I place the political career of one woman through an examination of her public rhetoric. Frances Perkins served as Secretary of Labor for twelve years, an accomplishment more impressive than that of being the first woman to serve in this post. I examine her career as the Secretary of Labor (1933-1945) in terms of selected portions of the speeches she delivered, articles and full-length works she published, and the legislation she helped to enact. To establish the characteristics of Frances Perkins's arguments, it is important to discuss the individuals who influenced her and how she interacted with them. The list includes: Professors Annah May Soule and Simon N. Patten; photojournalist Jacob A. Riis; politicians Timothy D. Sullivan, Alfred E. Smith, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt; social reformer Florence Kelley; and Democratic Party organizer Mary W. Dewson. The terms that frame the study are: (1) placement, drawing upon the Greek notion of topoi, that is, the place one goes to find arguments; (2) public; and (3) memory. The questions about Frances Perkins that most intrigue me are about: (1) the nature of the arguments she discovered which then inspired her to choose and sustain a long political career; (2) the way she developed her public persona; and (3) ways the accomplishments of admirable political women from the past can be woven into the fabric of time that is history. The following views of particular theorists dominate the theoretical framework of the study: (1) Kenneth Burke's notions of terministic screens and creative circumferencing; (2) Ernesto Grassi's belief in ingenium, "the source of the creative activity of topics"; (3) Lucy F. Townsend's concentric circle approach to the writing of biography; and (4) Carolyn G. Heilbrun's appeal to scholars to tell heroic tales of women. A topical philosophical view, informed by feminist criticism, maintains that logic and imagination are inseparable, that first principles precede deduction. Sophocles's Antigone is utilized to explicate this belief and to highlight the guiding principle in Frances Perkins's career--maintaining a balance between the needs of the individual and the needs of the state.

Historically, myths have existed about the separate existences of women. These include the Sirens that sang on the Aegean rocks; the Amazons in the jungles of Brazil; the islands of self-reproducing women in Polynesia; and utopias such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland. This thesis will explore some variant existences and congruent ideas and images of the archetype. The objective will be to show how the theme itself is neither progressive nor reactionary, but can represent different psychological needs arising from different historical contexts. The aim will be to shed light on certain major texts which have come to be considered classics of that genre. The research into history, popular culture, folklore, myth and narratives referencing societies exclusively of women or societies in which women dominate, some fantasized and created by men, will provide new prisms to look at political feminist material. A particular focus will be on how this imagery has been portrayed and developed in tourism on Isla Mujeres, off the coast of the Yucatan, Mexico, in the Caribbean. My readings begin with a statement of the Amazon archetype as it comes to us mediated through culture, and an analysis of various historical uses and interpretations. I explore the difference between a sign, pointing to something outside the text, and a symbol, operating within the text. Although the symbol of the Amazon as an archetype has primarily been explored as a sign, indicating that women might have lived a different more empowered sort of life at a different time, the women are also a symbol within whatever text they occur. I explore the initial Greek context, as originally glimpsed in The Iliad and subsequent aspects of Greek culture; how the Amazons lost their pre-Christian touch and developed as negative representation of paganism; and the exportation of Amazonism by a European writer, Montalvo, imitating the Greeks. I explore the changing reality behind the mythic representation of one "Island of Women" as developed for North American tourism on the site of worship of the Maya Moon-diety, Ixchel.

This dissertation explores the extent to which present day nursing education reflects its tradition-bound subservient roots. The purpose of this study was to identify behavioral phenomena which influence the perpetuation of sex-role socialization from teacher to student in the traditional milieu of nursing education. Using feminist and nursing literature as a theoretical base, the review of the literature revealed a dismal portrait of self perceived inferiority, oppression, and male domination of nurse educators in the academic environment. In contrast, the researcher found nurse educators do not succumb to environmental pressures. They do not conform to the feminine traits as defined in the review of the literature but are enthusiastic, confident, dedicated women who do not perpetuate the monastic military milieu or the rites of initiation in nursing. Nor do they socialize students into the doctor-nurse game or perpetuate the learned feminine traits of submission, passivity, conformity, and dependence. Through in-depth interviews containing 107 open-ended questions, 42 nurse educators in Massachusetts and California described their personal experience with sex-role socialization as a woman, as a student nurse, and as a teacher. Crosstabulation contingency tables compared question responses in cell categories by (1) individual response, (2) state, (3) academic agency, (4) type of nursing program from which they graduated, and (5) type of nursing program within which they are currently teaching. Computation of means, t-tests, and Chi Square demonstrated no significant statistical difference in this nurse educator population for the five categories. The type of school they graduated from or the type of program they are currently teaching do not matter. After maturation, these 42 nurse educators present the same profile of a dynamic, competent, hard-working professional, concerned for the influence she has on students and on the nursing profession. This study has determined that these women are positive role-models and cycle-breakers, encouraging students to be assertive, creative practitioners. This dissertation found that oppressive forces of sex-role socialization are not perpetuated by these 42 nurse educators but by others in the health care system. Implications for further research suggest that other members in the health care system be interviewed to ascertain who is responsible for perpetuating the feminine behaviors encountered in clinical agencies.

Using the qualitative methodology of grounded research, this study sought to discover whether or not internal developmental changes are fundamental to the transformation process of moving from welfare dependency to self-sustaining, economic self-sufficiency among welfare dependent mothers who enroll in highly structured academic and career related training programs to become practical nurses. To realize their goal of welfare independence, subjects entered a grant-funded, community college Career Access Program in Nursing which offered a progressive hierarchy of career ladder steps including Patient Care Assistant training, Developmental and Academic coursework, and Licensed Practical Nurse preparation. Utilizing eight welfare dependent mothers as subjects and an interview protocol modeled on developmental principles, the researcher tracked the transformation process as indicated by changes in self-identity, movement towards autonomy, and cognitive growth, and analyzed situational, economic, and other demographic themes. Within the context of the study is an analysis of the potency of gender, class, and socioeconomic status on issues of female dependency and empowerment; the impact of age and stage on readiness patterns of welfare dependent mothers; and the relationship of gender related themes of affiliation and interdependence on women's career choices, maternal relationships, and learning preferences. The study's most important finding emerged within the realm of psychosocial change. The results indicated that a welfare dependent mother's ability to reconstruct her gender role to encompass a self-identity which is both psychologically and economically autonomous is core to her successful transformation process. This dissertation presents a "process model of change" which depicts four discrete, invariant, domain specific stages of change which are embedded within the transformation process: Precondition, Transition, Reconstruction, and Independence. This model subsumes the multiple changes acquired by the subjects in the external arena of skills and knowledge competencies, as well as within the internal domains of psychological and cognitive functioning. This model contains constructs from which intervention strategies may be developed aimed at reducing welfare dependency through education and empowerment, as well as for evaluating the effectiveness of intervention programs proposed to promote long term, economic self-sufficiency among welfare dependent women.

Women are conspicuously absent from the top tiers of Corporate America, representing less than five percent of executive level positions. Despite changing family roles and increases in education, workforce participation, and career commitment, women are not assuming organizational positions of leadership and power. Research suggests three theoretical perspectives for causal explanation, each with its own implications for organization development strategies: the person-centered, organization-centered, and gender-organization-centered views. Recent demographic, economic, and social change has altered the face of labor and consumer markets motivating corporate leaders to initiate responses to attract and retain women managers. This study provides a synopsis of the corporate responses of 110 of "The Best Companies for Women" (Zeitz and Dusky, 1988). The purpose of this research is to define the extensiveness and developmental level of programming to promote women manager's upward mobility in these bellwether companies, and to determine organizational characteristics or antecedents that may be conducive to efforts supporting women managers. The research is a quantitative analysis based on responses to a mailed survey consisting of 36 questions addressed to corporate executives. Data analyses include descriptive statistics summarizing and reporting the findings, and correlational statistics testing the hypotheses. Results indicate that the sample organizations are addressing women's underrepresentation in upper-level management through the development of extensive, fairly highly evolved programs. The trend is shifting from exclusively individual-centered approaches toward organization-centered and combination strategies representing integrated, multi-pronged solutions. These organizations recognize the need to alter structural barriers limiting access based on gender, and are accepting their responsibility to change. Findings suggest that programs promoting women's upward mobility are supported by companies tending to: be large and non-unionized, have higher proportions of female workers/leaders, have high levels of EEO accountability and CEO support for women's agendas, maintain a high degree of formalization including EEO tracking systems, and exercise innovative management practices within moderately hierarchical or flattened organization structures. Hypotheses testing indicates significant positive associations between company size, level of EEO accountability, CEO involvement, and formalization of EEO record-keeping systems, and the level of corporate policy development to advance women's status.

This study is an examination of how gendered characters in eighteenth-century British women's fiction are constructed and challenged. The novels under study are Eliza Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751), Frances Sheridan's Memoirs of Sidney Bidulph (1761), Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story (1791), and Charlotte Smith's The Old Manor House (1793). Chapter one, "Theory, Gender, and Eighteenth-Century British Women Writers," discusses how eighteenth-century scholars often substitute a focus on women writers and their female characters for a more thorough examination of gender and gender issues. Using post-structuralist and feminist-materialist theory, I maintain that it is important to consider a process-oriented conception of male and female identity, and to understand that each sex is continually in dialogue with the other, and with society at large. My subsequent chapters apply this supposition on a practical level. "Negotiating Female Identity in The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless" argues that Trueworth constructs his masculine identity by associating with "virtuous" women and by avoiding any examination into his own sexual or moral conduct. He and society repeatedly and incorrectly judge the benevolent and high-spirited Betsy to be morally deficient and sexually permissive, and she comes to believe what everyone tells her: that she is a coquette and that it is her fault men sexually harass her. Consequently, Haywood offers no alternative way of perceiving women's gendered identity than by polarizing sexuality and ethics and by collapsing sexuality into gender. "Gender and Disguise in the Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph" also focuses on the social indoctrination of women into accepting conservative notions of womanhood. More specifically, it explores the manifestation of heterosexual desire during a time when women were taught to venerate their parents and keep a tight rein over their desires while men were allowed more latitude in expressing their sexuality. The two remaining novels are more progressive in their construction of gendered characters. "A Simple Story: The Complexity of Gender Realized" argues that in Inchbald's novel gendered identity is indeterminate and in flux. Gender is consciously foregrounded with the construction and dismantling of gendered stereotypes, and the repetition and extension of their intergenerational stories. Characters' identities (same sex and different-sex) merge and plotlines (romance, incest, and adultery) are fluid. Finally, "Domestic Ideology and the Delusion of Gendered Stability in The Old Manor House" contends that Orlando and Monimia are deluded about the makeup of their gendered identities and the relationship they have with each other. While they work hard to maintain that separation between the public and private upon which their identities are based, Smith shows us that these spheres are always already intertwined and that it is impossible for heterosexual romance to remain immune from societal forces.

Despite the increasing representation of women in the workforce, there continues to exist a gross under-representation of women in senior management. One specific and important aspect of organizational experience that is related to advancement is performance feedback. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between gender and perceptions of the nature and quantity of performance feedback received. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 male and 5 female managers regarding the types, amounts and effectiveness of the feedback they receive from their supervisors. From the information acquired through the interviews, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a larger sample of managers, testing five tentative hypotheses and investigating two questions of a more exploratory nature. Consideration was given to both formal and informal feedback processes. The results of the study suggest that although male and female managers do not differ significantly in their perceptions of the quality and quantity of feedback received, there are gender differences regarding what constitutes effective feedback, and what contributes to a sense of fairness in the appraisal process. The amount of feedback received is especially important to women.

Women occupy an increasingly significant proportion of professional and managerial positions in the United States. This dissertation asks whether this shift translates into importance and power for women by examining their connections within a particular occupational context--corporate-government affairs management. Workplace and family ties have been characterized by social scientists and economists in gendered ways. Women's ties in the marketplace and in the home are typically characterized as "expressive," compared to men's "instrumental" connections. These characterizations are rooted in traditionally male conceptions of power that stress domination rather than influence, capacity, and strength. Drawing primarily from in-depth interviews and a mail survey of government relations officials who are their corporations' political action committee (PAC) managers, this dissertation examines the character of women's connections in the workplace and family, whether they differ from men's, and what these differences reveal. The findings indicate that, although women's and men's networks are similar in many ways, there is a significant difference in their character. This dissertation concludes that although women's connections at work and in the home are limiting in a variety of ways, they nonetheless potentially empower women by placing them in key positions to influence their own conditions as well as the character of corporate-government affairs. One of the broader implications of this study is that by studying women's connections in the context of the occupations within which they are embedded, and using a more inclusive conception of power, we can move beyond traditional dichotomies that denigrate and devalue women's work and women's connections to a better understanding of women's opportunities and power.

The sister-figure that appears in the works of the turn-of-the-century Austrian poet, Georg Trakl (1887-1914) has been the source of speculation and analysis in numerous secondary works, beginning already less than ten years after Trakl's suicide in a military hospital in Cracow. Although current research is generally in agreement that Trakl had an incestuous bond with his younger sister, Margarethe Langen-Trakl (1891-1917), the relationship between Trakl's poetic creation of the sister-figure and his own sister Grete continues to be a contentious issue within the secondary literature. In my study of the development of Trakl's sister-figure, I show that this figure appears at times of crisis or emotional turmoil with Grete. Through creation of the sister-figure, Trakl found a means of expressing the conflicting emotions of attraction and repulsion and guilt that arose out of his relationship to Grete. In the poems and particularly in the unedited dramas, the sister-figure is represented as fragmented, both physically and psychically. The image of the sister as both victim and aggressor, both male and female eventually gives way to a mythical representation of the sister. After Trakl's death, many of his friends and acquaintances had contact with Grete Langen-Trakl. In their depictions of her, they measure her explicitly against her brother and find her lacking in positive qualities, polarizing Georg and Grete into extremes of good and evil. Implicitly, their negative portrayals of Grete are based on Trakl's implication of the sister-figure in an incest scene. Contemporary depictions of her behavior and relationship to her brother frequently employ words expressing disgust and abhorrence or make references to her fate of tragic suffering. As a result of these early attempts to obscure the incest, most secondary works establish a stance of either accepting or rejecting the importance of the incest and the sister-figure in Trakl's oeuvre. I argue that many of these secondary works adopt the tone of the contemporary depictions of Grete Langen-Trakl, which they then apply to their analysis of Trakl's sister-figure. In particular, biographical sketches of Trakl and his sister borrow heavily from the contemporary descriptions of Grete Langen-Trakl and Trakl's representation of a sister-figure.

This dissertation is constituted by three distinctive chapters or essays, but the unifying theme is how a more careful consideration of female labor supply may better inform assessments of economic growth and structural change. In chapter I, I use the insights of both cooperative and noncooperative bargaining theory to develop a household model of female labor supply. Particular attention is given to how this model applies to the developing world, including how the effects of larger social shifts such as technological change and fertility decline are mediated by bargaining and inequality in the family. In chapter II, I develop a theoretical foundation for analyzing how gender roles in the household affect foreign direct investment in a developing country context. It is argued that the extent to which women and men share the costs of social reproduction at the household level is a central determinant of female labor supply and the profitability of investment. I combine a model of family structure with a structuralist macromodel to investigate the effects of various public policies on women's wages and employment. A major goal is to specify the constraints imposed by international capital mobility on the prospects for increased equality and living standards for women. In chapter III, I reevaluate economic growth in Taiwan between 1965 and 1995 by developing an alternative measure of economic production that accounts for both market and nonmarket production in the form of domestic services provided by women in the home. I find that social services, a category that includes social services provided in the market and the home, is the lead employer of Taiwanese labor between 1965 and 1995. Another key finding is that many of the factors driving growth in the market sector also shape growth in the nonmarket sector. Despite trend declines in the relative size of the nonmarket domestic sector, it has probably continued to grow throughout this period, primarily because of productivity gains in household production and the effects of demographic change.