<p> Females, in this modern age of feminism, have excelled in all fields of study and graduate from college in larger numbers than males. However, few women go into the STEM fields (Hill, Corbett, &amp; St. Rose, 2010). To close this gap in mathematics-related fields, it is paramount that high schools produce female students who are advanced in Mathematics. The problem was the underrepresentation of females in mathematical fields of study, with a more pressing issue of underrepresentation of females in college preparatory mathematics classes at the high school level. The purpose of this study was to determine if the geographical region of a high school contributed to the resulting ratio of males to females enrolled in college level mathematics courses. In this mixed methods study, 21 urban, 14 suburban, and 30 rural public school districts in Missouri, were selected and the ratio of males to females enrolled in Calculus for each district was obtained. The researcher's rationale for this comparison was that the culture of each geographical region created bias affecting females' choice in their fields of study. </p><p> The research question was: Does the ratio of males to females differ between urban, rural, and suburban high schools in advanced mathematics courses? Two types of analyses were applied in this study and obtained the following results. The data analyzed in the study did not support a difference in ratios when comparing urban, rural, and suburban schools, nor did it support a difference in male to female ratios enrolled in advanced placement coursework. The data did not support a relationship between the ratio of Calculus students and the district budget, but did yield a mild positive correlation when comparing the ratios of male to female students in Calculus and male to female mathematics teachers. </p><p> Historically, lower enrollment of women in the STEM fields than males is a trend supportable by the findings of this study. In rural and suburban areas there were fewer females than males enrolled in advanced mathematics. However, in the urban areas a slight difference yielded more females than males enrolled in similar coursework.</p>

<p> This dissertation traces how eugenics came to underpin discourses pertaining to free love, sex and reproduction in 1920s-1930s China. It shows the eugenic and evolutionist limits to radical or liberal intellectuals' understanding of the role of the individual in the pursuit of sex, free love and birth control. The study examines the scientific view of modernity embodied in eugenics, as well as the challenges to this vision based on humanism and sex aestheticism. Bertrand Russell's visit to China in 1920 with his lover Dora Black led to heated discussions surrounding free love and free divorce, where privacy, the eugenic idea of a "robust individual" and science were key. Meanwhile, translations and the reception of Ellen Key and Havelock Ellis's works on eugenics and love underpinned the reconciliation in Chinese liberal intellectuals' thought between individualism/evolutionary humanism and eugenics, particularly in their debates on sexual and emotional ethics in the 1920s. Margaret Sanger's visit to China in 1922 opened up a debate on the suitability of eugenic birth control to solve China's problems, such as overpopulation and venereal disease. By probing into her interactions with Chinese intellectuals in 1922, this study reveals how her eugenic ideas were received, as well as the political tensions regarding her birth control advocacy. The dissertation demonstrates that the sexual reproductive considerations that had been viewed in the 1920s as a problem of the relationship between the individual and nation/race/society, by the 1930s came to completely subordinate the role of the individual to national and racial regeneration concerns. Sanger's continued correspondence with Chinese medical professionals came to shape the birth control movement in the 1930s in more strictly eugenic terms. This research contends that eugenics was not only influential in discourse, but came to be implemented in practice in the fields of sex hygiene, birth control and VD regulation. The agency of pioneer female gynecologists in the 1930s is emphasized by examining how they brought eugenics in practice in their birth control clinics, how they localized global female experience and theories on birth control and hygiene, either through translation or through their attempts to reach working class women with contraceptive sex education. Lastly I argue that eugenics and social hygiene also functioned as a male oriented ideology in VD policies of various colonial powers: British, American, Japanese, and French as part of an economy of empire. By contrast Chinese Nationalist Hygiene Campaigns and female gynecologists' internalizing of eugenics focused on female health.</p>

<p> Currently, a mismatch exists between the race and ethnicity of the U.S. physician workforce and the patients it serves. The federal government, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), individual medical schools and other organizations are addressing this mismatch in part by focusing on increasing the numbers of racial/ethnic minorities who matriculate into medical schools. However, it is unclear how minority students navigate the medical school admissions process. This study used a grounded theory approach to explore the medical school admissions experiences of a sample of Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino students. The study developed and proposed elements of an emerging conceptual model for understanding the reasons why participants applied to medical school, as well as the facilitators and barriers they encountered in the admissions process. Participants were purposively selected Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino medical students who attended 25 U.S. allopathic medical schools nationwide. Phase 1 included 29 telephone interviews with individual participants and four in-person interviews in groups of two students each. Phase 2 consisted of feedback sessions with five of the original participants to verify four emergent themes: 1) reasons for applying, 2) participants' perceptions of navigating the admissions process, 3) the role and sources of information, guidance, and support, and 4) other forces affecting how participants navigated the admissions process. Reasons for applying to medical school included: perceived fit; prior experience or knowledge; encouragement and role models; desire to help others; perceived benefits; and interest in science. In addition to information, guidance, and support, other forces influenced how participants navigated the admissions process. These forces included: information, guidance and support; finances; preparation; extra programs; extracurricular activities; and attitude. Study findings connect to theories of student college choice and academic capital formation. Findings have implications for research and practice related to advising; reviewing admissions practices; outreach and recruitment; extra programs; mentoring; improved provision of information; and data collection.</p>

<p> Marital status and sexual orientation discrimination has been largely under-researched and has not been researched using working professionals, or with the incorporation sexual orientation, marital status, and gender interactions. Past studies have found that marital status bias hiring decisions for men and women differently (Hammer, 1993; Jordan, College &amp; Zitek, 2012; Renwick &amp; Tosi,1978). Additionally, with the growing acceptance of gay (LGBT) relationships, marriages, and partnerships, the interaction of marital status (i.e., applicants with or without a spouse) and sexual orientation bias in the workplace needs to be examined. Our study examined the interview process testing for gender, marital status, and sexual orientation bias affecting simulations of hiring decisions. A significant three-way interaction was found such that single lesbian women received significantly higher ratings when compared to married lesbian women, and heterosexual women received significantly higher ratings when married in comparison to when they were single. The study revealed that sexual orientation interacted with marital status in women's ratings but not for men. This research updates current knowledge about discrimination in employment settings and provides updated information on a topic where the existing research has been largely outdated and under-researched.</p>

<p> The purpose of this paper is to explore medieval gender roles through the discourse and conduct of warfare. Some modern historians such as John Keegan have maintained that medieval warfare was a masculine activity that precluded female participation in all but the most exceptional cases. Megan McLaughlin asserted that the change from a domestic to public model of warfare resulted in a disenfranchisement of women after the eleventh century. This paper shows that medieval warfare was not male exclusive, and women's active participation throughout the period was often integral to a combat's outcome. By analyzing both the military activities of female combatants and changes in academic dialogues over war in the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, an ongoing disparity unfolds between the ideological gendering of warfare and its actual practice. </p><p> This disparity informed an accepted norm in which women were seen as inherently weak and unfit for combat, requiring a "masculinization" of women who successfully engaged in battle. This in turn led to the establishment of the <i>virago</i> image of female warriors; paradoxically, women who therefore defied the normative expectation of feminine behavior could be held in high regard for their masculine virtues. At the same time, the contributions of individual women to warfare are often left with minimal mention or treated as anomalous by some later chroniclers. </p><p> The paper is divided into seven sections. Part I explores the eleventh century military career of Matilda of Canossa, and subsequent treatment of her activities by apologists and canonical reformers. Part II discusses the means by which women had access to military activity in a changing climate of gendered social roles, through marriage, inheritance, and the influence of the <i>Pax Dei</i> movement. Part III discusses the military activity of women during the Crusades, and the differences in how that activity was noted in Western versus Islamic sources. </p><p> Parts IV - VI discuss the thirteenth century academic dialogues over women's participation in combat in the wake of the Crusades, through the work of Giles of Rome and Ptolemy of Lucca. As well, it analyzes the enfolding of knighthood as a construct of feudal vassalage into the noble class, and the changing access to military orders granted to women as armies became professionalized. Part VII looks at the formation of a new kind of war rhetoric and an attempt to resolve the disparity between the theory and practice of warfare in regards to women through the fifteenth century work of Christine de Pizan. </p><p> The conclusions of this work are that war may be understood to be a masculine activity, yet is not male exclusive. Writers and war chroniclers were forced to complicate gendered social norms in order to justify or refute women engaging in combat. This only resulted in a continued re-evaluation of the proper ideological place of women in war, and was not necessarily reflective of a change in the actual circumstances or frequency with which women took part.</p>

<p> The purpose of this paper is to conduct a qualitative phenomenological study with the intention to explain, explore, and determine the factors that lead to the emergence of women as leaders in Egypt. Accomplishing this investigation required the assessment of how participants perceive a condition through experience and consciousness and how events appear from a first-person point of view. The purposefully selected participants were women in leadership roles in both the public and private sectors. Ten women were interviewed two times each over six months. The study attempts to shed light on the factors that contribute to women in Egypt obtaining leadership positions. This study investigated the factors that contribute to the lack of women acquiring positions of management, guidance, and leadership -- positions usually dominated by men in Egypt by asking: (a) What are the perceived factors that contribute to the lack of women acquiring positions of management, guidance, and leadership? and (b) What are the perceived positions of leadership women occupy the most? Information was collected from the interviewee using the guide approach to provide a focus for the researcher and participants. This approach permitted a certain amount of autonomy and flexibility to acquire the appropriate information from the interviewee. The interviews consisted of presenting open-ended questions allowing women to reflect on how they were successful in obtaining these leadership positions. The study revealed four pertinent themes: (a) family influence, (b) leadership position, (c) family obligations, and (d) level of education. </p>

<p> Depression is a serious mental disorder with prominence in the literature, but information on its manifestation in males has been overlooked until fairly recently. Attention should be paid to depression for several reasons, including the risk of suicide. The presentation of depressed males differs from that of depressed females. They may display additional symptoms not typically associated with depression, such as anger, hostility, withdrawal and substance abuse, and may not show sadness or tearfulness. Men's reluctance to seek help, and the strong association between shame and depression, make detection even more difficult. Research suggested that families in which fathers display negativistic parenting practices, such as hostility and low levels of warmth, suffer undesirable outcomes. Conflict resolution strategies may be impaired in depressed men, and there is research available showing that depression is correlated with marital discord. Men with depression may also be at risk for substance abuse disorders, intimate partner violence, and child maltreatment. Cultural factors may affect manifestation of depression, and cultural background and adherences should be considered when working with depressed men.</p>

<p> With the &ldquo;controlling images&rdquo; of the Jezebel, the Mammy, and the Sapphire constantly reiterated in movies, television shows, and popular culture, serving the interests of what bell hooks has identified as white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy, a consumer has to wonder if there is any way for Black women performers to thrive and empower other Black women while working within these constricting institutions. Although pop culture is the predominant cultural space where these controlling images and stereotypes have been reproduced there are many Black female entertainers who attempt to challenge and undermine such representations.</p><p> Scholars such as hooks and Patricia Hill Collins introduce us to the diverse forms of black feminists and black feminism by showing how black women from all walks of life produce and engage black feminist practice. In common cultural discourse, however artists such as Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Meshell Ndeogeocello are upheld as leading black feminist entertainers of our contemporary period while artists Nicki Minaj and Beyonc&eacute; are denounced as disempowering to black women and merely reproducing dominant racist, sexist, and hetero-normative stereotypes of black women.</p><p> Much Black Feminist scholarship has focused on Black women&rsquo;s resistance to the patriarchal, racist structures that continue to police and attempt to restrain Black women&rsquo;s bodies and freedom within material social and political realms, but less scholarship focuses on the ways in which Black female entertainers produce Black feminist knowledge and empowerment within the realms of pop culture.</p><p> The purpose of this study is not to show how Badu and Monae are the best examples of &ldquo;true&rdquo; Black feminism in the entertainment industry and how artists like Minaj and Knowles are tools of white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchy. The purpose is to take the expansions of Black feminism that Collins, Davis, hooks, and several other Black feminist intellectuals, have articulated in order to reflect the broad ways in which Black feminism plays out in the popular music industry and to argue against the grain of critiques of popular culture to demonstrate how, despite its limitations, this realm of cultural representation and performance can be emancipatory for black women.</p>

This research explores transformative learning occurring through the Farmer Field Schools of the Taita Hills, Kenya using a qualitative, case study approach. The findings reveal that cultural roles and premises profoundly impacted learning and that a mixed-group setting could contribute to closing the gap between gender inequalities, leading to a more just and sustainable type of agriculture.

<p> The purpose of this project was to develop a potential psycho-education group for trans gender and gender variant (TGV) adolescents in need of services based on the most recent literature. A search for a funder was conducted using the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership Library and the local LGBTQ Center of Long Beach. The grant-funded support group will target TGV adolesents age 13 to 17 in need of resources including, but not limited to a safer environment, social and medial transition support, legal aid, and mental health support. The goals of the project include increased support, increased mental health, and increased community outreach. The actual submission and funding of this grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of the thesis project. </p>