Military wives continue to represent the majority of military spouses and as a result, most research on military spouses has focused exclusively on them. Utilizing data from the 1999 Survey of Active Duty Spouses, one goal of this study was to address this gap in the literature by examining how male and female military spouses differ. The results indicated that military husbands were more likely to have military experience themselves than military wives. Military husbands were also more likely to be older than female spouses and less likely to have children. Men were also more likely to indicate that their employment was not a concern during the family's last permanent change of station move. The primary goal of this study was to examine the influence of gender on military spouses' support for their active duty spouses' retention in the U.S. Military. Previous research has indicated that spousal support plays an important role in military personnel's retention decisions. Other factors that were considered for their influence on spouse support for retention included age, race/ethnicity, education, children, personal military experience, employment concerns during the family's last move, the hours worked per week by the active duty spouse, the rank of the active duty spouse, and the military spouse's satisfaction with the military lifestyle. The results of this regression analysis indicated that military husbands are less supportive of their active duty spouses' retention than military wives. Satisfaction with the military lifestyle was found to be the most significant predictor of military spouses' support for their active duty spouses' retention in the U.S. Military. Of the other factors, age, race/ethnicity, education, the hours worked per week by the active duty spouse, and the presence of children in the family were also found to be significant predictors of spouse support for retention. As satisfaction with the military lifestyle was demonstrated to be a significant influence on spouse support for retention, this study also involved an examination of gender differences in satisfaction with the military lifestyle. Gender was not found to be a significant influence on satisfaction with the military lifestyle. Factors that were found to significantly influence satisfaction included the military spouse's age, race/ethnicity, concerns about employment, hours worked per week by the active duty spouse and the rank of the active duty spouse. Concerns about employment during the family's last move and the hours worked per week by the active duty spouse were both found to have a negative influence on military spouses' satisfaction with the military lifestyle. / Ph. D.

This research was conducted to assess the intersection of gender and pesticide knowledge to identify gendered dynamics that may prove important to consider when implementing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. Key findings include knowledge being associated with task undertaken, not necessarily the gender of a person. Often, due to social conceptions of appropriate gender roles, similar knowledge may be associated with a certain gender because they are engaging in similar tasks, but it is not their sex or gender that inherently gives them such knowledge. Therefore, knowledge generally associated with women can be associated with men if they are engaging in similar work. Additionally, triangulation of data through using various research methodologies, and interdisciplinary research are imperative for developing comprehensive research or development programs. Finally, even people who are concerned with the negative human and environmental health effects of pesticides may not be using them in a cautious manner. Outside factors such as market sale, education and income level must be taken into account when assessing why pesticides are used and the best methods to introduce an alternative pest control method, such as IPM. / Master of Public and International Affairs

Feminist scholars have theorized that the workplace is gendered and heteronormative1, but little research quantifies the economic consequences of those organizations. This study investigates income discrepancies between gay men and straight men and between lesbians and straight women, to quantify these consequences. Using the National Survey of Family Growth 2006-2010, and controlling for several correlates of income, I use ordinary least squares regression to test the hypothesis that lesbians have higher incomes on the average than straight women do, and that straight men earn more than gay men. I also use hierarchical regression to test the relative strengths of the associations between income and possible causes of variation in it. The study found that gay men earn more than straight men because of higher educational attainment, and that lesbians earn more than straight women, though this finding is not statistically significant. / Master of Science

L’objectif général de cette thèse est de se demander dans quelle mesure – notamment au cours de l’adolescence – les alternatives réelles de mobilités à vélo des filles sont particulièrement limitées par rapport à celles des garçons. Nos résultats s’appuient à la fois sur l’exploitation statistique de la dernière Enquête Nationale Transports et Déplacements disponible (ENTD 2008) ; sur de l’observation directe et indirecte ; sur un corpus de 101 entretiens semi-directifs réalisés avec 43 garçons et 39 filles âgé(e)s de 17 ou 18 ans, ainsi que 26 de leurs parents, dans des milieux géographiques et sociaux variés des métropoles de Montpellier et de Strasbourg ; sur un corpus d’images (n = 200); sur un corpus de discussions électroniques (n = 22); et sur un corpus d’articles numériques d’information (n = 30).À travers une analyse sociologique notamment dispositionnaliste et autant que possible intersectionnelle, nous montrons que les socialisations sexuées au (et par le) vélo méritent d'être analysées dans leurs articulations avec les dimensions sexuées des socialisations aux activités physiques/sportives, des socialisations à l’investissement de l’espace public ; des socialisations au risque ; et des socialisations à la sexualité hétéronormée, mais également dans leurs articulations avec les normes et les codes de beauté sexué(e)s. Si toutes les adolescentes ne sont pas sujettes de la même manière aux mêmes injonctions socialisatrices – de surcroît parfois contradictoires entre elles – celles qui impactent essentiellement des filles participent notamment à l’incorporation ou au renforcement de dispositions assujettissantes à protéger son corps, à éviter de forcer physiquement, à craindre de se déplacer seules, de s’aventurer, et de traîner dans l’espace public. Coproduites et mutuellement renforcées avec des compétences cyclistes sexuées, ces dispositions peuvent être plus ou moins activées ou mises en veille selon les contextes. Malgré des variations – notamment observées selon les milieux socio-économiques et résidentiels – elles se repèrent chez des filles de tous les milieux et ont pour effet de restreindre leurs possibilités réelles de s’engager dans des formes de pratiques du vélo ludiques, « de vitesse », « de force », d’endurance, solitaires, aventurières, improvisées, « circulaires », et « de stationnement ».Ces constats sont notamment liés au renforcement – au cours de l’adolescence – des pratiques éducatives sexuées, principalement motivées par le souci des parents de protéger leurs filles des risques de violences sexuelles. Il ne faut pas pour autant sous-estimer le rôle joué par les croyances héritées des religions et des résistances acharnées de la médecine au sport féminin. Au même titre, les agents de socialisation incarnés par les médias et les groupes de pairs, mais également par les vélos, équipements et habillements sexués, sont à prendre très au sérieux. En outre, le clivage sexué des possibilités réelles de pratiques de mobilité à vélo ne semble jamais aussi prononcé que dans les Quartiers Prioritaires de la Ville (QPV) particulièrement défavorisés. À l’opposé, le clivage en question parait réduit chez les adolescent(e)s pour qui le vélo constitue à la fois un divertissement/loisir et leur mode de déplacement préféré. Si le groupe en question comporte – en proportion – peu de filles (n = 4), celles-ci présentent toutes des compétences et dispositions caractéristiques du sexe opposé et bénéficient d’opportunités réelles de mobilités à vélo ainsi que d’un d’accès spatio-temporel à l’espace public bien supérieur(e)s à celles des filles dans leur ensemble. Dans la mesure où les filles en question tendent également à partager à la fois des équipements et des dispositions caractéristiques des fractions intellectuelles des catégories moyennes, les données récoltées suggèrent en somme que le vélo mériterait d’être analysé en tant que pratique de distinction à la fois sexuée, sociale et spatiale / The main purpose of this thesis is to ask to what extent – especially during adolescence – girls have fewer real opportunities to bicycle than teenage boys. Our results are based both on the statistical exploitation of the latest National Transport and Travel Survey available (ENTD 2008); on direct and indirect observation; on a corpus of 101 semi-structured interviews with 43 boys and 39 girls aged 17 or 18, as well as 26 of their parents, in various geographical and social settings of the Montpellier and Strasbourg metropolises; on a corpus of images (n = 200); on a corpus of electronic discussions (n = 22); and on a corpus of digital articles of information (n = 30).Through a sociological analysis, particularly dispositionnaliste and as much as possible intersectional, we show that gendered cycling socialization deserves to be analyzed in its articulations with the gendered dimensions of physical activities socialization, urban socialization; socialization of risk; heterosexual sexuality socialization, but also in its articulations with gendered beauty norms. If all adolescent girls are not equally subject to the same socializing injunctions – moreover sometimes contradictory to each other – those that mostly affect girls participate in the incorporation or reinforcement of dispositions to protect their bodies, to avoid to physically force, to fear to move alone, to fear to venture and to fear to squat public space. These dispositions are co-produced and mutually reinforced with gendered cycling skills, they can be more or less activated or paused depending on the context. Despite variations – particularly in socio-economic and residential settings – they concern girls from all socio-economic backgrounds and have the effect of restricting their real possibilities to practice in playful, speed, strength, endurance, solitary, adventurous, improvised, "circular ", and "parked" bicycle practices. These observations are particularly related to the reinforcement – during adolescence – of gendered educational practices, mainly motivated by parents' concern to protect their daughters from the risks of sexual violence. However, we must not underestimate the role played by beliefs inherited from religions and the fierce resistance of medicine to women's sport. In the same way, socializing agents embodied by the media and peer groups, but also by the bicycles themselves as well as by the gendered equipments and clothes, must be taken very seriously. Furthermore, the gendered cleavage of real possibilities to bicycle never seems as pronounced as in the particularly disadvantaged sensitive urban zones. In contrast, the cleavage in question appears to be reduced in adolescents (boys and girls) who consider cycling to be both a leisure and their preferred mode of travel. If the group in question is composed – in proportion – of few girls (n = 4), all of them have characteristic competences and dispositions of the opposite sex and benefit from real possibilities to bicycle as well as spatio-temporal access to public space far superior to that of girls as a whole. To the extent that the girls in question also tend to share both characteristic equipments and dispositions of middle-class intellectual fractions, the data collected suggests that cycling deserves to be analyzed at once as a distinctive gendered, social and spatial practice

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A 2004 New York Times’ article regarding the role of potential First Ladies at political conventions wrote, “The public will someday accept a fully independent first lady, Ms. Gibbons predicted, 'I don't see how we can go backwards.’'' (Purnick, 2004) That isn’t to say, however, we have continued moving forward. Perpetuating the trend that began two decades ago, in 2012 both Ann Romney and Michelle Obama delivered speeches at the Republic National Convention (RNC) and Democratic National Convention (DNC) respectively. Prompting a continued study of the first lady include not only Michelle Obama’s self-titled “Mom-in-Chief” speech or the ever present role of fashion and the First Lady, but also her permanent role as the candidate’s feminine counterpart and its close management demand examination. To be sure, this thesis comes at a time of significant importance, with Hillary Clinton vying for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination. I agree with past scholars that presidential spouses, as part of the presidential institution, have ushered in a level of public power not previously possible for women (Anderson, Campbell, Jamieson, Sheeler, et al). However, the power of the first lady is constrained by feminine expectations that prevent the emergence of a fully independent first lady. We should question the limitations of the spousal role and challenge the discourses that create those limitations, as they hinder the realization of a fully independent first lady. Since 1992, nearly every spouse has given a public address at the presidential nominating convention, with all candidate wives from 2000-2012 taking part. The emergence of this campaign trend has prompted communication scholars to call for the expansion of research surrounding these speeches (Brown, 2012). Scholars have previously noted that first lady campaign discourse provides a sandbox in which our country experiments with various levels of first lady independence (Parry-Giles, 1996, Campbell, 1998, Anderson, 2002). That is to say, how the wives consistently talk about themselves, their husbands and the country, as well as how the media reports on the potential first lady during coverage of convention oratory, sheds light on the national tone of feminine ideologies. Therefore, I contend that a genre exists governing first lady convention speeches which, along with the mediated discourses surrounding these speeches, constructs and reinforces the ideal femininity of the First Lady. As a result, the hegemonic masculinity of the presidency is further reified with important consequences for our ability to accept an independent first lady which makes it more difficult to accept a woman president. This thesis examines the dual role of the feminine ideal of US first ladies and the masculinity of the presidency. Examining the generic constraints of 20 years of presidential candidate wives convention speeches and the associated media coverage will uncover dominant themes that aim to vilify certain wives—for their speech style and content—and celebrate others. By assessing what points of struggle we witness in these discourses, we note opportunities where first ladies and potential first ladies challenge these generic constraints and have the potential to reveal shifts and expansions in the discourses. The result may lead to a new understanding of gender in relation to the presidency.

Gendered organizational conditions create the context for persisting differences between men and women in the workplace. Within, higher education, this manifests as a salary gap between male and female faculty members. The academic capitalistic policy environment creates the conditions for increasing competition for external funding, especially in the areas of research and science and engineering. The change in the academic climate may sustain or intensify the gendering of universities as organizations. Universities with the highest level of research activity were chosen for this study and formed the 130 public institution sample. This study used fixed effects panel regression analysis to explore the relationship between the faculty gender salary gap and institutional emphasis on research as well as science and engineering. In addition, the relationship between institutional emphasis and the faculty gender salary gap was explored over time with the inclusion of a time trend and temporal interaction terms. Results showed that the higher the percentage of female faculty members, the greater the faculty gender salary gap for assistant professors. In addition, science and engineering emphasis over time had a significant impact on the professor salary gap with a decreasing effect both at the mean and one standard deviation above the mean, but with an increasing effect on the salary gap for institutions one standard deviation below the mean. When taking action to increase gender equity, it is important for universities to recognize that the faculty gender salary gap occurs in an organizational context impacted by institutional-level conditions.

The purpose of the study is to contribute to the understanding of Swedish distance high school students' experiences of distance studies and gender norms in distance studies. This is explained using performativity theory and theory of gendered spaces. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews with six students who study at high school remotely, the study aims to contribute to knowledge about distance high school students' experiences in permanent distance studies. The study's research question is: What experiences do distance students have of distance studies and gender norms in permanent distance studies? The findings suggest that during distance studies, students experience that gender norms become less prominent because the students are in a safe zone (at home) and a calm environment where they feel comfortable. This makes it easier for students to be themselves, resist limiting gender norms, and dare to stand up for their opinions, as they feel that they are not judged by other students or teachers based on gender or group affiliation. In this way, the creation and transformation of gender norms through performativity is not as prominent in distance studies, and distance studies is seen as a gendered-free space. Instead, students are seen as individuals and are evaluated as individuals based on their own academic performance. This allows students to focus on their academic performance without being judged according to stereotypical gender norms.

Men continue to outnumber women in public school superintendent roles by a 4:1 ratio. However, women outnumber men by a 4:1 ratio in teaching roles in public school districts. In addition, more women than men hold superintendent certificates and educational doctorates. Due to this puzzling discrepancy, it is important to understand possible factors in the form of gendered barriers to access that could lead to the unequal representation of women in superintendent positions. In this study, I examined how these barriers manifested in the experiences of female superintendents participating in the study, how they influenced the hiring experiences of these participants, and how they impacted these female leaders throughout their careers. With this study, I investigated barriers associated with holding mechanisms, gendered norms, and gendered filters that may limit women's access to superintendent roles. Women's experiences of the origins and effects of gender normative perceptions and hiring practices have potential for contributing to the study of gender equity in the field of education and beyond. Findings could provide implications for increasing women's opportunities to serve beyond central office positions in public school districts. Possibilities exist for identifying practices in organizations that have hired women to serve at the highest level of school district leadership; that of the superintendent of schools.

This thesis consists of a workshop that investigates theperformative act of designers in producing gendered productaesthetics. Product designers make many active choicesin the project they are working on, but what about thenot so active choices, the once that just happen becauseit looks right or because it fits the product? By putting thegendered assumptions of fomgiving into the hands of thedesigners, I hope to generating a realisation of the (re)creationof the gender norms of society into products. I wish toput the designers in a position where they formgive wrongin relation to the norms of product aesthetics, so that theform feels unfitting or misplaced. This to expose the suggestionof how the development of products not only isan iterative design process, but also an iterative processof re-installing norms and objectives of society into thedesign. The end product of this project will be a workshopwhere the designers gets to try out how another normativeagreement of product aesthetics would appear.

This thesis argues for the consideration of child care accessibility and costs as one factor in the success and wellbeing of farmers in the United States. There is a long tradition in rural studies of recognizing that farms are not just economic enterprises but are family-based social enterprises as well, with household level issues and family roles that are both acknowledged and contested. However, child care is missing from virtually all scholarly and public discussions of agricultural workforce development - even more so than other social services and family supports. Additionally, the agricultural sector, considered as a portion of U.S. businesses and as a locus of U.S. family life, is missing from most discussions of child care services. Although child care has been shown to be crucial to workforce development, and the need for workforce development in the agricultural sector is vital in light of an aging farm population, the agricultural sector has remained largely absent from child care policy discussions. This two-article thesis seeks to inform scholarship and public policy in both of these areas. Using data from a national survey of 186 farm families at the Rural-Urban Interface, Article One examines child care challenges faced by farm families and the influence community networks have on these challenges. This article focuses specifically on two groupings of farmers: multi-generation (MG) and first generation (FG) farmers, as part of a larger effort to support beginning farmers; and men and women farmers, as challenges related to child care are of particular concern for the increasing numbers of women farmers, who may have multiple roles including primary child caregiver, wage-earner through off-farm employment, and farmer. Findings establish that child care is an issue that influences farm business decisions for farmers, that FG and women farmers are farming populations that are more likely to have challenges with child care, and that family networks are an influencing factor in child care problems for MG and FG farmers. Through analysis of interviews and focus groups with 43 farmers in the Northeastern United States, a geographic region chosen for its high concentration of female farmers, Article Two seeks to understand child care in farm families by examining patterns in farmers' experiences with child care and the ways child care affects both the farm family and the farm business. Findings reveal child care as an issue in the wellbeing of both farm family and farm business: child care has economic effects on the farm business, influencing decisions about labor, growth, and financial resources; child care also has social effects on the farm family, including shifts in gender roles, stress, and reduced quality of life. Recommendations include child care subsidies specifically for farm families and the creation of formal child care networks that could allow for collaboration and use of already-existing networks of agricultural organizations: Extension, food policy councils, and producer groups. Additionally, state level departments of family and youth services, local child care organizations, and community development corporations are urged to tailor their resources specifically to farm families.