Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services - Marriage and Family Therapy / Joyce Baptist / There has been a decline in marriage rates in the U.S., with Black persons showing the lowest numbers in relation to other racial groups. Unlike previous generations where marriage was associated with a sense of familism, today marriage is associated with individual growth and the creation of a fulfilling relationship. To better understand how single Black women manage the tension between individuality and togetherness, a phenomenological study was conducted to explore the lived experience of singlehood of six Black women. Findings support Knudson-Martin‟s (1996) reframed concept of differentiation and previous studies pertaining to family and community values' influence on perspectives about gendered roles in marriage. Gendered power imbalance appears to be a main contributor to ambivalence about marriage although marriage remained to be valued and desired. Findings can prevent helping professionals from imposing our socialized worldview that values intact families, marriage, and gendered power equity on single Black clients. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Robert Schaeffer / The sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was once referred to as a No Holds Barred (NHB) fighting contest, but is now known as cage, extreme, or ultimate fighting. Showcasing athletes from a variety of martial arts backgrounds, a referee stoppage, knockout, or submission is the only way to win. Pushing their minds and bodies to the limits, fighters often engage in hand-to-hand combat inside of a ring or cage in front of a crowd, for anywhere from three to twenty-five minutes. How does one become an MMA fighter? Through a rigorous and complex process of socialization that will be referred to in this work as the ‘spartanization’ process. A mixed methodological approach, primarily qualitative in nature, was used to reveal the rigorous and complex nature of this process. This study’s data collection began with six site visits taking place over the course of six months. Utilizing a convenience sampling method, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 male and 14 female fighters. The interview schedule addressed fighters’ involvement in the spartanization process, their experiences in the gym as well as the cage, and their perceptions as fighters. Male and female participants described the spartanization process and ascribed meaning to it in similar ways. Their motivations for becoming MMA fighters are explained using theories of identity and alienation. Findings demonstrate that the sport of MMA and process of becoming a fighter are both highly gendered. One was neither found to be more nor less gendered than the other, but according to this study’s findings women are more likely to feel the effects of gender at the organizational level than they are a the level of training. Not sure what MMA is? Never heard of the UFC before? Do not worry, the histories of both are provided. By reading this work you will also learn more about the athletes participating in this sport, and discover whether or not you have what it takes to be the next ‘ultimate fighter.’

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / This research identifies factors that distinguish rural women who have migrated to Bangkok for the purpose of enhancing their economic wellbeing by engaging in the sex industry and those who have stayed in their rural communities and are not engaged in the sex industry. The research used primary data collected through interviews in the red light districts of Bangkok and Pattaya and in villages in the rural provinces of Buriram, Udon Thani, Sakon Nakhon, Chayaphum and Khon Kaen in Thailand. A total of 100 respondents provided information for the study: 55 percent from the red light districts and the remainder from the provinces. The data were analyzed using logit regression modeling approach as well as statistical analysis. The statistical analysis provided the descriptive statistics of the respondents and an overview of the data. The logit regression modeling approach facilitated the estimation of the responses of the probability of working in the red light entertainment districts to specified demographic and psychographic variables. The pseudo R-square of the logit model was 46.2 percent for the base model, which included age, marital status, number of male and female siblings respectively, birth position and number of children, education, financial responsibility and average monthly age. The results indicated that marital status was significant at the 1 percent level, exhibiting a marginal effect of about -35.2 percent. That is, when the marital status of a respondent changed from unmarried (0) to married (1), the probability of sex industry participation decreased by about 35 percent. Assessing the effect only among respondents with children, the results are not very different from the base model. The pseudo R-square for this model – which is the same as the base model, except that it has Teen Mother as a variable – was 61.4 percent with a total number of observations of 78 instead of the original 100. This implies that about 22 respondents did not have any children. In this model, the marital status variable is significant at the 1 percent level as was the number of female siblings. The average monthly wage is significant at the 5 percent level, with a 1000 Thai Baht increase in wages leading to a marginal 0.01 percent decline in the probability of sex industry participation. Education, under this model, is statistically significant at the 10 percent level, with another year of education decreasing the probability of sex industry participation by 2.5 percent. The foregoing provides some clear policy direction. Specific efforts may be invested in enhancing the education of women in Thailand, which is expected to increase their economic situation. However, this expectation would not materialize if investments are not made to enhance the economic opportunities available to women across the economic spectrum. Perhaps most importantly, however, this study shows that incremental improvement in educational and economic opportunities for rural women alone may not achieve lasting results if cultural paradigms regarding marriage, relational fidelity and imbalanced socio-cultural obligations of daughters are not addressed in tandem.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / The goals of this study were to investigate the definitions of influence and closeness from the perspectives of the couples, the techniques or approaches couples use to share influence and maintain closeness in their relationships, the themes associated with different relating styles, ways couples handle discrepancies and incompatibilities, and the relationship issues associated with specific relating styles. Eight married couples residing in northeast Kansas were interviewed for this study. The participants were selected through a screening survey distributed to a university student body to collect basic demographics and couple relating styles. The eight couples were chosen because the relating styles they reported were diverse enough to provide the needed maximum variation and a general representation of the sample pool. A style of relating model – couple map was created to help couples visualize how they relate to their partners in terms of influence and closeness. This study begins to fill the gap in the research by creating an integrated model to understand couple relational patterns and by giving voice to couples and allowing them to share their experiences on how they share influence and maintain closeness in their relationships. Through the lens of Symbolic Interaction Theory and Social Exchange Theory, this study sheds light on the cognitive and behavioral strategies couples use to relate to each other while striving to meet personal and mutual needs for influence and closeness in their marriages.

During this time of increased attention toward the representation of women in media, simply applauding including female characters often leaves out the analysis of what purpose they serve within their narratives. The anxiety over women’s fertility in Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017), Children of Men (Cuaron, 2006), and The Handmaid’s Tale (Bruce Miller, 2017) expresses a crisis in contemporary culture over changing gender roles. Even though these three texts use the antagonists to seek to control over women’s bodies, the narratives themselves still employ infertility as a threat for women. What does the reappearance of mass infertility in our dystopian media tell us about how we value and depict women? These audio-visual texts, set in disturbing futures, attempt to intervene discursively in these political conversations. Their narratives appear critical of hegemony on their surface, but lurking beneath is a return to gender essentialism that defines women through their ability to reproduce.

This thesis explores the role of drama in creating transformative schooling practices with at-risk youth. Specifically, through an auto-ethnographic study of my own experiences in the dramatic arts as a student and teacher, I analyze the potential of drama education to disrupt hegemonic performances of gender and sexuality in the classroom. By using feminist and queer theories, I analyze my experiences and then share key insights through narrative writing. My narrative, analysis and findings are organized into three thematic lenses: body as a site of knowing, drama space as a queer space, and drama as a method for creating change. This thesis also offers specific pedagogical, curricular and relational strategies for developing a transformative schooling practice. Finally, the study examines the role of teacher positionality in creating a transformative practice, and the potential of using a queer pedagogy.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among Canadian women, and accounts for up to 30% of deaths among women worldwide. Women with CVD are typically older than their male counterparts, experience worse functional status, are more likely to experience non-CVD health conditions such as diabetes or arthritis, and will live with these health conditions for more years than men. Physical activity (PA) and cardiac rehabilitation (CR) participation is lower among women compared to men, but little is known about the PA and health promotion experiences, priorities and practices of older women living with CVD. Guided by a socioenvironmental approach to health promotion, a mixed method design involving a mail survey (N=127) and qualitative interviews (N=15) was employed to describe and explore the PA and health promotion practices, preferences and priorities of older women (≥65 years) living with CVD in the Champlain health region of Ontario. Nearly 60% of survey respondents were referred to CR. Logistic regression analysis revealed urban residence as a predictor of CR referral (p<0.01, OR=3.24; 95% CI: 1.44-7.30). Nearly 55% of respondents attended CR, which was predicted by CR referral (p<0.01, OR=32.26; 95% CI: 9.26-111.11), availability of transportation (p<0.05, OR=9.96; 95% CI: 1.22-81.41), and a history of structured PA (p<0.05, OR=3.64; 95% CI: 1.16-11.36). Respondents were more active than their peers, but received little support from their physician for PA. Older women’s incidental PA (walking six or more hours/week for transportation) was predicted by their sense of community belonging (p<0.05, OR=2.6; 95% CI: 1.05-6.29) and having energy for PA (p<0.05, OR=5.8; 95% CI: 1.21-27.92). Interview participants (including four who had attended CR) described health as a resource that enables them to lead busy, active lives. Most participants attributed CVD to genetics or stress, but still engaged in health-promoting activities, including structured and incidental PA. Participants engaged in ‘incidental’ activities such as walking, gardening, and housekeeping tasks purposefully, with the intention of maintaining or improving their health. This research can inform public health initiatives and health care services (including CR) to better meet the needs and preferences of the growing population of older women with CVD.

This research examines the relationship between masculinity and recruitment at the University of Toronto during the Great War. Through a gendered framework established by historians such as Judith Butler, masculinity is approached as a constructed process that encompasses a variety of complex relationships between the individual subject and social processes. The following questions are explored: What motivated the administration the University to instate policies that first encouraged, and then forced, male students to enter active service? How did dominant discourses of masculinity influence recruitment efforts and the subsequent movement towards mandatory military training? The research reveals that gendered understandings of war and recruitment on campus presented active service as the defining moment of manhood. Enlisting, then, was understood as more than a willingness to take up arms; it publicly signified that a man was committed to the defense of democracy and to securing the freedom of generations to come.

This thesis draws from ten semi-structured interviews with multiracial men in Toronto, Canada. It is an exploratory study that examines how participants experience race, masculinities and identities. Multiracial identities challenge popular notions of racial categories and expose social processes of racialization and the shifting nature of social identities. I explore how gender impacts participants’ experiences of multiple, fluid or shifting racial identities, and the importance of context in determining how they identify themselves. Participants also discussed the impact of multiculturalism and their understandings of racism in Canada. There were differences in the experiences of Black multiracial men and non-Black multiracial men in terms of how gender and race impact their lives. These differences imply that the colour line in Canada is shifting and that categories like ‘whiteness’ are being redefined. Analyses of these topics are taken up from an anti-racist and critical mixed race studies perspective.

This thesis analyzes examples of current female circumcision discourse within U.S. feminist contexts and western-based anti-circumcision projects operating in Kenya. This analysis reveals that, despite recent critiques from postcolonial scholars and activists, the knowledge produced around female circumcision perpetuates discursive and material violence against Kenyan Maasai communities. I explore how this violence has persisted in neo/colonial eras as part of the white western feminist ‘care of self’ technique of displacing female abjection through the pleasure of whiteness. I trace how these formations of race and gender have become attached to understandings of genitalia through colonial-era race science, Freudian psychoanalysis and some feminist texts from 1949-1970. I suggest that these western feminist constructions of sexual liberation rely on depicting racialized women as primitive and degenerate. Finally, I argue that these racial and gendered constructions now inform concepts of ‘developed’ versus ‘underdeveloped’ bodies and nations in contemporary international development work.