The Effect of a Gender Lens on the Political Socialization of Adolescent Girls

Social and Behavioral Sciences (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum)Women's participation in government matters tremendously to the well-being of a nation, yet women still face multiple societal and cultural obstacles as they strive to achieve the goal of full participation in the political arena. The most troubling of these barriers is the perception that women have of themselves as being less qualified than men to engage in political life. In this study, researchers evaluated the effect of a gender lens in a seminar discussion program on the political self-esteem of middle school students. Participants were randomly sorted into two groups. Before each discussion session, participants read a short news article about the day’s topic of discussion. At each discussion session, the researcher guided students in answering critical reading questions. While the structure of both the control and the experimental group discussions were the same, the articles chosen for the experimental group featured a gender lens by focusing specifically on the involvement of women in the issues at hand, while the control group read articles with a more general bent. The effect of the discussion groups was measured by pre-program and post-program surveys, consisting of open ended and multiple choice questions. Ultimately, the gender lens did have a statistically significant effect on the experimental group’s political self-esteem: the change in means between pre-treatment and post-treatment responses to questions about political self-esteem was significant at a 95% confidence level for four out of six survey questions. Although this study is limited by its small sample size from being truly representative of the population, the results of this study are encouraging for researchers focusing on the factors preventing women from achieving political parity. This study shows that including a gender lens in discussion of current events helps girls see themselves as future political actors.College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program Undergraduate Research GrantNo embargoAcademic Major: International Studie

The Effect of a Gender Lens on the Political Socialization of Adolescent Girls

Women's participation in government matters tremendously to the well-being of a nation, yet women still face multiple societal and cultural obstacles as they strive to achieve the goal of full participation in the political arena. The most troubling of these barriers is the perception that women have of themselves as being less qualified than men to engage in political life. In this study, researchers evaluated the effect of a gender lens in a seminar discussion program on the political self-esteem of middle school students. Participants were randomly sorted into two groups. Before each discussion session, participants read a short news article about the day’s topic of discussion. At each discussion session, the researcher guided students in answering critical reading questions. While the structure of both the control and the experimental group discussions were the same, the articles chosen for the experimental group featured a gender lens by focusing specifically on the involvement of women in the issues at hand, while the control group read articles with a more general bent. The effect of the discussion groups was measured by pre-program and post-program surveys, consisting of open ended and multiple choice questions. Ultimately, the gender lens did have a statistically significant effect on the experimental group’s political self-esteem: the change in means between pre-treatment and post-treatment responses to questions about political self-esteem was significant at a 95% confidence level for four out of six survey questions. Although this study is limited by its small sample size from being truly representative of the population, the results of this study are encouraging for researchers focusing on the factors preventing women from achieving political parity. This study shows that including a gender lens in discussion of current events helps girls see themselves as future political actors.College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research GrantNo embargoAcademic Major: ChineseAcademic Major: International Studie

Country Strong

This is a film review of Country Strong (2010)

Small Engine Repair

This is a review of Small Engine Repair (2006)

When Jesus was a Girl: Polymythic Female Christ Figures in Whale Rider and Steel Magnolias

Partially in response to Anton Karl Kozlovic’s call for research to refine the concept of the cinematic Christ-figure, this article examines Whale Rider and Steel Magnolias as Christ-figure narratives with the intention that the Christ-figure interpretation sheds light on the meaning and significance of the films, and that the two films’ young, female lead characters can illuminate the Christ-figure concept. Both films are polymythic Christ-figure narratives in that Christ-figure characteristics are present alongside elements from or allusions to other spiritual and mythological traditions. Both films also convey feminist sensitivities. The relationship between the films’ polymythic elements and feminist messages suggests some of the complicated possibilities of how Christ-figure narratives can function

Wedding and pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic

This entry describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on her wedding and preganancy.https://dc.ewu.edu/covid/1034/thumbnail.jp

Mobilization after Repression: Reconsidering The Role of Testimonies and Exiles in Post-War El Salvador

During the civil war in El Salvador, the Salvadoran military engaged in the systematic disappearance of youth and facilitated their adoptions. Presently Found, a Salvadoran human rights NGO, works to reunite these youth with their surviving biological families. However, a key difference between Found and other similar organizations, is that the former was established in the post-war context. Through a case study of Found, and placed in comparative light with a similar phenomenon in Argentina, I will show that traditional mobilization strategies face new obstacles in a post-war context. Specifically, while Found engaged in many of the same movement tactics that have bred other major transnational networks, the post-repression context complicated their use in El Salvador. For example, the literature points to the importance of testimonies as a resource during times of contention. Found’s use of testimonies in the post-repression context changed the impact of this practice. And, unlike the case of Grandmothers in Argentina, in which exiles were key for the organization, Found did not have this same type of support network. By considering the implications of the post-contention environment for Found’s organizational efforts, contributes to the growing literature on transnational advocacy and solidarity networks

Spectroscopy of Hexamethyldipyrromethene and of Metallo Hexamethyldipyrromethene Complexes.

The conformations of the dipyrromethene molecule seem to control the spectral properties of its derivatives and its metal complexes. A sharply structured absorption band at 505nm that is red shifted relative to the broad structureless neutral ligand absorption band at 445nm when a weak base is added to hexamethyldipyrromethene in DMSO is inferred to be that of a negative ion. Another sharply structured absorption band at 489nm is observed after addition of a strong base to a solution of hexamethyldipyrromethene in DMSO and is inferred to be that of a different negative ion of hexamethyldipyrromethene. The two different negative ions of hexamethyldipyrromethene may have different degrees of rotation of one pyrrole ring out of the plane that contained both pyrrole rings of the neutral hydrogen bonded HMDPM. The Zn(HMDPM)\sb2, Fe(HMDPM)\sb2, and Co(HMDPM)\sb2 complexes are designated the Type 1 complexes. All three compounds are negative ion type complexes that slowly decompose. The products of decomposition may have two neutral ligands and two OH\sp- counter ions attached to their metal centers. The source of the proton that forms the neutral ligand appears to be water. Cu(HMDPM)\sb2 has two major absorption bands and is called the Type 2 complex. The two bands represent absorptions from complexes that possibly differ only with respect to the geometry of the negative ion attached to the metal center. The higher energy band may be that of a nearly planar negative ion which resembles that of the planar hydrogen bonded neutral ligand. The lower energy band is that of a Type 1 complex. Ni(HMDPM)\sb2 may be a group of oligimeric negative ion type complexes. The Ni(HMDPM)\sb2 complex is called the Type 3 complex. The different absorptions of Ni(HMDPM)\sb2 may be those of different oligimers that result from different ligand geometries that are the result of the bonding of the negative ions sometimes to one and other times to more than one nickel center

“Labor for Love, Labor to Heal:” Human Rights Activism as a Politics of Refusal

The literature on social movements centers demands made on the state and theorizes collective action as rooted in specific times and the nation-state. I ague that this literature is analogous to “the veil,” a concept developed by W.E.B. Du Bois. Indigenous theorizations of a “politics of refusal” provides us with a foundation see beyond the veil. This paper brings together “Du Boisian Sociology,” Latina Feminisms, and indigenous theories of collective action to develop a robust theorization of human rights activism, and social movements more broadly. This paper asks: What can we gain from analyzing movements from beyond the veil by world-traveling? I draw upon 15 years of engagement with human rights work in El Salvador and an analysis of key documents that established official accounts of the war, peace, and reconciliation. By focusing of the human rights activism of two organizations, Presente and Cipotes, I show how refusal allows us to see the politics of a movement beyond the state. Each organization refused the idea that human rights abuses were bound to a particular time and space. In doing this, they assert a truth that precedes and has a deeper embodied and territorial reach than the nation-state. This refusal challenges temporal and geographic histories of war, peace, and reconciliation established by state structures. Through alters, exhibits, forums, testimonies, these movements seek to build community, to love, and to heal. Thus, social movement activism exceeds the state. This reveals the dual political and social impact of collective action and develops a robust theorization of human rights activism

Revelations from Cheesecake Manor : Agatha Christie, detective fiction, and interwar England

For too long standard interwar histories have portrayed the interwar years as a period marked by failure, instability, depression, and volatility. Instead, rising living standards, the narrowing of socioeconomic disparities, expanded avenues of social welfare, increased leisure time, and mass consumerism resulted in an altogether peaceful, healthier, stable, and increasingly affluent England. Out of these rising economic improvements emerged forms of mass entertainment, including popular fiction. Cheaper paper and printing methods, rising literacy, faster distribution methods, new forms of advertising, and the expansion of public libraries led to the creation of a mass readership across England. For the first time, publishers truly had to give the people what they wanted. As such, the proliferation and popularization of genres, both new and old, occurred. Most notably, the detective genre matured and blossomed during this period, which marked its Golden Age. As its authors\u27 sales depended on popular approval and because of the genre\u27s realistic, conservative nature, detective fiction offers historians an inside look into the conventional morals, attitudes, beliefs, and values of the English interwar public. It was Dame Agatha Christie\u27s fiction that dominated sales both in the detective genre and in popular fiction in general. Throughout her astonishingly successful career, from 1920 until 1976, she always attempted to be as realistic, current, and up-to-date as possible. As such, she left behind a record of the times that she experienced firsthand. As a highly conventional middle-class woman, she mainly wrote for and about the class that guided England\u27s social and cultural life. Her works affirm the reality that interwar England was a nation that still followed and believed in late Victorian and Edwardian morals and values, accepted the existence of hierarchy and class distinctions based primarily on birth, and condoned Britain\u27s role as an imperial nation