This study focuses on dark-skinned, Black women's representation in Black sitcoms. Through a mixed-methods use of a comparative textual analysis and focus group, the content and context of episodes from A Different World and Dear White People are explored to illustrate portrayals of dark-skinned, Black women and how these portrayals affect dark-skinned, Black women's self-esteem. Its findings contribute to colorism research by exploring colorism in Black sitcoms. Because this topic is largely unexplored, this study seeks to begin a conversation about dark skinned, Black women's representation in Black sitcoms. The main objective is to ultimately improve their depictions and roles in Black sitcoms and hold Black creatives responsible for the role they play in promoting colorism and its ultimate effect on Black women's self esteem.

During the antebellum period of U.S. slavery (1830-1861), many people claimed ownership of the enslaved woman's body, both legally and figuratively. The assumption that they were merely property, however, belies the unstable, shifting truths about bodily ownership. This thesis inquires into the gendered specifics and ambiguities of the law, the body, and women under slavery. By examining the particular bodily regulation and exploitation of enslaved women, especially around their reproductive labor, I suggest that new operations of oppression and also of resistance come into focus. The legal structure recognized enslaved women in the interest of owners, and this limitation was defining, meaning that justice flowed in one direction. If married white women were "civilly dead," as famously evoked by the Declaration of Sentiments (1848) then enslaved women were civilly non-existent. The law controlled, but did not protect slaves, and a number of opponents to slavery denounced this contradictory scenario during the antebellum era (and before). Literally, enslaved women were claimed by their masters, purchased and sold as chattel. Physically, they were claimed by those men (both white and black) who sought to have power over them. Symbolically, they were claimed by anti-slavers and pro-slavers alike when it suited their purposes, often in the domains of news and literature, for the sake of advancing their ideas, a rich record of which fills court cases, newsprint, and propaganda touching the slavery issue before the civil war. Due to the numerous ways that enslaved women's bodies have been claimed, owned, or circulated in markets, it may have been considered implicit to many that others owned their bodies. I believe that this is an oversimplified historical supposition that needs to be re-theorized. Indeed, enslaved women lived in a time when they were often led to believe that their bodies were not truly their own, and yet, many of them resisted their particular forms of oppression by claiming ownership of their bodies and those of their children; sometimes using rather extreme methods to keep from contributing to their oppression. In other words, slave owners' monopoly of the legal, economic, and logistical meanings of ownership of slaves had to be constantly reaffirmed and negotiated. This thesis asks: who owned the enslaved woman's body? I seek to emphasize that enslaved women were valid claimants of themselves as can seen in primary sources that today have only been given limited expression in the historiography.

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Certain sport environments may contribute to the development of disordered eating and those that heavily emphasize weight and/or body shape can be particularly damaging to an athlete's body image, self-concept, and eating behaviors. In particular, female athletes in collegiate sports are at a greater risk for engaging in unhealthy behaviors because they face both societal pressures from Western culture to be thin, in addition to sport pressures that focus on performance and appearance. According to the American Medical Association almost half of American women are trying to lose weight, illustrating that societal pressures alone to be thin and attractive can influence the development of disordered eating. Athletes are exposed to the same sociocultural pressures as their nonathlete counterparts, and would be expected to have similar feelings about their bodies as women in general. Add subsequent pressures like team "weigh-ins," coaches' body comp preferences, judges' critiques, revealing attire, and endurance/strength demands, and the stage is set for the development of disordered eating. In the current study, participants were 414 Division-I female gymnasts, swimmers/divers, and they completed self-report measures assessing sport pressures, body satisfaction and disordered eating behavior to test Petrie & Greenleaf's etiological model. Results indicate that sport pressures do lead directly to dietary restraint, a precursor to disordered eating, and are not always mediated through internalization and body dissatisfaction. These findings suggest that decreasing and intervening with perceived sport pressures may lessen the risk of female athletes developing an eating disorder.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Rates of chronic disease and physical inactivity are disproportionately high among African American women. Despite the known benefits of physical activity and an increasing number of programs designed to increase activity, attendance rates to many exercise programs remain low. There is much to learn about program types, such as healthy lifestyle programs (HLP); individual factors, such as self-efficacy; and mediating variables that may influence exercise program attendance. An observational study design was used to compare exercise self-efficacy and attendance in a community-based exercise program in African American women who were enrolled in a HLP (N = 53) to women who were not (N = 27). Exercise program attendance was gathered across six months; demographics, self-efficacy and physical activity behaviors were assessed through surveys; and physiological variables (resting heart rate and blood pressure, height, and weight) and physical fitness (muscular strength and endurance and cardiovascular endurance) were measured at baseline. Descriptive statistics were used to describe participants and groups were compared using T-tests, chi-square and non-parametric statistics. Finally, mediation analyses were conducted using multiple regression models to assess self-efficacy as a potential mediator to exercise program attendance. Women who enrolled in this study were of low income (61% having an annual income less than $20,000), obese with a mean (standard deviation) body mass index (BMI) of 37.7 (7.6), pre-hypertensive with a mean (standard deviation) systolic blood pressure of 125.9 (14.4), and scored poorly and marginally on two fitness tests. On average, women reported being Moderately Confident in their ability to exercise regularly, yet had low attendance in the exercise program with a median number .5 days over six months and there were no significant differences in exercise self-efficacy (p = .23) or attendance in the exercise program between groups (p = .79). Additionally, exercise self-efficacy was not a mediating variable to program attendance. Women in this study had little discretionary income and several chronic disease risk factors, yet exercise program attendance was low even in those enrolled in a HLP. Identifying factors that increase exercise self-efficacy and factors that influence attendance beyond self-efficacy may help future program design and attendance.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Advocacy, in the form of direct service, is a critical type of intervention to help intimate partner or domestic violence survivors. Little is known the best practices for social workers and other helping professionals to assist survivors of domestic violence who present for services at shelters, non-residential outreach, and legal settings. This dissertation reviews relevant research related to domestic violence direct services, which is also called advocacy. The study also outlines a brief overview of the history, theory, and paradigms of thought related to the movement to end intimate partner violence. The research project used the grounded theory method to conduct and analyze semi-structured, in-depth interviews with advocates at domestic violence agency to answer the research question: What constructs and practices inform the delivery of direct services to survivors of domestic violence from shelter and non-residential service advocates? A total of 22 women working primarily with domestic violence survivors in shelters and non-residential agencies participated in the dissertation study. Participants came from one Midwestern and one Southwestern state. The interviewees had a range 1-20 years of experience in the field of domestic violence advocacy. Eighteen of 22 participants had experienced some sort of intimate violence in their lifetime. Several important findings emerged. Advocates typically enter the field because of personal motivations. The empowerment and strengths-based perspective are important to the delivery of advocacy services, as is belief in hope. Advocates typically endorse a survivor centered approach to their work. Data analysis revealed a concurrent process of advocacy that occurs within advocates and between advocates and survivors. This parallel process is marked in the earlier state of assessing and grounding; in the middle stage of establishing and affirming; and the ending stages of hoping and reflecting. These findings suggest the importance of personal experiences, hope, and reflection in the delivery of advocacy services. Community collaboration and support are essential to maintaining services that are aimed at the individual needs of survivors. More research is needed about the perceptions of services among survivors of domestic violence.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / From 1851 to 1954, under various names, the Indiana Cotton Mills was the dominant industry in the small town of Cannelton, Indiana, mostly employing women and children. The female industrial laborers who worked in this mill during the middle and end of the nineteenth century represent an important and overlooked component of midwestern workers. Women in Cannelton played an essential role in Indiana’s transition from small scale manufacturing in the 1850s to large scale industrialization at the turn of the century. In particular, this work will provide an in-depth exploration of female operatives’ primary place in Cannelton society, their essential economic contributions to their families, and the unique tactics they used in attempts to achieve better working conditions in the mill. It will also explain the small changes in women’s work experiences from 1854 to 1884, and how ultimately marriage, not industrial work, determined the course of their later lives.