<p> Women are underrepresented in public office throughout the United States. Candidate recruitment and training are understood to be crucial interventions for increasing women&rsquo;s representation in elected leadership (Rozzell, 2000; Carroll &amp; Sanbonmatsu, 2009; Carroll &amp; Sanbonmatsu, 2010). In response to this need, campaign programs for women have become increasingly prevalent across the country. However, the implications of what happens within campaign training programs and the impact particular training content has on participants, women&rsquo;s political participation, and the political arena are still poorly understood. Using discourse analysis, this study seeks to understand the construction of womanhood in a campaign training program for women. The program for the purposes of this study is called Women in Politics (WiP). The WiP program is a multi-faceted, non-partisan, issue-neutral program geared towards encouraging and training women to run for public office and is located in a small city in the Southeast United States. Data was gathered using participant observation during three of six workshops in the series that were free and open to the public. Discourse about the intersections of candidacy, gender, race, age and class; family; and, appearance, perception and public judgement are examined to reveal how womanhood is constructed in ways that both reify and challenge or complicate hegemonic standards. The findings of this study indicate that for women to become elected to public office, a field in which women have been historically underrepresented, they must contend with and in many ways maintain hegemonic womanhood.</p>

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.

This dissertation examines the relationship between gender and political culture in the American radical pacifist movement during the World War II, postwar, and Vietnam War years. Between 1942 and 1972, male and female radicals in the American peace movement translated their beliefs into action as they protested against racial segregation, resisted conscription, and opposed U.S. foreign and nuclear weapons policies through direct action and civil disobedience. As they struggled to create a new paradigm of nonviolent protest, they discovered that political activism was as much about personal transformation as it was about dissent and social change. The history of this vanguard political movement belies accounts that relegate women to the margins of American radicalism and grassroots struggles for social justice and peace. Women played an integral role in the radical pacifist movement: they worked behind the scenes and on the streets, and made substantial contributions to its trajectory and growth. The motivations and experiences of female activists defy the standard equation between masculinity and militant action and refute essentialized associations between women's pacifism and maternal concern. Working alongside of men, these women transcended the distinctions between public and private and challenged the tendency to link female activism to separatist strategies for empowerment. The study's secondary focus on race complicates what traditionally is described as an organic alliance between white peace activists and the black freedom struggle. Radical pacifists were inspired by and hoped to contribute to the emerging civil rights movement. Nevertheless, the different priorities of these two movements created a tense and ambivalent relationship. By engaging in creative acts of nonviolent resistance, radical pacifists redefined dissent in terms of personal sacrifice and risk-taking, all within an egalitarian framework that sought to overcome gender and racial difference. They did not succeed in fostering a pacifist mass movement for social change, nor did they always act in concert with their egalitarian ideals. In spite of these limitations, these men and women modeled a militant style of activism that challenged the cultural and political norms of modern American society and helped to reformulate definitions of gender in the political realm.

<p> This study examines how conflict between public assumptions and media framing of a political candidate&rsquo;s gender performance impacts public trust in the candidate, building upon prior research concluding that the Republican and the Democratic Parties are linked cognitively with ideas about gender, with people often associating the Republican Party with masculine characteristics and the Democratic Party with feminine characteristics. This study operates under the theory that conflict between media representation and participant assumptions will lead to lower levels of trust in a candidate whose gender is framed as conflicting with the underlying gendered assumptions of their party. In an experiment, subjects read one of six news articles describing a hypothetical presidential candidate and answered a questionnaire to measure their trust in the candidate. The results indicate that participants have a higher level of trust in the feminine-framed candidate and a lower level of trust in the masculine-framed candidate &ndash; in comparison to the baseline of a gender-neutral framed candidate &ndash; in both the Democrat and the Republican condition. Further analysis of the results suggest that while participants assume all candidates possess certain masculine traits often associated with leadership, the presence of feminine traits may increase a candidate&rsquo;s perceived likeability, which in turn leads to the perception that the candidate has a higher degree of integrity, is more responsive to public concerns, and is ultimately more trustworthy. Additionally, the presence of masculine traits may threaten the candidate&rsquo;s perceived trustworthiness without the presence of feminine traits to increase the candidate&rsquo;s likeability. This study expands the current conversation about media and gender to look beyond a candidate&rsquo;s sex and consider the media&rsquo;s role in constructing and reinforcing a candidate&rsquo;s gender performance. It also provides a foundation for future research about the media&rsquo;s power to shape public perception of candidates and, by extension, the electoral process.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines how poor black South African women in rural areas organize themselves to address their poverty situations and meet their practical needs &ndash; those that pertain to their responsibilities as grandmothers, mothers, and community members &ndash; and assesses their organizations' effectiveness for meeting women's goals. My research is based on two groups that are members of the South African Rural Women's Movement. They are the Sisonke Women's Club Group (SSWCG) and the Siyabonga Women's Club Group (SBWCG). A majority of these women are illiterate and were <i>de jure</i> or <i> de facto</i> heads of households. Based on interviews and participant observation, I describe and analyze the strategies that these women employ in an attempt to alleviate poverty, better their lives, and assist in the survival of their families, each other, and the most vulnerable members of their community. Their strategies involve organizing in groups to support each other's income-generating activities and to help each other in times of emergency. Their activities include making floor mats, beading, sewing, baking, and providing caregiving for members who are sick and for orphans. I conclude that, although their organizing helps meet practical needs based on their traditional roles as women, it has not contributed to meeting strategic needs &ndash; to their empowerment as citizens or as heads of households. </p>