Thesis (M. S.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-44).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on July 31, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 125 p.; also includes graphics (some col.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-110). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-80).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1995. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 521-545).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2004. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 18, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Matthew S. Hesson-McInnis (chair), John B. Pryor, Eros R. DeSouza, Adena B. Meyers, Kathleen McKinney. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-152) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 93 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-91).

This thesis suggests that whilst feminist theory has been, and remains, a significant political influence which has contributed to wholesale legislative and social changes, the climate in which this theory circulates is now markedly different from that of the 1960s, when Second Wave Feminism began. Consequently, a new form of feminist theory is developing, which attempts to respond to an increasingly more complex situation, without losing sight of the many important elements of the earlier work. This thesis is situated within this movement and I term the approach it takes Third Wave Feminist Analysis. Third Wave Feminism seeks to challenge sexism and to explore notions of femininity as they are manifested in texts, looking for both the restrictions these seek to impose on women and for the potential these offer for liberatory ways of behaving and being. As this reference to texts might suggest, Third Wave Feminist Analysis is primarily a form of literary criticism. However, it does not only draw on work from that discipline. Instead, it employs ideas and approaches used by feminists working in other fields, in order to formulate a more comprehensive analysis than was generally found in earlier feminist literary criticism. Moreover, the thesis is not limited to an exploration of only literary texts but also explores other cultural forms. This diversity is important because constructions of knowledge and subjectivity are enabled by all types of representations. Thus, interdisciplinarity moves analysis on from a straightforward identification of the Tacts' of literary cultures to an exploration of cultural identities, a step which is assisted by Third Wave Feminist Analysis's insistence on the importance of extra-textual features, including the analyst's own background knowledge of the society in which the texts being explored are produced and interpreted. The object of this emphasis on the cultural and the societal is a more equitable world; in other words, I am claiming that Third Wave Feminist Analysis aids feminist praxis. As part of this attempt, Third Wave Feminist Analysis attempts to interrogate the ways in which femininity is defined in the case studies explored. In this thesis three texts in circulation in the 1990s are examined: Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres (1992); The Rector's Wife by Joanna Trollope (1991); and the TV Soap Opera archetype, the Soap Queen. As part of this examination, femininity is understood as one of a number of inter-connecting discourses which not only reflect but shape gender. Thus, discourses disseminate social and institutionalised values and also create them, influencing people's behaviours and attitudes, although individuals do have the potential to resist or challenge this influence. A recurrent discursive theme in the three case studies explored here is the association of femininity with the 'private' or domestic realm of home and family. In many ways, this association is rooted in an outdated notion of femininity; the Victorian concept of the feminine domestic ideal. To this extent, this thesis argues that its case studies are implicated in the promulgation of anachronistic discourses. However, all three texts also subvert this ideal in a number of ways and the ways in which this subversion occurs are also explored.

Current theories of sexual harassment do not account for all instances of sexual harassment (e.g., not man enough harassment) or third party reactions to sexual harassment such as manager or coworker perceptions of sexual harassment or interactions with the target of sexual harassment. Perhaps taking a step back from specific sexual harassment theories and looking at more general theories of discriminatory behavior can provide some guidance toward a more overarching theory of sexual harassment. The current study applied the Stereotype Content Model (SCM; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick & Xu, 2002) and Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes (BIAS) Map model (Cuddy, Fiske & Glick, 2007) to women who are sexually harassed and the resulting third party behavioral reactions, including perception of sexual harassment. This study attempted to establish the initial relationships between the evaluation of the female target with regard to her competition and status to the other variables in the model: stereotyping (i.e., how observers think about the target - warmth and competence), prejudice (i.e., how observers feel about the target - pity, admiration, envy, contempt) and behavioral reactions (how observers act toward the target - active facilitation, passive facilitation, active harm, passive harm). Higher status targets were perceived as more competent than lower status targets. Competition did not have an effect on perceptions of the target's warmth. Competition and status did not predict emotions and behavioral reactions as hypothesized; however many other relationships predicted by the model between stereotypes, emotions, behavioral reactions and perceptions of sexual harassment were found here, although not hypothesized in the current study. Targets who were perceived as warm and competent elicited more facilitation and less harm than those who were perceived as less warm and less competent. Targets that were admired and pitied elicited more facilitation whereas targets that were contempted or envied elicited more harm. Additionally, warmth, competence, admiration, and pity were positively related to perceptions of sexual harassment, whereas envy and contempt were negatively related to perceptions of sexual harassment. Targets who were perceived as having been sexually harassed elicited more facilitation and less harm. Thus, the model is still useful in understanding how stereotypes (warmth and competence) and emotions (envy, admiration, pity, and contempt) relate to third party behavioral reactions to sexual harassment and perceptions of sexual harassment. Given that competition and status did not predict stereotypes, emotions, behavioral reactions and perceptions of sexual harassment as expected, it may be that these effects are more a function of individual factors such as gender and hostile sexism, rather than out-group evaluation (competition and status). In the current study men and those higher in hostile sexism were less likely than women and those lower in hostile sexism to perceive that the target had been sexually harassed, to perceive the target as warm and competent, to feel admiration or pity for the target, or to engage in facilitation behaviors. Additionally, men and those higher in hostile sexism were more likely than women and those lower in hostile sexism to feel contempt or envy toward the target and to engage in harm behaviors. Future research should examine other methods of manipulating perceptions of targets' competitiveness and status other than occupational characteristics to examine the impact of these out-group characteristics on stereotypes, emotions and behavioral reactions in the context of sexual harassment.