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This project seeks to understand anxious and fearful responses to the Zika virus and microcephaly that began circulating widely in February, 2016. My project works to uncover racial histories embedded in the contemporary scientific and medical practice of measuring head circumference. By arguing that microcephaly is a racialized metric of civilizational and human development, I show that responses to Zika’s proliferation invoke state security because Global Northern states imagine microcephaly as a developmental, economic, and cultural lag. Dominant scientific and medical characterizations of microcephaly constitute modern, developed states as such by making political conceptions of normalcy and capacity seem natural: microcephaly is marked as “abnormal” in the scientific literature that instructs the measurement, surveillance, and diagnosis developmental and cognitive disabilities. Seemingly disparate contemporary moments and histories–among them the 2016 Rio Olympics, histories of racial purity and contamination, phrenology, and eighteenth-century racialized notions of sexuality—are inextricably linked to ideals and practices of white, bourgeois subjectivity. Like the diagnostic category of microcephaly, these ideals and practices are inherently unstable and insecure: they cannot exist nor materialize without the economic and social exploitation of racialized and disabled populations.

This study explores college students’ attitudes towards hookup culture, and how these attitudes potentially shift over their four years in college. More specifically, I examine how being a student at a women’s liberal arts college influences students’ interactions with the hookup culture, and how the education they receive shapes these interactions. I conducted in-depth interviews with 11 students at Scripps College, all in the spring semester of their senior year. I investigate themes including: pluralistic ignorance, sex positivity and female empowerment, criticisms of gendered stereotypes, and race and class dynamics within the hookup culture.

<p> The overall image that emerges from the literature on gender and the French Revolution is that of revolutionary women transgressing traditional gender boundaries by actively participating in the Revolution. This study will show that with few exceptions, most revolutionary women did not attempt to transgress their gender boundaries; instead, they attempted to redefine their sphere of action on the basis of a new ideology born during the Revolution: that of the larger family of the Republic. This study investigates the contradiction between the eighteenth-century idea of the <i>femme id&eacute;ale </i> and the reality of revolutionary women activism and argues that these women justified entering the public space as part of their duties as patriotic mothers. On the other hand, this study also shows how revolutionary men increasingly started to marginalize all revolutionary women as &ldquo;femme-hommes&rdquo; to ultimately exclude them from the public sphere in 1793. While many historians focused on the way women were sexualized and feminized during the Revolution, this paper argues that most revolutionary leaders considered women who attempted to play men&rsquo;s roles to be women who were becoming men and thus losing their maternal and motherly duties.</p>

<p> Decreasing rates of marriage and the delay of motherhood or decision to forsake childbearing altogether are emergent trends in the United States. Historically, shifts in family composition have always been important, yet the increase in the number of unmarried and child-free adults is rarely acknowledged by health researchers. Race and family type will be used to investigate the health of Black and White unmarried, childless women (SWANS), using intersectional theory, the Social Determinants of Health, and the Sojourner Model. The frequencies of poor health outcomes are analyzed to determine if family type influences health outcomes, and if so, does this differ by race. Using secondary data from the 2010-2013 Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) and binary logistic regression, results indicate that the main independent variables of race and family types interact to differentiate health outcomes. </p><p> This work uncovers race as a master status for Black women. Black married childfree women have better health outcomes relative to Black SWANS, with the exception of self-rated health. Black married parents are less likely to report adverse health conditions than Black married childfree and SWANS. Among Whites, all family types are in poorer health, when compared to married parents. </p><p> Notably, both Black and White SWANS experience the lowest rates of poor emotional health. These findings persist despite adjusting for demographic and socio-economic characteristics that are known to influence health. The analysis further underscores the importance of focusing on intra-racial variations in marriage and health and give added support to feminist arguments regarding the methodological and conceptual challenges to studying women who exist on the margins of society and Black women in general. Taken altogether, the results move toward an examination of health and family policies to identify areas for potential policy change and SWAN-advocacy.</p>

Self-poisoning - the deliberate, non-fatal ingestion of medicinal agents in excess of the recommended dose - is characterised wherever it occurs in Western society by a predominance of women - usually in the order of 2:1, and in over 60% of cases psychotropic medication is employed. Despite this the largely female nature of the phenomenon and its relationship to the 2:1 excess of women among the recipients of psychotropics generally has been virtually ignored in the literature. For many years self-poisoning was regarded as 'failed suicide' and consequently theoretical approaches to it have been dominated by the assumption of pathology - justifiable, perhaps in relation to completed suicide, as there is evidence of significant psychopathology among its perpetrators, but less so among self-poisoners where there is little such evidence. This thesis proposes that not only is the 'pathology paradigm' at odds with the known facts of self-poisoning but that the emphasis on psychopathology has discouraged the development of any convincing theory of female self-poisoning. An alternative account, based not upon pathology but upon processes of normative socialisation, suggests that the sex role system promotes a stereotypic view of women as helpless, dependent and emotionally unstable. This stereotype, when shared by physicians and their female patients, contributes to the excess prescription of psychotropic medication to women who have social, rather than psychopathological problems. Additionally, the sex role system and the social relations based upon it, fosters a 'female' cognitive style - particularly among those women who predominate among self-poisoners i.e. young, working class women with a history of family breakdown. This leads them to attribute the cause of adverse events internally to enduring, and irremediable personal inadequacy rather than - to others or misfortune. Such an "attributional style" externally renders these women vulnerable to "learned helplessness" in such circumstances - to the debilitating belief that their actions will be ineffective in resolving their difficulties. Female self-poisoning is interpretted, not as symptomatic of psychopathology, but as both consequence and expression of this socialised helplessness. The attributional style of male and female self-poisoners is compared in a pilot study with that of other patients and non-patients and support is found for an attributional approach to female self-poisoning.

<p> The research problem addressed in this study was the relationship between racism and self-efficacy. While racism lowers self-efficacy, it is not clear whether the relationship between racial discrimination and self-efficacy is stronger or weaker depending on an individual&rsquo;s race, gender, or levels of resilience. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationships between racial discrimination, self-efficacy, and resilience, while also accounting for the demographic variables of gender and race, thus better equipping mental health professionals working with female and/or minority clients. A quantitative, correlational study design was proposed to answer four research questions: (1) Does race significantly mediate the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and self-efficacy? (2) Does gender significantly mediate the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and self-efficacy? (3) Does resilience significantly mediate the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and self-efficacy? (4) Do interactions between race, gender, and resilience significantly moderate the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and self-efficacy? It was found that (1) race mediated the impact of racism on self-efficacy, such that African Americans had substantially lower self-efficacy in the face of high perceived racism; (2, 3, 4) gender, resilience, and a race-resilience interaction variable did not influence the relationship between racism and self-efficacy. These findings suggested the unique nature of racism-associated trauma in African Americans. This finding can be used to strengthen therapeutic approaches used with African Americans; and, better address this population&rsquo;s mental health needs. </p>

Tidigare postkolonial feministisk forskning visar hur en vit och patriarkal ”svenskhet” fortlever som norm på olika plan i det svenska samhället. Den politiska elitens retorik visar sig även ha stor betydelse för hur samhället i övrigt hanterar strukturer av rasism och sexism. Utifrån postkoloniala, intersektionella och affektteoretiska perspektiv syftar denna studie till att synliggöra hur kön och ras förstås och praktiseras diskursivt och med stöd av känslor i partiledartalen från Almedalsveckan 2018. Med fokus på konstruktioner av "vi" och "dem" tar undersökningen avstamp i Sara Ahmed’s teoretiska förståelse för känslor som ”affektekonomier” i relation till ras och kön. Ett analytiskt fokus riktas mot vilka känslor som uppstår, hur de cirkulerar och vad de gör i olika skillnadsskapande processer. Materialet som undersöks är avgränsat till tre av åtta partiledartal (Socialdemokraterna, Moderaterna och Sverigedemokraterna). Analysens resultat tyder på en vit och maskulin norm som får representera ”svenskhet” och talets ”vi”, en position som kontrasteras mot ”den andre” som ger sken av något utländskt, icke-vitt, hotfullt och maskulint. Det feminina osynliggörs och får istället representera något ”skyddsvärt”. Känslor av rädsla, ilska, olust, glädje och skratt bidrar som betydelsebärande dimensioner i att förena talets ”vi” genom att ta avstånd från ”de andra”. Analysen visar sammantaget på en underliggande vilja om att värna något förutsatt ”svenskt”, vilket kan förstås som en vilja, medveten eller omedveten, av att bevara en vit och maskulin överordning.

Gender mainstreaming has become a widely discussed and applied tool, aimed to aid progress towards gender equality. The latter has been an important aspect of international development and humanitarian action, as is evident from the Sustainable Development Goals. In humanitarian aid, this tool has the purpose of making aid more effective and inclusive, by critically assessing how crises affect women, men, girls, and boys differently. Specifically, it enforces a needs-based approach to delivering aid. However, gender biases still guide perceptions of vulnerability, which is a key determinant in needs assessment. Specifically, women and children are perceived to be the most vulnerable in all cases, while men are either sidelined, perceived as necessary allies to gender equality at most or, in the worst case, as threats. Though women and girls do suffer most from systematic gender inequality due to various factors, gender-specific threats are not reserved for women and girls, alone. Men and boys face different types of threats that are unique to their gender. This paper will explore male-specific vulnerabilities by addressing conceptual and theoretical concerns, followed by a policy analysis. This analysis is based on policies of implementing organizations in Syria in 2017. The purpose of this analysis is to determine whether these humanitarian actors are aware of male-specific vulnerabilities, and whether they address them in their policies and programming. In doing so, obstacles to the successful inclusion of men in gender mainstreaming efforts will be identified.

Thesis advisor: Julie Paquette MacEvoy / Children’s relationships with friends during middle childhood play a vital role in shaping their interpersonal competencies as well as their general socioemotional adjustment across development (Bierman, 2004; Glick & Rose, 2011; Ladd, 2005). Children’s friendships provide a rich context in which young people begin to develop expectations for peers and first encounter experiences of disappointment in close, voluntary relationships with others (Wiseman, 1986). Previous research and theory are clear that key gender and developmental differences exist in how boys and girls conceptualize their relationships with same-gender friends (Hall, 2011; Maccoby, 1998; Rose & Rudolph, 2006; Thorne, 1993; Underwood, 2003) and how they respond when these friends commit violations of their core friendship expectations (MacEvoy & Asher, 2012). Little is known, however, about the contexts under which these gender and developmental differences occur. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine associations among children’s friendship expectations and their purported style of responding to transgressions of varying chronicity (e.g., in response to singular versus repeated violations of their friendship expectations). This study also explored associations among children’s style of responding to transgressions and their socioemotional wellbeing. A sample of 245 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade children from two elementary schools in the greater Boston area was utilized in the analyses. Mean- level similarities as well as differences emerged in boys’ and girls’ responses toward friends who had committed transgressions of their friendship expectations. Regression analyses further showed that gender moderated the relationship between friendship expectations and children’s endorsement of revenge goals and aggressive strategies. Lastly, gender and grade-level were also found to moderate the relationship between children’s endorsement of revenge goals and aggressive strategies and their feelings of loneliness, but not friendship quality. Overall, findings highlight that boys and girls share many similarities in their responses to friendship expectations transgressions; however, they also embody distinct strengths and vulnerabilities in their styles of managing these violations. Clinical and developmental implications are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.