Academic literature on the topic 'Women's studies (incl. girls' studies)'

Edith Stein, Husserl's brilliant student and assistant, devoted ten years of her life to teaching in a girls’ secondary school, during which time she gave a series of lectures on educational reform and the appropriate education to be provided to girls. She grounds her answer to these questions in a philosophical account of the nature of woman. She argues that men and women share some universally human character’ istics, but that they have separate and distinct natures. Her awareness of the rich variety of different personality types and specific differences among individuals allows her to hold an essentialist view of the nature of woman without either stereotyping individual women or assuming that woman's nature is in any way inferior to man's.

In this article, Annie Rogers explores the etymology of courage, and links the "ordinary courage" of eight- to twelve-year-old girls with an old meaning of the word: "to speak one's mind by telling all one's heart." She then observes how this ordinary courage is lost as many girls reach early adolescence. Her observation is embedded in a newly emerging psychology of women based on empirical studies of girls, which have documented a striking loss of voice, of resiliency, and of self-confidence in girls as they enter early adolescence. These studies have identified this as a time of particular vulnerability and risk in young women's psychological development, as it becomes increasingly dangerous for them to speak their minds truthfully within the context of cultural conspiracies to silence women's knowledge. In order to capture the girls' inner life of feeling, Rogers introduces a "poetics of research," a particular discourse grounded in feminist epistemology and methodology, as well as the voice-centered,relational practice of research she has helped to create.

Gifted programs in the United States under-represent African American (Black) children (Phi Delta Kappan, 1992). In 1993, African-American students were under-represented by 50% in gifted education, and 60% in 1998 (Grantham & Ford, 2003). Further, some speculate that gifted education programs are the most segregated educational programs in the nation (Ford, 1995). This proves especially true for Black gifted girl in urban educational arenas, where gifted Black girls are rarely recognized. The purpose of this research was to examine the circumstances surrounding how urban black girls—identified as showing academic promise—come either to be overlooked as qualified for gifted education or seem not to take up a sense of themselves as gifted, that is they see themselves as not fitting among those who are in gifted education. Three scholarly arenas frame this study: Feminist thought and theory, with an emphasis on Black feminist thought, notions of "giftedness" and gifted education, and policies and processes for identification of gifted Black girls. Eight gifted Black girls were individually interviewed twice, three teachers were individually interviewed, and three parents were interviewed in a focus group session. Four interview guides were constructed to focus on students' perspectives of GS1 (pseudonym) and gifted education, parent strategies, and teachers' roles in the identification of these gifted Black girls. Qualitative analysis strategies (Spradley1980) were utilized for data analysis. The curriculum of the gifted programming at GS1 (pseudonym) ultimately contributed greatly not only to how girls saw themselves as gifted, but also how they understood stereotypes about young Black women. The feminist curriculum and the "feminist lens" provided in the gifted programming at GS1 provided outlets for girls' voices. Teachers interviewed not only understood the gifted Black girls' culture, but also strengthened their relationships with the girls and with their parents by presenting and enforcing clear expectations for the gifted programming. Parents interviewed not only understood their gifted daughters' uniqueness, but also the importance of their independence and security as young Black women.

This study explores stories Black adolescent girls living in urban public housing tell about themselves and their community, the narratives the girls believed outsiders hold thereof, and the ways they theorize about, respond to, and counter mainstream representations of inner-city youth and communities.

The study was conducted through a Critical Literacy class held in a local community center, using a general interpretive design with ethnographic/observational methods. The data were interpreted through a Counterstory theoretical and analytic lens. The participants’ stories are explored through a Freirean Critical Pedagogy framework derived from a critical epistemology. Study data was collected through photo journals, interviews, video and audio recordings of sessions of a Critical Literacy class taking place over 11 weeks, and artistic works produced by participants. Data were coded through three levels, with first level codes including both etic and emic codes to aid in data organization and retrieval, second level emic codes identified during data collection, and, finally, third level emic codes were used to name patterns emerging from the data to support larger themes.

Findings suggest that the participants perceive that outsiders view girls from their community and their neighborhood as undesirable. Participants saw the people and relationships they have in their community as deeply valuable, but they are cognizant of and discuss their neighborhood’s circumstances, like undesirable conditions caused by lack of material resources, and assert that storytelling can serve a pedagogical purpose in reflecting a more complete picture. Participants told stories about themselves as kind, joyful, intelligent, desiring safety, hopeful, and strong. The girls express that adults often read the joy and playfulness of girlhood as disrespect or a lack of seriousness about present and future goals. They assert that challenging false narratives is important, difficult work. They theorize that one can engage in the process of dismantling others’ assumptions by actively creating learning opportunities that lead people toward encounters with someone they may have misjudged, and by telling Counterstories. Such methods could assist teachers in discerning and addressing how assumptions about young people may be reflected in their practice and/or curriculum.

This dissertation investigates the roles of color, class, and gender discourses in the lives of adolescent and post-adolescent girls in Brazil. Specifically, it examines girls' multiple perspectives, embedded in diverse social locations, and the ways in which girls interpret and deploy participular elements of color and class discourses in their projects of self-making. The results of the study provide insight into the diverse ways in which identity discourses may be experienced and a range of perspectives to contribute to qualitative analyses of color identity and relations in contemporary Brazil. Disaggregating the data according to the participants' color and class reveals distinct views on color classification, perceptions of racism, and the role of color in partner preferences. Whereas the lighter/wealthier girls (re)produce discourses of systematic racism, the darker/poorer girls (re)produced discourses of color equality and individualism. A holistic approach to their ideological systems reveals that each group selects discursive elements that grant dignity, self-worth, and personal integrity to their particular social location. The manner in which girls interpret and deploy color images is also variable. For example, the lighter/wealthier girls tended to dismiss the national image of the sexy mulata (female of both African and European heritage) as a product for export, whereas darker/poorer girls appropriated the mulata as a positive model of attractiveness and self-worth in their daily constructions of self. Furthermore, this research discusses how partner expectations and career aspirations are mutually constructive and lead to an ideal life trajectory culminating in financial independence. Although the ideal shared by all young girls, their ability to pursue the trajectory varies, patterned by color and class. The fact that poorer and darker girls cling to high professional goals in an unsupportive environment, bolstered by the ideology of individual willpower, is interpreted as a specifically adolescent discourse of hope. In summary, this dissertation illustrates multiple ways in which discourses of identity may be experienced, interpreted, and deployed in daily life and self-making. Investigating how color discourses are invoked by these adolescent girls representing particular social locations contributes to a more complex, heterogeneous understanding of color identities and relations in contemporary Brazil.

Canada has a long history of perpetrating violence and discrimination against Indigenous peoples, especially women. State policies and practices have systematically disenfranchised Indigenous women through mechanisms of displacement, assimilation, and marginalization. More than a century of large-scale intersectional violence has embedded complex intergenerational trauma into Indigenous families, further heightening their vulnerability. The “public face of law” has institutionalized the State endorsement of individual executioners of violence against Indigenous women. For decades, Indigenous peoples and human rights organizations have urged the State to recognize its active role in the violence and launch a public national inquiry. This thesis seeks to highlight the culpability of the State in the contemporary crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls while reasserting the power of the Indigenous woman. My argument is that in order to restore Indigenous women to their rightful place of power and equality in society, the State must both acknowledge and take responsibility for its crimes.

Sexual activity among unmarried adolescents is a major public health problem in Nigeria, because unmarried pregnant girls are more likely to have multiple sex partners and are less likely to use contraceptives, putting them at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STD), unplanned pregnancy, abortion, social isolation, and poverty. Teen pregnancy and STD rates are on the rise in Nigeria, yet few data exist on the experience of the adolescents themselves. This phenomenological study was designed to explore the in-depth experiences of 10 pregnant, unmarried adolescent girls aged 16-19, including the factors contributing to their sexual activity. An ecological model served as the conceptual framework to permit individual experiences to be understood in their social and ecological context. Semistructured interviews and Hycner's method of analysis were used to collect and analyze the data. Results showed that the decision to initiate sexual activity among these girls was influenced by many factors, including: the need for financial support and a socially condoned system of "sugar daddies" who support girls in return for sex; peer pressure to have a sex partner; a romantic knowledge of sexual behavior based primarily on the mass media; and inadequate sex education. As a result of their pregnancy, the girls experienced negative reactions from their families and community, and serious psychological and financial concerns about their prospects for future marriage and their child's identity. A comprehensive community-based reproductive health program is called for, with reliable sex education, cooperation from the mass media, and support from family and community members. The social change implication of this study is to potentially lead to a decrease in unplanned pregnancy, STDs, social isolation, and poverty among adolescent girls in Nigeria.

In this study, I focus on the experiences of self-identified quiet or silent female graduate students in order to understand the reasoning behind our classroom communication. I start by defining silence and continue by reviewing literature surrounding the topic of silence. Then, I focus on my own experiences autoethnographically to understand some of the ways I have come to understand my own experience as a silent student. I further conducted interviews with graduate student women to get a sense of their understanding of their own silence; I use the transcriptions of these interviews as the data for analysis. Because some of the women identified as teachers, they additionally offered suggestions for working with silent students. In the end, I argue that encouraging students to communicate is about the combination of a variety of teacher behaviors that encourage in-class communication.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify key transformational teaching practices in an all-girls school. Teachers and administrators value the development and utilization of successful teaching practices. Teachers may adopt transformational leadership practices to cultivate transformational characteristics in pedagogy. There is a need to identify transformational teaching practices to implement training and modeling for teachers in girls’ schools. Identification of these leadership practices currently used by teachers in girls’ schools will aid in teacher development or pedagogical training and contribute to a richer, fuller educational experience for their students.

Methods. A thorough review of the literature demonstrated that the dimensions of Bass’s transformational leadership theory may be applied to pedagogical practice in schools. The literature review resulted in the theoretical framework. A qualitative design was selected for the study. The researcher employed the case story approach research method, which utilized input from individuals to identify key transformational teaching practices. The participants were 7 teachers in an all-girls school in Southern California. Validity of the interview questions was assured through employing an expert panel, and reliability was established through use of a second data reviewer.

Findings. The study identified 18 key transformational leadership practices that are classified within Bass’s theory of transformational leadership. These practices fell into the dimensions of Bass’s theory: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Two additional themes emerged as findings of interest.

Conclusions. This study identified practices of transformational teachers in an all-girls school. By identifying specific transformational teaching practices, this study can assist teachers in applying transformational teaching methods which they can utilize as part of their teaching practice. Identification and reinforcement of these practices may be included in teacher training as they begin instruction at girls’ schools. Additionally, girls’ school administrators and faculty mentors may use the results of the study to create teacher professional development programs at their schools.

Recommendations. More research is needed to understand how transformational teaching practices affect student learning. Teacher education programs may use these findings as support for increasing their instruction of transformational teaching techniques. The findings may also reveal practices that school leaders such as principals, division directors, or other administrators can promote with their faculty members.

Historical scholarship has shown how the state and media mobilized women into "men's" roles including soldier and industrial worker during World War II, but little work has been done on the ways in which quasi-state organizations such as the United Service Organizations (USO) mobilized them to perform "women's" work. In the United States, the USO offered wholesome recreation to millions of servicemen outside of camp in their off duty hours. USO hostesses conducted work that helped to maintain the role of the virtuous woman in this time of crisis. Senior hostesses, married women over age 35, mothered servicemen by sewing insignias on their uniforms, and by baking sweets and making sandwiches for them. Senior hostesses also selected junior hostesses and chaperoned their interactions with servicemen. Junior hostesses, single women ages 16 to 25, comforted servicemen by serving as compliant dance and game partners, as well as eager listeners. The USO functioned as a normative force that emphasized women's domesticity and sought to contain female sexual activity to marriage. The USO assumed that white middle-class women were inherently sexually respectable and feminine. It groomed these "good girls" to represent the USO alongside a federal crackdown on female prostitution and the arrest of thousands of pickups girls suspected of passing venereal disease to servicemen. Junior hostesses, in turn, used the USO to explore a safe form of sexual expressiveness at the same time that they contributed their basic sexual services to the federal government and military. These institutions were the primary benefactors of senior and junior hostesses' unpaid morale work. Their work helped to humanize the military experience for servicemen. This project investigates race and class issues within the USO, along with sexuality and gender, because these categories were paramount in the hostess selection process and interactions between servicemen and hostesses. USO publications and government records form the basis of the archival research for this project. This project also draws on 35 oral interviews conducted by the author with former hostesses, and questionnaires from an additional 35 former hostesses.

ABSTRACT Yemeni women have a subordinate position in the conservative, male-dominated society, and girls? education remains a challenge. The school curriculum perpetuates the traditional values of social injustice, and Yemen is in the last place among 142 countries for gender equality. The purpose of this case study was to explore the role of the education curriculum in Yemen, to describe how that curriculum represents women, and to explore how that representation impacts the place of Yemeni women. The conceptual framework drew on theories of gender equity and equality in education, and their application to Yemeni curricula and girls? education. Data were gathered from eight Yemeni women aged 25 to 35, using both face-to-face and electronic questionnaires. Data analysis began with coding and categorizing until themes emerged to identify the absence of female voices in curriculum and the role of literature in promoting gender equality. The Yemeni curriculum does not effectively address social justice and girls? education. Research findings suggested that a relevant literature curriculum that included Yemeni women authors and subjects could motivate Yemeni women to think critically about their status in society and encourage the voices of women to narrow the gender disparity. Findings showed that the inclusion of women in the Yemeni curriculum could have the following three critical impacts: inspiring the minds of both boys and girls, developing girls? self-esteem, and empowering young women leaders. Recommendations included a revision and development of the current Yemeni curriculum so that it features both males and females as equal citizens and encouraging greater public awareness of the value of women?s experience in the development of the country. This may help to build a sense of equality and social justice.

This qualitative research study explored perceptions of academic resilience among teachers and twelfth grade adolescent girls. Specifically, how students and teachers believe teachers promote academic resilience in students, the characteristics of academically resilient students according to students and teachers, and the characteristics of academically non-resilient students according to teachers. The relationship between the general comments made during student focus group sessions and the students’ responses on the Locus of Control (LOC) survey were analyzed.

Qualitative data were collected including teacher interviews, student focus groups, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scales for teachers and students as well as the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Survey for students.

Findings indicated that teachers and students both reported teachers who were flexible and provided extra help sessions for students promoted academic resilience. It also was reported by teachers and students that developing personal relationships with students helped to promote academic resilience. Teachers and students reported similar characteristics of academically resilient students. Characteristic behaviors of academic resilient students were identified as having ambition or being motivated to be successful. Having a positive attitude and having the ability to be reflective also were identified as characteristic of academic resilience. Finally, teachers and students agreed that having a strong internal locus of control is characteristic of academic resilience.

The situation of women in the engineering world has different aspects. On the one hand, it can be stated that women are well received in certain areas of the technological world, and they are very integrated into academia. In other areas, such as the world of industrial business, recognition is more complex being those less open environments. Last century, the woman who broke the taboo in Spain was the mayor of Bilbao and the first industrial engineer graduated in Spain in 1912, Pilar Careaga. By means of her public presence, her message could reach the general society, but as something exceptional. At the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao, the first female Industrial Engineer was Pilar Ipiña, graduated in 1965. Fifty-three years had passed. Women in Engineering, more than a century later, remain a clear minority. While it is true that the presence of women in engineering schools is socially fully accepted, it is no less true that many young women dismiss the possibility of approaching that world from an early age. The lack of benchmarks seems to be a clear factor. Many of the engineers who are being interviewed in the search for ideas to motivate girls and young women, end up seeing lacks of references when asked about it. While the experience of being a woman in such a traditionally male field has lights and shadows, reflect of what can be seen in different referenced studies, a positive message must be transmitted, as this has been the experience of both engineering students and workers in academia or in the business world. Proposing solutions to smooth out the differences in numbers between men and women in the world of Engineering and Science requires knowing the causes, in order to be able to carry out actions that lead to collecting women's talent and with the appropriate training give it all the value that can achieve, both in the improvement of society as a whole and in the personal development of each of them. The aim is to achieve real equal choice between women and men and put everyone at the service of a better society. Equality is theoretically achieved, but it can still be improved.