Thesis (M.A. in Old Testament)--Cincinnati Christian University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-121).

Thesis (M.A. in Old Testament)--Cincinnati Christian University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-121).

According to the 2011 College Music Society directory, 9% of university band directors in the United States are women. Band directing in higher music education remains dominated by men. In a career field traditionally occupied by men, women have anecdotally reported a variety of experiences with gender as they sought to be considered competent or worthy enough to fulfill what is sometimes presumed to be a male role. The purpose of this study was to understand the ways three women have experienced gender within the culture of band directing while identifying as women, university-level band directors. Of prime interest was the process of how (and if) verifications and agreements were (or were not) made between these women, their students, and colleagues. This study was based on the theoretical platforms of gender theory, role theory, and identity theory, which, when combined, provided the foundation from which I was able to view, understand, and interpret the ways three women university band directors felt pressure to exist within a culture that demanded they “do” and “undo” gender within the role of band director. Via interview and observation within a qualitative, multiple case study format, it became clear that women who wish to become university band directors face a variety of obstacles, most having to do with gendered expectations of the role of band director. Findings indicate that the participants’ experiences of gender were more complex than initially expected. The participants’ understanding of the expectations related to the role of band director were easier to negotiate than the identities they sometimes struggled to name. Participants engaged in a variety of types of negotiation, including the use of gendered attributes, humor, and confidence, which when viewed as a whole, suggest that these women engaged in behaviors that represent what Ahmed (2014) terms as willfulness, a component necessary for each to attain their positions as university band directors. Although participants engaged in such willfulness, each was compelled to acquiesce to the patriarchal rules that continue to govern the role of band director and conductor.

Examining poetry under the rubric of religion, geography, and gender provides a lens through which I read postcolonial literatures, thus positing new emphasis in literary studies, and suggesting for African women empowerment as opposed to weakness, articulation as opposed to silence. Religion and poetry among Black people in Africa and the Black diaspora are sacred because religion pervades values, beliefs, and socio-political life, and religion saturates the environment; as well, the role of a poet is connected to that of a seer or a sage. Comparing Turn Thanks, a collection by Jamaican-born Afro-Caribbean poet Lorna Goodison with The Springs Last Drop, a collection by Nigerian poet Catherine Acholonu, reveals that African and Afro-Caribbean womens strong sense of community, spiritual sensitivity, holistic attitude of women fight for liberation, the quest for healing and hope through the power of crafted words and rituals present an ideology of Africana womanhood as embedded in African cultural traditions. The two poets are rooted in their culture and being rooted empowers them as members of the community and speaking voice to build on values in their communities. In terms of the structure and themes of their books, the diction of their poems and the titles of their works, the poets suggest that there is a spirit connected with the works that readers must discern and become attuned to in order to unravel the meaning and the significance of the works. Both poets go back to the primacy of the word in the spiritual and oral traditions. The thesis argues that spirituality will continue to interest scholars because it represents a strong desire of twentieth-centruy humanity to maintain equilibrium in the face of socio-political upheavals through a discerned integration of both the spirit and body for a holistic existence and survival of communities and to understand the potential of applying and realizing the power of the spirit in connecting rather than fragmenting individuals and communities. On the whole, African people in Africa and the diaspora have utilized their spirituality in order to survive, to maintain the sanctity of their culture, and to present communities that have the quality of constituting a complex unity. People from other cultures and vocations can apply the benefits that can be gained from spirituality in their communities and vocations, not only for creative empowerment but for wholeness in those communities and maximum benefits in their vocations.

Examining poetry under the rubric of religion, geography, and gender provides a lens through which I read postcolonial literatures, thus positing new emphasis in literary studies, and suggesting for African women empowerment as opposed to weakness, articulation as opposed to silence. Religion and poetry among Black people in Africa and the Black diaspora are sacred because religion pervades values, beliefs, and socio-political life, and religion saturates the environment; as well, the role of a poet is connected to that of a seer or a sage. Comparing Turn Thanks, a collection by Jamaican-born Afro-Caribbean poet Lorna Goodison with The Springs Last Drop, a collection by Nigerian poet Catherine Acholonu, reveals that African and Afro-Caribbean womens strong sense of community, spiritual sensitivity, holistic attitude of women fight for liberation, the quest for healing and hope through the power of crafted words and rituals present an ideology of Africana womanhood as embedded in African cultural traditions. The two poets are rooted in their culture and being rooted empowers them as members of the community and speaking voice to build on values in their communities. In terms of the structure and themes of their books, the diction of their poems and the titles of their works, the poets suggest that there is a spirit connected with the works that readers must discern and become attuned to in order to unravel the meaning and the significance of the works. Both poets go back to the primacy of the word in the spiritual and oral traditions. The thesis argues that spirituality will continue to interest scholars because it represents a strong desire of twentieth-centruy humanity to maintain equilibrium in the face of socio-political upheavals through a discerned integration of both the spirit and body for a holistic existence and survival of communities and to understand the potential of applying and realizing the power of the spirit in connecting rather than fragmenting individuals and communities. On the whole, African people in Africa and the diaspora have utilized their spirituality in order to survive, to maintain the sanctity of their culture, and to present communities that have the quality of constituting a complex unity. People from other cultures and vocations can apply the benefits that can be gained from spirituality in their communities and vocations, not only for creative empowerment but for wholeness in those communities and maximum benefits in their vocations.

Confucian philosophy preached women's inferiority to men. Women were to remain ignorant and to obey--first, their fathers; after marriage, their husbands; during widowhood, their sons. Marriages were arranged, and a woman's responsibility was to remain married, no matter how undesirable the match. Divorce was not allowed or remarriage by widows. The major role of women, considered the private property of men, was to please their husbands and to bear children. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the family status of rural women in China changed dramatically. The Chinese Communist Party and the people's government recognized that the liberation of rural women, who constituted half the population of China, was necessary for the country to realize complete emancipation. The new government promulgated a series of laws, policies, and regulations that protected women. The Chinese Constitution of the early 1950s stated clearly that Chinese rural women enjoyed equal rights with men in political, economic, social, cultural, and family life. The state protected rural women's rights and interests, practiced equal pay for equal work, and provided equal opportunity for women's training and promotion. China's Marriage Law eliminated arranged marriages, stipulating that both women and men were free to choose their marriage partners, and widows were allowed to remarry. The Inheritance Law recognized the equal right of women to inherit family property. The Land Reform Law of the early 1950s provided rural women with an equal share of land under their own name, thereby protecting their economic independence. . With the enlightening of Feminist discourse, I analyze the sexual division of labor in the china¡¦s women ethnic group, and find china¡¦s women to be both oppressed by patriarchy and capitalism in their family lives and their working environment as the Socialist Feminists has found in their earlier research. As a china¡¦s woman, no matter she be a daughter, be a wife, or be a mother, she has to carry more unequal responsibility under the traditional gender norm. They have no choice but do all the caring works, such as bearing children, doing housework, which were thought to be women¡¦s obligation. China¡¦s women also an important part of the labor force in the farm. Yet, china¡¦s women have been cheap labor because of their low education, few choices of jobs, and their heavy load of housework. Although the economic structure of china has changed, the life experiences of china¡¦s women keep influenced by their traditional ethnic/gender norm. In sum, the research tries to make the points on the china women¡¦s labor and virtues, and attempts to understand how the patriarchal ideology and structure works on the china women

The thesis examines thinking about, and experiences of, gender roles and family relationships for the gentry and nobility, particularly through the process of marriage formation. The study draws on a range of sources, including collections of family letters, personal memoirs and prescriptive literature. Some chapters pursue a case study approach to correspondence. Others consider the relationship between published advice and personal attitudes and experience. The study explores whether there were contradictions in thinking on family life, gender, love and marriage, as some historians have claimed, and seeks to disentangle the overlaps and inter-relationships between these broad themes. While family and gender roles were multi-layered and multi-faceted, thinking and practice were neither incoherent nor conflicting. Rather, they were highly complex and treated as such. How marriages were forged and male and female roles in this process and in marriage itself required the balancing of many factors. Prescription recognised this and practice reinforced the need for pragmatism. Moreover, advice was not monolithic, but nuanced according to its purpose and intended audience. Gender roles, family relationships and marriage were varied and manifold within both the realms of rhetoric and experience. There was a strong elision of gender roles, affording women significant scope for decision-making. Family relationships were fluid, underpinned by a heavy dependence on, respect for, and emotional investment in, the extended family. Marriage formation was informed by recognition of the importance of a moral, disciplined love for sustaining marriages and families. The thesis highlights the intricacies of relatively new (although increasingly wellresearched) areas of study for historians. It seeks to undermine a simplistic division between prescription and practice, and between advisers and the advised, and to raise the importance of considering men within the family and facets of female authority.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University of Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1993. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 288 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-288).