Thesis advisor: Richard McGowan / This paper addresses the disparities in the quality of women’s health across the United States in order to determine which factors are causing these disparities and what policies and actions can be taken to improve the quality of women’s health. In order to construct a comprehensive measure of women’s health quality, a model based on Morgan and Morgan (2010) is used to assign each state an individual quality rating. Regression analysis points to a wide range of factors as being statistically significant in determining the quality of a woman’s health in America. The data suggests that exercise rates, preventive screenings, primary care coverage, the level of emotional support, and regular oral care positively influence the level of health. Factors such as the caesarian section delivery rate, the uninsured rate, unemployment rate, and pollution levels are shown to negatively influence overall health. Concrete policies and actions can be taken to positively alter the statistically significant factors. It is my hope that this paper contributes to the field of women’s health and to the work that aims to improve the quality of women’s health in the United States. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the ulama (Islamic scholars) in establishing an Islamic educational system for women in Saudi Arabia, and to determine their perceptions of women's education and employment in the kingdom. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews from men and women in Saudi Arabia who had received an Islamic education--that is, they had been educated in Islamic universities and were knowledgeable of Islamic studies and law. / Most of the ulama are supportive of women's education. They have been influential in establishing policy for the women's educational system and they supervise this system in Saudi Arabia. They also play an important role in teaching the Saudi people that Islam encourages education for females, contrary to some of the prevalent tribal beliefs. The study also identified the respondents' opinions of the academic areas that are appropriate for women to study. / Most are also supportive of women's working, but support was greater among the women respondents. All, however, insist that women work in only certain prescribed occupations and that they observe strict segregation from men in the workplace. / Among the study recommendations are that there be more exchange of ideas among muslim countries so that the views of the Saudi ulama become better known and perhaps adopted by other muslims. More vocational education is needed for women, specifically targeted to available and appropriate employment. A separate university for women should be established as the number of girls graduating from high school is increasing rapidly and they need places in higher education. Also, a special system of transportation should be developed exclusively for women as they are not allowed to drive cars in muslim countries. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: A, page: 1848. / Major Professor: James R. Robarts. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

I place Emma Goldman's feminism at the center of her political philosophy. I argue that she made at least two distinctive contributions to anarchism. First is the argument that a consistent anarchist position must reflect both the communal and individual aspects of human nature. Second is an inclusive view of the requirements for true human emancipation. Anarchist theorists generally failed to integrate consistently into their social theories a view of human nature as both communal and individual. On the one hand, they held that human beings are autonomous sources of value, but by nature disposed to cooperate with others. On the other hand, they allowed for forms of sociopolitical organization that coerced individuals into cooperating with others. But coercion would not be necessary if human beings are naturally social. Therefore, their commitment to human sociability was inconsistent with their vision of the future organization of society. Goldman recognized that human beings have social needs: for cooperation, community, and meaningful associations with others. But she stressed that human beings have strong needs as individuals: for free expression and self-determination. Most anarchist thinkers neglected women's needs as individuals. In contrast, Goldman contended that an anarchist theory of human emancipation is incomplete if it fails to address the need to eradicate gender hierarchies, to acknowledge the intrinsic value of women, and to remove the obstacles to true freedom for women. Central among these obstacles is the socialization of women as the perfect communitarians. Contributing to this socialization are political and economic institutions, social customs, and the puritan morality that compels women to put others' needs and interests before their own. Goldman emphasized the importance of the "tyranny of public opinion" to women's subjection. Through education and social morality women are led to acquiesce in their own subjection and to internalize their own oppression. A genuinely emancipatory anarchist political philosophy must explicitly confront the internalized forces that keep women under the control of men. Like many contemporary feminists, Goldman recognized in internalized oppression one of the most profound barriers to women's emancipation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2861. / Major Professor: Maria H. Morales. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The story of Dakota Commonplace follows Alice Hundley, her husband, Rob, and son, Bobby, into a world totally new and foreign to them. Alice finds herself isolated in a South Dakota farmhouse miles from the nearest neighbor, removed from her own past and from the concerns which occupy her few acquaintances. Her new experiences violate many of her preconceptions about how to be wife and mother, how to find her place in a community, how to learn, and what she can, with any certainty, know. / Rob, a social worker, has been hired by a Sioux Tribal Council to create an educational program for Indian young people. His initial enthusiasm and sense of possibility quickly diminish in the teeth of white resistance and what he perceives as Indian resignation and indifference. Alice, although hating her isolation and sense of uselessness, gradually become acclimated. She seeks the elusive history of the place and finds it in the conflicting experience of their landlord, Anker Thordahl, the descendent of Scandinavian settlers, and Dakota Indians Dorothy Renville and Jerry Flute and their families. / Over the period of four months, Alice and Rob move in different directions, complicating the strains that loneliness and too much interdependence have placed on their marriage. Rob, unable to admit to his own sense of failure, considers leaving at the very moment Alice is growing toward a deeply felt sense of place and an attachment to the people. Out of her isolation, Alice is brought to a greater personal strength that allows her to reject both inaction and superficial solutions. She takes her first steps toward individual and significant action. / Running parallel to the narrative set in 1969 is the journal or working notes kept by Alice Hundley who, in 1992, studies and reflects upon the area, its people and history. The journal's narrative compliments the progress of the 1969 narrative. The title, Dakota Commonplace, represents the use of fragments of material in Alice's journal or commonplace book and the experiences we all hold in common. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-08, Section: A, page: 3237. / Major Professor: Sheila Taylor. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study was designed to provide a model for the data analysis needed to plan substance abuse prevention programs on a local level targeting poor, culturally diverse, adult women. Both this portion of the population and this method of intervention have received the least attention in the literature. / Two multivariate data analyses, multiple regression and Automatic Interaction Detection (AID), were evaluated in terms of their utility to program planners by comparing the rank orderings of the independent variables in terms of their explanatory ability and the proportion of explained variance (R$\sp2$). The sample included poor, culturally diverse women from Dade and Broward Counties, Florida recruited from local jails and detention centers, public health facilities, and publicly funded drug and alcohol treatment centers. A composite index of their multiple substance use (i.e., alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin) was examined in terms of various personal and social characteristics using the two multivariate procedures. / The rankings of the independent variables based on explanatory ability differed significantly providing empirical confirmation that substance use among women should be considered a multidimensional phenomenon with multiple pathways to abuse. The AID procedure explained a significantly higher proportion of variance suggesting that AID provided a more accurate description of the sample than did multiple regression. Further, AID imposed fewer technical demands and fewer assumptions with associated distortions. / Those factors most highly associated with substance use included having illegal activities as one's primary source of income, reproductive control, prior history of experimentation with substances, and current involvement in prostitution. It was concluded that prevention resources could most profitably be concentrated on younger population cohorts and that these adult women were in need of treatment services. Discussion included recommendations for structuring the treatment system and the implications for future substance abuse research and for the social work profession. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-10, Section: A, page: 3676. / Major Professor: Dianne Harrison Montgomery. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This study reports four content analyses of the character Nora in Henrick Ibsen's A Doll's House. The first three studies examine different media: the printed page, the play, and a film. The fourth study examines the film again using cluster unitizing as its methodology. The objectives of these studies were twofold: to develop a quantitative methodology for studying a character to complement the more established method of qualitative research; and to compare and contrast various media for presenting the same play. / An adaptation of Sandra Bem's Sex-Role-Inventory was applied to the study of androgynous behavior of the character, Nora. Bem's original scale was used in the first two content analyses with minor modifications. The final two content analytic studies used a revised 3-point scale with twenty adjectives (ten masculine and ten feminine) in place of the original sixty items. / Dietrich's motivational unit was used to unitize the play for each coding. The first three studies used unit-by-unit analysis while the fourth study used longer cluster units. The first two studies were based on one male and one female coder while the third study used four female coders. The fourth study employed fourteen adult coders (six female and eight male). / The intercoder reliability improved with each analysis. The book reliability was .25; the play's was .33; the film was .61; the second coding of the film was .92. Intrascale reliability remained high throughout, but especially with the last coding when reliability for female items was .93 and for male items was .94. Coders for the last study were given the Bem Sex Role Inventory test to determine whether their own androgyny levels affected their coding of Nora; no effect was found. / Coding results were consistent with a subjective, independent dramatic analysis of the play and contributed to a deeper understanding of the character. It was concluded that the adapted BSRI was a promising instrument for studying sex-role behavior in drama. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1625. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-01, Section: B, page: 0373. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Midwifery is a word that, for many in this country, conjures up an image of superstitious old women delivering babies in primitive conditions of filth and ignorance. This strongly rooted and uniquely American idea owes its tenacious existence to the well-orchestrated campaign of the medical profession and state health officials, whose aim it was to eliminate the "midwife menace" within this century. Their goal was to make inroads for the more scientific and relatively new field of obstetrics. Through the mechanisms of the state, midwifery was successfully eradicated in three rational stages: education, regulation, and elimination. In phasing out midwifery, the state made incursions into a cultural tradition and permanently altered an ethnic institution. An important segment of women's (as well as southern and ethnic) history was forcibly ended, and one of the few long-respected, exclusively female roles of leadership was lost to American life. The existing literature on midwifery is predominantly statistical and anti-midwife (propaganda would not be too strong a word), gathered and publicized by the medical establishment in the early part of the century. Because of the underlying economic motives and the middle- and upper-class "professional" bias, the accuracy of this material is questionable. Neither does it address, in any depth, the role and personality of the old midwife from a cultural, historical perspective. This is the emphasis of this document, which includes a look at the process of state licensing and its effect on cultural institutions, original interviews with the few remaining Florida midwives or their daughters and granddaughters, and specific models from the licensing process in Florida, both past history and its present struggle to implement new midwifery legislation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-03, Section: A, page: 0816. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

This study examines the theme of violence against women, in three novels of Emile Zola, representing respectively the bourgeoisie, the working class, and the peasant class: La Curee, L'Assommoir, and La Terre. Some of Rene Girard's ideas, as put forth in La Violence et le sacre, The Scapegoat, and Des Choses cachees depuis la fondation du monde, provide the theoretical basis for our analysis. / The suffering of the female characters, be it psychological or physical or both, strongly reflects the position of women as scapegoats, and thus transcends all classes. Also vital to the interpretation of this issue are the relationship between sexuality, violence, and original sin, as well as mythological forces at work in each of the novels, such as the Sphinx, the Still, and the Earth. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-09, Section: A, page: 2678. / Major Professor: Antoine Spacagna. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The present study examined the relative salience of life roles of female college seniors who have chosen nontraditional and traditional academic majors. Three dependent variables were identified to measure characteristics on which the groups were expected to differ. These are (1) participation, (2) commitment, and (3) value expectations. These variables were measured against five separate life roles: (1) student, (2) worker, (3) home and family, (4) citizen, and (5) leisurite. In addition, the study assessed the level of career certainty, vocational identity, and congruence between academic major and anticipated career choice. / A nonrandom sample of 148 undergraduate college women was employed in the study. Volunteers completed the Salience Inventory (Nevill & Super, 1986), the Vocational Identity Scale of the My Vocational Situation (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980), the Occupational Alternatives Question (Slaney, 1978), and a demographic data form. / A multivariate analysis of variance procedure was used to examine group differences on measures of participation, commitment, and value expectations of the five life roles. The MANOVA did not yield any significant differences between groups regarding role salience. Group differences on career certainty, vocational identity, and occupational congruence were examined by t-test. While no difference was found in career certainty, differences were found in vocational identity (t = 3.66, p =.000) and occupational congruence (t = 4.00, p =.000). While the data suggested differences between groups on (VI), the importance was limited because both groups scored in the high range. The author also concluded that methodological shortcomings rendered the results on congruence invalid. Results are discussed and implications for future research are recommended. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 1024. / Major Professor: F. Donald Kelly. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.