This project asks why depression has become the most popular mental illness in the nineties, mapping particular contemporary state, industrial and cultural policies that define and regulate subjects with depressed mood. The project is a critical exploration that seeks to reveal the conditions making possible the current increased rate of diagnosed behavioral and mood disorders, and the increased use of biopsychiatric therapies. It does so by evaluating practices that have normalized the surveillance and regulation of normal behavior in recent historical moments, namely mental hygiene programs in the 1960's and 1970's and in contemporary state, industrial and cultural policies promoting techniques of prevention and recovery. The study also investigates consistent and contradictory discourses in depression science and health policy that construct personality norms and diagnostic practices. It tracks the depression historically in the DSM, arguing that the diagnosis encourages discipline or self-discipline in particular niche groups. The study links the hysteria epidemic to depression, arguing that the latter is paradoxically refeminized and democratized—made applicable to a broad population. The study analyzes this new trend in “broad spectrum” diagnosis; and calls for increased rates of depression diagnoses, and promotion of biopsychiatric prevention therapies. It does so by investigating depression discourses of public health departments, private health insurance industries, anti-depressant pharmaceutical industries, “cultural” (non-governmental) groups, and new information and television industries that market self-help therapies. The study details a mental health “system” that links diagnosis with recovery in a practice that is gender, race and class biased, and ultimately seeks to improve consumer. Employing post-structuralism, feminist cultural studies and critical theory, this project analyses the diagnosis and treatment of depression to understand how cultural health ideals are communicated—that is, how they interact with psychiatric discourses to produce, circulate, and normalize dominant knowledges of mood and personality. It reveals that relationships of knowledge exchange among state, industrial and cultural practices work to promote prevention and recovery, and social activities and policies regulate the female body and behavior. Finally, the study addresses possibilities for resisting diagnosis and recovery.

This dissertation conducts a class analysis of prostitution using the class analytical framework developed over recent years by AESA (the Association of Economic and Social Analysis). It remedies the neglect of class analyses of sex work in the literature on this industry, and demonstrates the very different insights such an analysis makes possible. It moves beyond the debates on prostitution that interrogate the buying and selling (or commodification) of sex on the market, to analyze the very high rates of profit (or surplus extraction) circulating within some sectors of this industry. It argues that there exist different class structures of prostitution (slave, feudal, independent, capitalist, and communal), which differently impact the rates of surplus extraction, the services produced by sex workers, and their working conditions in general. More specifically, the dissertation argues that the class relations of prostitution affect the extent to which sex workers are able to choose their clients, the number of clients they see, the services they provide, and thus their ability to protect themselves from unsafe, dangerous, or degrading work. The dissertation also demonstrates the unique influence of culture, politics, and the law in shaping the economics of prostitution, and thereby offers a new kind of economic analysis of the contemporary sex industry. The various moral judgments, laws, social policies, court decisions, enforcement standards, informal policing practices, and industry self-regulation shape and constrain in particular ways the earnings obtained by sex workers, the prices of prostitution services, and generally the cost and revenue flows within the sex industry. The dissertation draws on a comparison of the different regulatory climate in the U.S. and in the Netherlands to show how different moral and regulatory regimes prohibiting or permitting prostitution activities can contribute to the emergence of new class structures of prostitution and the suppression of others. The dissertation thereby contributes to the current rethinking and debates over prostitution as a contemporary industry with powerful social effects.

In 1900, Umeko Tsuda founded the Joshi Eigaku Juku (Women's Institute of Language Studies, which later became Tsuda College), the first private institution of tertiary learning for women in Japan. Tsuda was one of the first females in Japan's history to study in the United States, spending eleven years of her childhood (1871–1882) on a Japanese government-sponsored study program in the United States, and returning in 1889 for three years of study at Bryn Mawr College, another pioneering institution of higher learning for women. Tsuda's establishment of the Joshi Eigaku Juku marked her as a true educational innovator; her success in founding it secured her place in history as a pioneer in the higher education of women in Japan. This dissertation sets out to understand the catalysts found in the social, economic, political, and educational milieus that shaped Tsuda both in Japan and in the United States, and to understand what place Tsuda's experience at Bryn Mawr under M. Carey Thomas held in her development as an educational innovator. Through a comprehensive examination of the social structures, political and economic trends, and educational polices in place during the latter third of the nineteenth century in both nations, this dissertation examines what forces compelled Tsuda to take the revolutionary step of founding her school and establishing higher education as an option for women in Japan, when such an institution was thoroughly unwelcome by the Japanese populace at large.

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the influence of mentors in dyadic relationships on the leadership development of women college presidents. To fully understand the influence of mentoring on leadership development, a case study approach was used to originate empirical data to provide additional knowledge about women's leadership development. The case study was conducted through in-depth interviews with three women college presidents, their mentor(s), and their protégés. A process model of cross-generational leader development was generated from the empirical findings of the study and the model includes three specific mentoring strategies—Modeling, Challenging, and Supporting as well as two key bonding stages—Developmental and Peer Bonding.

In this dissertation, I explore women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan. NGOs in Pakistan offer an opportunity to study activism in action and analyze the various strategies and modes of argumentation used by women's NGOs to advance women's rights in a conservative environment. This study is an attempt to break down some of the dichotomies that often characterize the debate on NGOs---civil society vs. the state, democratic vs. non-democratic, feminist vs. non-feminist---and instead place the activities, visions and agendas of women's NGOs in their historical, political, cultural, and social contexts. Between January and June 2004, I collected data in Pakistan by (1) engaging in participant observation with three NGOs ranging along a continuum of advocacy and feminist agendas, (2) personal interviews with NGO employees all over Pakistan, government officials and some senior officials at international donor agencies, and (3) analyzing published materials produced by NGOs such as mission statements, reports, strategy papers, posters and calendars as well as newspaper articles and reports on NGOs. I address the following questions through my research: What factors influence whether NGOs follow feminist agendas or more conservative ones? What kinds of strategies do they employ to ensure their survival in a conservative environment? Do these strategies involve compromises that undermine a feminist agenda? At the core of this study are some lingering questions about feminism and activism. How do we and should we define feminism? What are the consequences for NGOs, and activism in general, of compromising on feminist ideals? How should we understand these compromises given the "ground realities" of activism in a country like Pakistan? How does the position of NGOs within a larger social, cultural, and political context shape and/or constrain their visions and activities? I argue that the ground realities (which differ from place to place) often dictate to a large extent the scope, nature, and strength of activism and feminism in a given context. This is an important step in furthering the debate and filling some of the theoretical gaps in the scholarship on the role and nature of activism, NGOs, and feminism.

The present research identified two critical factors that explain differential reactions to idealized media images among appearance focused women versus non-appearance focused women: (a) awareness of comparing the self to idealized media images and, (b) control over self-evaluative responses following potential threat. When the response measure was controlled or deliberate, I predicted that appearance focused women would describe themselves as less attractive and would express more sadness compared to non-appearance focused women in response to both subliminal and supraliminal exposure to the idealized media images. However, I expected that a situation that forced women to confront the potential effect of the images on the self would erase any differences in attractiveness and sadness between the two groups of women. When the response measure was automatic or implicit, I expected that appearance focused women would exhibit positive self-regard only in response to subliminal exposure to idealized media images, whereas non-appearance focused women would express positive self-regard regardless of awareness of exposure. Study 1 provided a test of the main predictions for appearance focused women versus non-appearance focused women, and Study 2 attempted a replication using appearance focused women only. Study 2 also incorporated a more rigorous methodology by counterbalancing the order in which participants received the dependent measures. In Study 1, consistent with the main predictions, I found that awareness of attractive primes and control over self-evaluative responses determined the consequences of upward social comparisons for appearance focused women and non-appearance focused women. Study 2 replicated the self-enhancement effect such that appearance focused women expressed somewhat greater implicit self-esteem in response to subliminal primes compared to no primes. However, self-enhancement only occurred when implicit self-esteem was measured first, before the explicit measures. In order to further test the validity of this new theoretical framework, future research should attempt to replicate these findings as well as test the generalizability of these effects.

No description available.

Three studies explored people's experience of intense emotion in conflictual and non-conflictual romantic relationships. All studies showed that when subjects reported how they generally experienced emotion in their relationship, people in highly conflictual relationships reported equally intense positive emotion and more intense negative emotion than people in non-conflictual relationships. Study 3 also showed that when subjects described their emotional reactions to specific happy times in their relationship, people in more conflictual relationships reported more love and marginally more idealization of their partners than people in less conflictual relationships. There is some evidence that women in high conflict relationships differ from women in low conflict relationships on certain personality variables. High Conflict women score higher than Low Conflict women on preoccupied and avoidant attachment style dimensions, report a more manic love style, are greater sensation seekers, and report a general tendency to experience extreme affect in all aspects of their lives. The relevance of these findings for increasing our understanding of the formation of emotional bonds in conflictual relationships is discussed.

The subject of leadership in education has been addressed in a vast amount of research and literature, including the leadership styles and needs of women administrators and faculty. However, there has been limited attention paid to the leadership styles of women students and none that deals with women students in traditional women's programs of study. This study used an exploratory, descriptive qualitative research design to identify women students' attitudes and perceptions of leadership and to identify the leadership skills, abilities and positions held by students. All the students interviewed were traditional aged college women who were majoring in a predominantly female area of study--Home Economics. The research was undertaken to answer several research questions, including: How do students define leadership and what leadership traits do they feel effective leaders need to possess? What leadership skills do students possess or need help in developing? What types of organizations do students belong to and are leadership positions held? Are students aware of leadership opportunities within academic programs and at the institution? Do students perceive differences or similarities in the leadership styles of men and women? The findings show that the majority of women students interviewed in the study do not possess adequate leadership skills and abilities, do not actively participate in organizations within their academic department or at the institution, perceive differences in the leadership styles of men and women and feel at a disadvantage at being part of a traditional women's program. The conclusions of the study indicate that institutions of higher education need to address the issue of women students and leadership. Institutions and academic programs need to review and revise leadership development programs in an attempt to insure that women students are acquiring the leadership skills necessary to succeed in college and in a career.

This study explored the question of whether the literature on women's leadership is relevant to the ways in which a select group of female community college presidents lead their institutions. Three bodies of literature are reviewed. First, the literature on the development and psychology of women is reviewed. Second, the literature on leadership behavior, in general, is reviewed. And third, the arguments for and against Feminine Leadership as a new and viable leadership model are reviewed. It is clear that the Feminine Leadership literature is derivative: It takes many concepts directly from the literature on women's development, and reflects much of what the general leadership literature says about important leadership traits and behaviors. While not entirely original, it does provide particular areas of emphasis. Women, it contends, are relationship-oriented: They collaborate, they manage in participatory ways, and they provide a caring, nurturing environment in the workplace. These characteristics, we are told, are particularly valuable during times of crisis and change. In-depth interviews were conducted with four female Massachusetts community college presidents. The presidents were asked to talk about their career progressions, how they entered and effected change within their colleges, and the impact of the recent and dramatic cuts in state funding. The interviews were tape recorded and were analyzed from repeated listening to the tapes and written transcriptions. The results of the interviews were that the women were far more different as leaders than they were similar. Feminine Leadership was not found to be a defining concept for them, in or out of fiscal crisis, although their use of language often did reflect some of the major Feminine Leadership themes. This study concluded that the Feminine Leadership "lens" is too narrow to provide an understanding of the leadership of these four women. While relevant to particular individuals at particular times, it provides no common thread for understanding them as a group. Each leader brings to her role a unique blend of behaviors and characteristics which define her leadership in far more powerful ways than does the concept of Feminine Leadership.