ContributorsCupp, Garth Meichel (Author) / Spencer, Dee Ann (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Schauer, David K (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This dissertation examines pro-immigrants' rights activism and advocacy among middle-class White women in and around Phoenix, Arizona, in order to analyze these activists' understandings and enactments of their racialized and gendered citizenship. This project contributes a wealth of qualitative data regarding the operation of race, gender, class, (dis)ability, sexuality, and community in the daily lives and activism of White women pro-immigrants' rights advocates, collected largely through formal and informal interviewing in conjunction with in-depth participant observation. Using a feminist, intersectional analytical lens, and drawing upon critical race studies, Whiteness studies, and citizenship theory, this dissertation ultimately finds that White women face thornily difficult ethical questions about how to wield the rights entailed in their citizenship and their White privilege on behalf of marginalized Latinx non-citizens. This project ultimately argues that the material realities and racial consequences of being a White woman participating in (im)migrants’ rights work in the borderlands means living with the contradiction that one’s specific and intersectionally mediated status as a White woman citizen contributes to and further reifies the gendered system of White supremacy that functions to the direct detriment of the (im)migrants one seeks to assist, while simultaneously endowing one with the advantages and privileges of Whiteness, which together furnish the social capital necessary to challenge that same system of their behalf. The dissertation contends that White women committed to pro-(im)migrants’ rights advocacy and antiracism writ large must reckon with the source of their gendered and racialized citizenship and interrogate to what complicated and unforeseen ends they wield the Master’s tools against the Master’s house. In doing so, the project makes the case that White women's lives, as well as their experiences of citizenship and activism, are inherently and fundamentally intersectional and should be analyzed as such by scholars in Women's and Gender Studies.
ContributorsVandermeade, Samantha Leigh (Author) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Thesis advisor) / Switzer, Heather (Committee member) / Lee, Charles T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
U.S. non-profit organizations (NPOs) offering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programming, particularly those serving minorities and women, are becoming guideposts that assist academic, government and corporate institutions alike to steer their efforts and investments towards achieving their diversity and inclusion goals. Despite multi-year, multi-billion, and multi-resource investments in broadening STEM access and inclusion, the inequitable representation of young women and girls of color actively participating in school and out-of-school STEM programs continues to persist. The primary aim of this study was to validate a feminist theoretical framework grounded on the constructs of intersectionality, collective impact, and accountability systems, to help inform and disrupt persistent trends for women graduating in engineering and computer science through the third sector’s facilitation of STEM programming. A secondary objective was to understand the history and trajectory of the change and emergence of non-profit STEM Girl-Centered Organizations (SGCOs) and their profiles as a comparative measure of their relative status within the third sector ecosystem, how they serve, and who they serve. By leveraging over twenty-five years of practical experience and applying a mixed-methods research methodology, the research findings pointed to 1) an early adoption of intersectionality concepts into program outreach efforts by integrating cross-elements of race/ethnicity, geographies, and socioeconomic markers of identity; 2) emerging interest in, and incorporation of, culturally responsive programming that is better matched to the needs of diverse program beneficiaries; 3) an increase in equitable program access for participants residing in under-resourced communities; 4) a growing appreciation for the value of partnerships as a precursor to more authentic collective impact collaborations; and 5) priority shifts in systems of accountability from funders to primary programs’ beneficiaries.
ContributorsGonzalez, Gabriela A. (Author) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Thesis advisor) / Switzer, Heather (Committee member) / Vega, Sujey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Spotlighting the figure of the exceptional disabled girl as she circulates in the contemporary mediascape, this dissertation traces how this figure shapes the contours of a post-Americans with Disabilities Act structure of feeling. I contend that the figure of the exceptional disabled girl operates as a reparative future girl. As a reparative figure, she is deployed as a sign of the triumph of U.S. benevolence, as well as a stand-in for the continuing fantasy and potential of the promise of the American dream, or the good life. Affectively managing the fraying of the good life through a shoring up of ablenationalism, the figure of the exceptional disabled girl rehabilitates the nation from a place of ignorance to understanding, from a place of nervous anxiety to one of hopeful promise, and from a precarious present to a not-so-bleak-looking future.
Placing feminist cultural studies theories of affect in conversation with feminist disability studies and girlhood studies, this dissertation maps evocations of disabled girlhood. It traces how certain affective states as an intersubjective glue stick to specific disabled girls’ bodies and how these intersubjective attachments generate an emergent affective atmosphere that attempts to repair the fraying fantasy of the good life. Utilizing affect as methodology and object of analysis, this dissertation interrogates ambivalent visual artifacts: ranging from the “real” figure of the disabled girl through YouTubers, Charisse Living with Cerebral Palsy and Rikki Poynter, to a fictional disabled girl in Degrassi: Next Class; spanning from physically disabled beauty pageant contestants to autistic girls learning how to dance; and, finally, looking to a black disabled girl in her life and death, Jerika Bolen. I contend that through their roles as disability educators, shared objects of happiness and optimism, and pedagogues of death, exceptional disabled girls have been deployed as guides on a new roadmap to ideal, affective post-ADA citizenhood.
Placing feminist cultural studies theories of affect in conversation with feminist disability studies and girlhood studies, this dissertation maps evocations of disabled girlhood. It traces how certain affective states as an intersubjective glue stick to specific disabled girls’ bodies and how these intersubjective attachments generate an emergent affective atmosphere that attempts to repair the fraying fantasy of the good life. Utilizing affect as methodology and object of analysis, this dissertation interrogates ambivalent visual artifacts: ranging from the “real” figure of the disabled girl through YouTubers, Charisse Living with Cerebral Palsy and Rikki Poynter, to a fictional disabled girl in Degrassi: Next Class; spanning from physically disabled beauty pageant contestants to autistic girls learning how to dance; and, finally, looking to a black disabled girl in her life and death, Jerika Bolen. I contend that through their roles as disability educators, shared objects of happiness and optimism, and pedagogues of death, exceptional disabled girls have been deployed as guides on a new roadmap to ideal, affective post-ADA citizenhood.
ContributorsTodd, Anastasia (Author) / Switzer, Heather (Thesis advisor) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Thesis advisor) / Himberg, Julia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016