This dissertation examines the role of motherhood in the women’s unit at Northeast Jail, a medium-security facility located in the Northeastern United States. Staff and administrators at Northeast Jail identify the facility as unique in the age of “get-tough” policies toward crime and punishment because the jail provides drug rehabilitation programming, educational opportunities, some job training, and a variety of classes and therapeutic groups. Preparation for parenting is an important part of the therapeutic agenda for women inmates at Northeast Jail. Officially, motherhood manifests in jail in the form of parenting classes and visitation, but motherhood is woven throughout other therapeutic groups, daily life and conversation. In these venues, staff promote an ideal form of motherhood that is not available to women in or out of jail. Thus, constructions of ideal motherhood punish women who cannot practice them. Motherhood is also tied to formal mechanisms of punishment that the jail uses to discipline inmates who break institutional rules. Or, motherhood is invoked to encourage women to behave in institutionally prescribed ways. Furthermore, since the purpose of Northeast Jail is to punish and confine, therapeutic endeavors are often superseded by punitive measures. In order to maintain a rhetoric of rehabilitation in the face of traditional punishment, staff and administrators construct inmates in ways that justify incarceration on therapeutic or punitive grounds. In short, motherhood is an integral part of life at Northeast Jail, even though women are practically and ideologically barred from practicing motherhood in their everyday lives. I will argue that this disconnect, and the primacy of motherhood to women’s lives makes motherhood an effective tool of gendered punishment.

The contemporary homeschooling movement sits at the intersection of several important social trends: widespread concern about the effectiveness and safety of public schools, feminist challenges to the patriarchal family structure, anxiety about the state of the family as an institution, and challenging economic conditions. The central concern of this dissertation is to make sense of homeschooling within this broader context. Data were gathered through interviews with forty-five homeschooling parents, approximately half of whom are religious and half of whom are secular. The interviews were organized around three central questions: (1) What are the frames that parents use to justify homeschooling? (2) What are their particular tactics or methods for homeschooling? (3) What are the components of homeschoolers' collective identity? I argue that homeschooling bears the imprint of broader changes regarding the gender system and contemporary family life, as well as other economic and cultural changes. Both religious and secular parents come to homeschooling out of shared concerns about schools being ineffective and incapable of catering to their children.s individual needs. They also share concerns about the state of the family and the general moral decline of society. Religious and secular parents differ in their actual practice of homeschooling, depending on their particular conceptions of childhood, but they are alike in the fact that it is women who do most of the homeschooling work. These parents are also different in their collective identities. Religious parents regard homeschooling as just something they do. However, secular parents characterize homeschooling as part of who they are as moral people and this compels them to employ various strategies of identity work. In the end, I argue that this movement is unlikely to contribute to meaningful social change. I base this conclusion on the fact that the homeschooling movement contains two major contradictions: (1) This movement is simultaneously resisting one alleged failing institution – schools - while reproducing another highly criticized institution – the patriarchal nuclear family. (2) This movement offers individual solutions to social problems. While the participants have many concerns about social institutions, their answer is to withdraw their participation and retreat into their own families.

<p> The gender gap issue is a complex, systemic problem emerging from the interrelation of multiple variables. This study sought to identify the primary, interrelated, and mutually influential variables that contribute to the C-suite gender gap phenomenon using Moustakas' transcendental phenomenological research methodology. Seven female vice president level executives who work in a male-dominated private sector industries in a major metropolitan area were interviewed. Common themes emerged around the significant impact of culture and upbringing and experiences with subtle or overt second-generation gender bias. Five women had some experience of the double bind, although not all of them seemed to perceive the experience that way. All participants discounted the concept of the "glass ceiling." All except one credited strong mentors who provided advice, guidance, and support and who also acted as advocates in helping to advance their careers. All participants demonstrated strong self-confidence, although two noted their confidence was low during their early career and grew through positive, reinforcing experiences. All participants discussed work-life balance and many tempered their career ambition with a similarly strong value for creating and maintaining work-life balance. Only one experienced career limitations by downgrading her work schedule to accommodate childcare needs. Each of their stories, though unique, illustrated how the variables of personality, leadership style, levels of ambition and confidence, upbringing, organizational culture, societal culture, how others interact with them, work-life balance, and mentors created a systemic "whole" that brought them to their current level of success in their careers. It is in the context of describing and seeing the systemic complexity of the issue that recommendations for a comprehensive strategy for action were presented.</p>

<p> This study examined the phenomenon of doctoral student motherhood/mothering in academia in a unique way by utilizing (1) an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, (2) examining the experiences of doctoral students who have become mothers for the first time, and (3) by integrating visual data collection into a phenomenological study. Participants included four doctoral student mothers from across colleges at one university. Three interviews were conducted with each participant and included visual data collection during each interview (e.g., drawing created by the participant). Additional data sources included a demographic/background questionnaire and archival data.</p><p> Through phenomenological analysis of the data sources, three invariant themes (<i>Gendered Experience, Strategic Experience, Sense of Belonging </i>) and seven sub-themes (<i>Realizations, Pregnancy Relationships, Childcare, Multiple Identities, Flexibility, Pushing Through, Informal Policies, and Expectations</i>) were identified. For the doctoral student mothers in this study, doctoral student motherhood/mothering in academia was experienced in multiple ways. Distilled, the essence of doctoral student motherhood/mothering in academia is a gendered experience that is strategic and embedded with a varied sense of belonging. Implications of this study speak to the need to continue examining internal practices and policies to support female doctoral students and promoting recruitment, retention, and equity throughout academia. Recommendations for individuals and departments/institutions are provided, as well as, a suggested research agenda for future studies on motherhood in academia.</p>

<p> Video games represent the future of storytelling, changing the impact of cultural narratives in important ways through a process of learning and internalization of game content that alters players&rsquo; perceptions of self and reality. Continued rigorous research of interactive media is necessary because of the speed at which technology changes its capabilities and the dominant nature of its format&mdash;it is how many people will tell, hear, and experience stories, culture, and values in the coming years. This dissertation argues that a deeper understanding of how people play video games and what these play experiences mean must rely on interdisciplinary lenses of analysis that value player reports, programming choices, and cultural narratives equally. I establish a theoretical and methodological approach that defines elements of what it means to play video games, and study the qualitative influence of game-play on thought and behavior through pragmatic analysis of interview data. Samples of masculine discourses of game play in the United States provide a starting point for this exploration of video game impact through discussions of play theory, narratology, game programming and interaction with interactive media hardware.</p><p> Common social concerns regarding increased violence, aggression, or de-socialization as a result of this medium were not represented in the population presented in this dissertation. Players recognized the allure of the so-called negative aspects of video games, but ultimately expressed a decided disconnect between the real world and virtual experiences of play, describing cathartic and therapeutic reasons for their enjoyment of those elements. An interdisciplinary approach to video game research must be embraced, despite a constant call for quick, universal answers to their most common critiques. Foundational themes for understanding the influence of interactive digital play experiences on personal identity and ideology construction are demonstrated through thematic and sociolinguistic analyses of in-depth interview data. These include play theory, narratology, human-computer interaction theory, and player report data. I draw on the established theoretical backgrounds of these disciplines to suggest a new term, ergodic ontogeny, to describe this complex process of personal development resulting from influences of interactive digital media gaming that reach beyond play experiences.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines how differing goals men and women bring to the workplace affect the impact of corporate rewards intended to motivate and recognize performance and promote retention. It focuses on gender because of the changing composition of the American workforce. In 2010 women constituted 47% of the total U.S. employed workforce and 52% of the U.S. professional workforce. An emerging body of research indicates that women in professional positions increase the effectiveness of problem solving and the profitability of organizations. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the impact of reward systems on retention, especially for women. This dissertation explores the links among individual goals, organizational rewards, and retention. Using social cognitive theory, it examines gender differences in goals; identifies the types of rewards that are most effective for each group; and proposes a model for determining effective reward structures. The dissertation conclusions are these: (1) there are barriers to success for professional women and there is a need for organizational support; (2) flexible work arrangements are a key antecedent to reduce turnover of professional women; (3) mentoring of professional women is needed, but sponsorship is required; and (4) to be a visionary organization that creates and sustains a competitive advantage by retaining valuable human capital action has to be taken now.</p>

This thesis examines to what extent there are generational differences in gender gaps in political behaviour and attitudes, and what explains this generational variation. Generations differ considerably on factors such as women's role in the family and the workplace, gender inequality, and formative experiences, and I argue this leads to different gender gaps for different generations. I examine such generational variation in gender gaps in vote choice, left-right self-placement, attitudes towards spending and redistribution, and attitudes towards gender-egalitarianism. Broad cross-national trends in Europe and Canada are identified, as well as country-specific patterns using Britain and the US as case studies. This thesis finds that generally, in the countries studied, men are more left-wing than women in older birth cohorts, whilst women are more left-wing than men in younger birth cohorts. This 'gender-generation gap' is produced through processes of modernisation, especially secularisation. In addition to this broad trend, the political context or zeitgeist during a generation's formative years produces gender gaps in both vote choice and attitudes that differ between generations according to this socialisation experience. The influences of modernisation and such political socialisation interact to create complex patterns of generational variation in political gender gaps that differ across political contexts. For example, in the British case, women of younger cohorts are not more left-wing in their vote choice than men. These results suggest that we should focus on gender gaps at the level of generational subgroups in order to fully understand political differences between men and women. Furthermore, they predict that gradually, the gender gap where women are more left-wing than men will grow over time through generational replacement. However, they also indicate that this will not occur in all contexts, and that more work needs to be done to understand how the political context shapes gender gaps.

<p>Since the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964, female law enforcement officers have battled obstacles and barriers, both external and internal in their effort to gain equality and assimilate into the role of police officer. The problem examined in this qualitative study was the low percentage of women in sworn law enforcement positions of all ranks. Thirty-six sworn female officers currently serving in the state of Arizona were selected to participate in focus group discussions to assist in the phenomenological examination of low representation of women in law enforcement. The female officers were asked a series of questions to facilitate discussion in an effort to explore their experiences and possibly reveal underlying police cultural factors that may lead to limited opportunities for women who choose law enforcement as a career. The qualitative design fostered a sharing of the stories of these female officers and provided an in-depth understanding of their experiences both on and off the job related to their choice of career. Information-rich data provided by the participants served to inform the Arizona law enforcement community concerning the experiences and career choices of women in law enforcement. Discovered through focus group discussions were the reasons women choose law enforcement as a career as well as why they remain in the profession. The excitement of the job coupled with job security, and salary factored into the decision making processes. Data addressing promotion, leadership, and role models were also revealed with female officers advising an inequitable promotional process, yet one in which they believed women needed to participate to improve the profession for others. Recommendations of formal mentoring and succession planning were made along with changes in the recruitment process. Future study should include male participants as well as female participants. Funding sources or sponsoring organizations should be explored in an effort to expand the scope of future study. Conducting focus groups discussions in different parts of the state and for longer periods of time would permit individuals from different areas of the state an opportunity to participate. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2006. / (UMI)AAI3245733. Adviser: Michael W. Apple. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-12, Section: A, page: 4508.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 2002. Adviser: Steven Aragon. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-176) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.