Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Sue Zschoche / Historians have often linked the route of the second wave of the women's movement on college campuses with the development of women's liberation as young women involved in the New Left came to feminist consciousness working in civil rights and anti-Vietnam protests. This dissertation considers a “longer, quieter” route to feminist consciousness on a college campus by considering the role of a dean of women, Dr. Emily Taylor, at the University of Kansas between 1956 and 1974. Through her office that centered on women’s affairs, Taylor used the student personnel and counseling profession to instigate the dissolution of parietals at KU, a project that has long been associated with New Left student protests. A liberal feminist committed to incremental change to benefit women’s equal status in society, Taylor structured her office to foster feminist consciousness in undergraduate students, and provided staff support to New Left and radical women’s groups as they emerged on the KU campus. As a result, the inter-generational exchange that occurred within the KU dean of women’s office illustrates one example of how liberal and radical feminists interacted to foster social change within an institution of higher learning. The projects undertaken within her office illustrate that these seemingly separate groups of women overlapped, collaborated, and sometimes clashed as they worked toward achieving feminist goals. Her career at KU also shows that the metaphor of a first and second wave of the women’s movement may not be an accurate picture of the growth of feminism on co-educational campuses. Little scholarly work exists on the role of deans of women in higher education, or regarding women college students in the years immediately following World War II. This dissertation adds to the literature in both areas, showing that in the case of KU the administration was not a monolithic obstacle to student protest, the New Left, civil rights, and feminism. Instead, Taylor as dean of women pushed initiatives that bore on all of these areas. While Taylor is one example, her career illustrates patterns in deans of women’s activities that deserve further study and consideration.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Kay A. Taylor / This qualitative multiple participant case study examined Mexican American women‘s experiences at the intersection of race and gender in public high school. Mexican American women‘s experiences cannot be isolated and described independently in terms of either race or gender. The intersection of race and gender for Mexican American women has not been investigated fully. The few studies that include Mexican American females focus on dropouts and emphasize at risk factors such as gender, race, socioeconomic status, and language. Consequently, the gaps in the empirical literature are caused in part by the shortage of research on Mexican American women and the propensity toward examining Mexican American women from the deficit perspective. Critical Race Theory was the framework for the analysis and the interpretation in this study. The significant findings of this research support CRT, in that racism is prevalent and ordinary in the daily the lives of Mexican American females. The findings of the study included: First, racism is endemic and pervasive in public education. Second, colorblindness is the notion from which many educational entities operate. Third, the participants perceive social justice as the solution to ending all forms of racism and oppression. Finally, navigating the system is necessary to learn to be academically successful. The results contribute to the limited research on Mexican American women at the intersection of race and gender and the racism experienced in public high school to the overall CRT research in education, and in particular, to LatCrit research.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Kay Ann Taylor / This qualitative case study examined how the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and college experiences affected five Latina undergraduate students' academic persistence in a predominately White, Research Extensive Midwestern State University. Latinas' gender, race, ethnicity, and college experiences influence their educational achievements directly. Because most research concentrates on understanding Latinas' educational experiences from a cultural deficit perspective, this research addressed the need to investigate Latinas' personal understanding of the challenges they face in college and their responses and coping strategies utilized to navigate their experiences and persist academically. Cultural Congruity was the theoretical framework for analysis and interpretation in this study because it contextualized the understanding of Latinas' culture of origin and its values in relation to the cultural values upheld by the university Latinas attend. The research utilized life narratives to understand the meaning the participants gave to their college experiences. Life narratives invent, reform, and refashion personal and collective identity for underrepresented people. Life narratives provided direct access to accounts of participants' lived experiences while identifying the ideologies and beliefs shaped by those experiences. The findings in this study identified the stereotypes, racism, obstacles, and support encountered by Latinas in college and at home. Further findings include: Impact and relevance that caring relationships and high expectations had on their academic persistence, Latinas' determination to be involved in college and give back to their parents and communities, and how academic effectiveness acted as a form of resistance for Latinas' college persistence. Four additional themes emerged: How self-efficacy was used by Latinas to redefine themselves in college, the changing effect that intellectually stimulating courses had on Latinas in college, their tenacity to succeed, and Latinas' identification of their fathers as feminist role models. Recommendations for practice and future research are addressed. The results contribute to the limited research on Latinas' persistence in higher education and the personal meaning that they give to the obstacles and support they encounter in college. Further, the findings defy the stereotypes attributed frequently to Latinas.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Kevin Blake / Mexican artist and global phenomenon Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) fascinates and inspires people from all walks of life. Rather than simply approaching the life and work of Kahlo from a traditional art historical perspective, this dissertation draws from the interdisciplinary nature of critical human geography to investigate Kahlo. Specifically, this work is informed by two sub-fields of critical human geography—feminist geography and cultural geography. Kahlo’s iconic status as a feminist symbol makes feminist geography an obvious choice while cultural geography provides the dominant methodology of textual analysis. Both sub-fields are drawn together by the use of a poststructuralist theoretical foundation that views no one meaning or interpretation as fixed, but rather posits that meanings and interpretations are fluid and open to a variety of conclusions. The primary research question in this dissertation is, “How are the critical geographies of hybridity, embodiment, and glocalization developed and explored in Frida Kahlo’s art and life?” The question is answered through the geographical exploration of Kahlo’s work, life, and iconic status as a major public figure. I delve into each of the three components of the question (hybridity, embodiment, and glocalization) by connecting geographical concepts and understandings to Kahlo and her work. I extend this exploration by arguing that Kahlo demonstrates how the self both mirrors and constructs critical geographies. This research seeks to expand and deepen the understanding of Kahlo as a significant geographical figure—an artist who was intensely aware of people and place. Additionally, this research draws together diverse threads of geographic inquiry by highlighting the interdisciplinary and humanistic qualities of the discipline. Perhaps most importantly, this dissertation positions Kahlo as a critical geographer—defying the sometimes arbitrary and limited notions imposed on the discipline and its practitioners. I assert that Kahlo’s work and life are inherently a lived expression of geographical ideas that manifest themselves in a physical, mental, and emotional sense. Ultimately, Kahlo constructs an embodied geographic text—creating knowledge and helping people understand identity and place in a different way.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Trudy A. Salsberry / Much of the research on women advancing in higher education has been focused on the external barriers and how to break down the barriers. Initiatives and programs have been implemented, but the number of women in upper-level administrative positions in higher education, although increasing, is not increasing in proportion to women's overall numbers in education and the work force. The structure and processes at work in a particular situation can change more readily than changing people's behaviors directly. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to take a positive approach by looking to women who have reached the upper-level administrative arena and investigate what influential factors were responsible for motivating them to this achievement. This qualitative multi-case study used the elements of Bandura's Model of Reciprocal Determination, specifically self-efficacy, personal behavior, and environmental factors to determine the factors motivating women to upper-level administrative positions. Eighteen women who have reached the upper-level administrative positions (e.g., provost, vice-president or vice-provost) at land-grant universities were interviewed. The themes of this study suggest that support groups and individual mentors were important motivating factors because these groups and individuals encouraged, coached, and supported women administrators on their decisions to enter higher education and then as they pursued upper-level administrative positions. In addition, women felt successful when they were able to be the nurturers, assisting and influencing others to succeed. Also, the women administrators recognized the need for knowledge, skills, and experience to assist in their career advancement. Furthermore, they emphasized developing and evaluating personal values, and ensured their personal values fit with institutional values. At the same time, women administrators stressed the value of time and the choices they made to balance time between work and family and between work and personal time. Recommendations to implement initiatives to promote and support the motivational factors identified in this study are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Sue Zschoche / Despite an impressive history of woman-friendly legislation, Kansans tend to be socially conservative. The Equal Rights Amendment, first proposed in 1923, was the culmination of over a century's worth of women's activism attempting to remove the strictures of coverture and to recognize women as citizens in their own right, not as wives or as mothers of male citizens. After largely ignoring the amendment for fifty years, Congress finally passed the ERA in 1972 and submitted it to the states for ratification. Almost immediately, the real and imagined consequences of the legislation provoked a passionate debate among mostly middle-class white women about the meaning of American womanhood. Liberals hoped that the ERA would remove existing barriers to women's educational and professional life; conservatives feared that the ERA would cause women to focus on selfish interests outside of their households, rotting the foundations of family life and American strength. In Kansas, women from both camps converged to discuss the future of the ERA at the feminist-organized Kansas Women's Weekend of July 15-17, 1977, resulting in Kansas sending a conservative faction to the federally funded National Women's Conference later that year. Conservatives failed to derail the convention's feminist agenda, nor were they able to enact a rescission of Kansas' ratification, but in the long run they succeeded in creating widespread uneasiness about the social consequences of the ERA. The vitriolic anti-ERA campaign demonstrated the extent to which female dependency still defined both male and female conservatives' views on the interrelatedness of family, religion, manliness, and national strength. This dissertation explores a volume of letters to Kansas legislators expressing anti-ERA sentiment. The letters provide a unique lens through which to examine the passions aroused by the ERA among grassroots conservatives. Contextualizing this issue are other conservative reactions to feminist activity from the Revolution onward that consistently demonstrate how conservatives valorize female dependency. Although the liberal position regarding women's rights has changed significantly over two hundred years, conservative reaction has invariably embraced and elevated the patriarchal family as proper and necessary to the smooth functioning of a Christian republic.

Samoan language nests have become well established in New Zealand due to the commitment, support and contribution of the Samoan community, the church, Samoan families, parents and most importantly the efforts of mothers. Their advent has created new settings within which or through which women's roles may become redefined. This thesis explores the questions of how relationships between Samoan language nests and family systems have developed, and how these relationships may have affected the development of roles within Samoan families, especially women's roles. To obtain answers to these questions three theoretical frameworks were utilised. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model provided concepts for understanding the developmental changes occurring in the transitional relationships between families and language nests. The second theoretical perspective employed was Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural framework to analyse the cultural processes developing between Samoan families and language nests. The final framework was provided by Goodnow and Collins's (1990) concept of 'parents ideas'. Their argument is that parents' ideas and style of parenting has been influenced by their own ontogenic development, and by society's expectations. The answers to the research questions were obtained by interviewing 21 Samoan language nest supervisors in the Auckland area and 100 caregivers or parents. Samoan language nests influenced parents, mothers and their families in their awareness and affirmation of Samoan language and culture, helping with parenting skills, provided support groups and served as an opportunity to gain knowledge and skills about preschool operation and educational processes. Language nests reinforced women's maternal roles, it changed the way they related to their children and the women's support groups encouraged women to assert their rights as women. The level of commitment by women is illustrated in the ways mothers and parents contributed at the language nests. Overall 92 percent of the mothers and parents helped at the nests. The significant contribution of women in Samoan language nests serve to affirm her as a 'poutu', the 'superwoman', the strength of her family, of the church and her community. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Samoan language nests have become well established in New Zealand due to the commitment, support and contribution of the Samoan community, the church, Samoan families, parents and most importantly the efforts of mothers. Their advent has created new settings within which or through which women's roles may become redefined. This thesis explores the questions of how relationships between Samoan language nests and family systems have developed, and how these relationships may have affected the development of roles within Samoan families, especially women's roles. To obtain answers to these questions three theoretical frameworks were utilised. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model provided concepts for understanding the developmental changes occurring in the transitional relationships between families and language nests. The second theoretical perspective employed was Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural framework to analyse the cultural processes developing between Samoan families and language nests. The final framework was provided by Goodnow and Collins's (1990) concept of 'parents ideas'. Their argument is that parents' ideas and style of parenting has been influenced by their own ontogenic development, and by society's expectations. The answers to the research questions were obtained by interviewing 21 Samoan language nest supervisors in the Auckland area and 100 caregivers or parents. Samoan language nests influenced parents, mothers and their families in their awareness and affirmation of Samoan language and culture, helping with parenting skills, provided support groups and served as an opportunity to gain knowledge and skills about preschool operation and educational processes. Language nests reinforced women's maternal roles, it changed the way they related to their children and the women's support groups encouraged women to assert their rights as women. The level of commitment by women is illustrated in the ways mothers and parents contributed at the language nests. Overall 92 percent of the mothers and parents helped at the nests. The significant contribution of women in Samoan language nests serve to affirm her as a 'poutu', the 'superwoman', the strength of her family, of the church and her community. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Samoan language nests have become well established in New Zealand due to the commitment, support and contribution of the Samoan community, the church, Samoan families, parents and most importantly the efforts of mothers. Their advent has created new settings within which or through which women's roles may become redefined. This thesis explores the questions of how relationships between Samoan language nests and family systems have developed, and how these relationships may have affected the development of roles within Samoan families, especially women's roles. To obtain answers to these questions three theoretical frameworks were utilised. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model provided concepts for understanding the developmental changes occurring in the transitional relationships between families and language nests. The second theoretical perspective employed was Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural framework to analyse the cultural processes developing between Samoan families and language nests. The final framework was provided by Goodnow and Collins's (1990) concept of 'parents ideas'. Their argument is that parents' ideas and style of parenting has been influenced by their own ontogenic development, and by society's expectations. The answers to the research questions were obtained by interviewing 21 Samoan language nest supervisors in the Auckland area and 100 caregivers or parents. Samoan language nests influenced parents, mothers and their families in their awareness and affirmation of Samoan language and culture, helping with parenting skills, provided support groups and served as an opportunity to gain knowledge and skills about preschool operation and educational processes. Language nests reinforced women's maternal roles, it changed the way they related to their children and the women's support groups encouraged women to assert their rights as women. The level of commitment by women is illustrated in the ways mothers and parents contributed at the language nests. Overall 92 percent of the mothers and parents helped at the nests. The significant contribution of women in Samoan language nests serve to affirm her as a 'poutu', the 'superwoman', the strength of her family, of the church and her community. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Samoan language nests have become well established in New Zealand due to the commitment, support and contribution of the Samoan community, the church, Samoan families, parents and most importantly the efforts of mothers. Their advent has created new settings within which or through which women's roles may become redefined. This thesis explores the questions of how relationships between Samoan language nests and family systems have developed, and how these relationships may have affected the development of roles within Samoan families, especially women's roles. To obtain answers to these questions three theoretical frameworks were utilised. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model provided concepts for understanding the developmental changes occurring in the transitional relationships between families and language nests. The second theoretical perspective employed was Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural framework to analyse the cultural processes developing between Samoan families and language nests. The final framework was provided by Goodnow and Collins's (1990) concept of 'parents ideas'. Their argument is that parents' ideas and style of parenting has been influenced by their own ontogenic development, and by society's expectations. The answers to the research questions were obtained by interviewing 21 Samoan language nest supervisors in the Auckland area and 100 caregivers or parents. Samoan language nests influenced parents, mothers and their families in their awareness and affirmation of Samoan language and culture, helping with parenting skills, provided support groups and served as an opportunity to gain knowledge and skills about preschool operation and educational processes. Language nests reinforced women's maternal roles, it changed the way they related to their children and the women's support groups encouraged women to assert their rights as women. The level of commitment by women is illustrated in the ways mothers and parents contributed at the language nests. Overall 92 percent of the mothers and parents helped at the nests. The significant contribution of women in Samoan language nests serve to affirm her as a 'poutu', the 'superwoman', the strength of her family, of the church and her community. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.