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This phenomenological dissertation study aimed to explore how agency is exerted beyond hegemonic masculinities in engineering and illuminated the influences of a discipline's culture on masculine thinking and being. Moreover, this study, guided by Black feminism, epistemologically and theoretically, moves Black masculinities scholarship and practice toward an emphasis on divesting from patriarchy. Key findings from this study highlight the agency of Black men in graduate engineering programs. Specifically, findings underscore the impact families have on developing agency that subverts hegemonic masculinities. In addition, findings illustrate a typology of such forms of agency that the Black men in this study engage in. Then, findings highlight how Black men enact their forms of agency within engineering programs, through forms of resistance and refusal. Next, the men in this study describe the need for developing Black men's collective organizations to hold each other accountable along with extending the exposure of engineering for Black youth to earlier ages. Finally, this study ends with a discussion of the findings and offers implications for various subject areas, and stakeholders (e.g., faculty, students, administrators). Notably, findings suggest that graduate education must wrestle with the ways disciplinary practices socialize graduate students at the intersection of race and gender and how minoritized graduate students engage or resist forms of socialization in their discipline. In addition, this work highlights the complexities of engaging in Black feminist work as a Black man. Specifically, this work challenges researchers to grapple with who can engage with Black feminism and how it can be ethically engaged. Last, this work makes contributions to student development theory by illuminating the ways students develop agency as a form of resisting barriers in education, as well as describes their method of resisting forms of oppression. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This sequential explanatory study focuses on two forms of sight: Sankofa (hindsight) and surveillance (close observation or monitoring (Foucault, 1995, 2000; Temple, 2010; Quarcoo, 1972). These two ways of seeing can provide a unique perspective on Black women's career experiences in historically white institutions. I focus on how European intellectual systems "sort" Black women via surveillance (Lyon, 2003; McKittrick, 2006). Through the lens of Plantation Politics--a theoretical framework that attempts to unpack the lived experiences of Black people whose ancestors were enslaved as part of the transatlantic slave trade--this study seeks to understand the interactions between Black women's labor and the institution of higher education (Squire, 2021; Williams & Tuitt, 2021). Critical narrative inquiry guides this research as I use cookhouse conversations to glimpse into the professional lives of Black women working at historically white institutions. It is hoped that this insight will help guide more inclusive processes surrounding opportunities for career advancement, such as hiring, internal promotions, and mentoring programs. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This qualitative case study examined the experiences of 10 current and former students enrolled in an early childhood education teacher preparation program (ECETPP) at a Latine-serving 2-year community college in southern California. The study used Richard Valencia's deficit thinking framework as the theoretical lens to explicate ways in which deficit thinking about Black and Brown children and their families pervades early childhood educator (ECE) preparation programming, perpetuating poor outcomes and chronic academic failure. Several themes and subthemes emerged that demonstrate ways in which internalized norms of Whiteness and White womanhood shaped the preparatory experiences of these future ECEs. The data evince that the diversity curriculum was curated through a White hegemonic lens, which undervalued the importance of preparing future ECEs to effectively navigate conversations about race and issues of racism in the preschool setting. Implications and recommendations are discussed to transform ECETPP and to prepare future ECEs to engage in racially affirming, antiracist practices in the preschool classroom. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

At the highest level, this dissertation is a case study on how bias can become encoded into the tools used to measure a construct and into the very definition of the construct itself. In this case, the construct is spatial ability. This dissertation focuses on the validity and accuracy of spatial tests and illuminates gender bias that is interwoven with the history of spatial testing. First, I present a critical analysis of the graphical imagery used in spatial tests and explain why the imagery may be unclear and lead the tests to be inaccurate. I analyzed a collection of research in which researchers modified the stimuli used in spatial tests and found that the tests became easier when the imagery was made clearer. Thus, I conclude that imagery presentation impacts test difficulty, a likely example of construct-irrelevant variance which may reduce the validity of some spatial skills assessments and introduce bias in favor of individuals with past experience in engineering graphics, who historically are more likely to be men. Second, I make a critical review of gender differential research in spatial skills. I argue that the construct of "spatial ability" has been co-constructed with gender, in that it has been devised in a manner influenced by gender beliefs. Because of a preexisting belief that men had better spatial skills than women, some test creators "selectively bred" spatial instruments to produce the expected gender differences. Such instruments, including the very popular Mental Rotation Test (MRT), cannot validly assess between-group differences. Biological or evolutionary explanations for sex differences in spatial ability lack empirical evidence. Instead, the differences are rooted in the shaping of the construct of "spatial ability" to create the expected gender patterns. Finally, I describe an experiment designed to investigate the hypothesis that using a spatial test with content from a feminized discipline will show different patterns in gender differences. Female engineering students outperformed males on the Digital Apparel Spatial Visualization Test (DASVT), while the male engineering students scored higher than the female students on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test (PSVT:R). Students with relevant background experience scored better than students without experience on both assessments. The results demonstrate the shortcomings of using a single instrument to assess a concept as heterogeneous as spatial skills. I conclude this dissertation with a discussion of the implications of my work and recommendations for researchers and educators. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation assesses the self-representation and representation of ten elite collegiate women athletes during the first year of the NCAA's new 'name, image and likeness' policies. Building on theories of representation, gender performance, self-presentation and intersectionality, this study explores how women athletes reproduce notions of feminism, femininity and athleticism on their public TikTok, Instagram and Twitter accounts. Each of the women in this study have at least 50,000 followers across their social media accounts, and the content they produced on these platforms over the 12-month period from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022, serves to both reflect and reject hegemonic norms surrounding women in sport. Previous research has demonstrated that women athletes remain marginalized and underrepresented in sports. Scholars have also noted that women athletes typically represent themselves on social media in ways that highlight their personal lives, as opposed to their athletic experiences. This study explores these questions of self-representation through a content analysis of social media posts produced by ten collegiate women and addresses how these women navigated digital storytelling within the neoliberal, capitalist, patriarchal U.S. college sports media ecosystem. The ways in which athlete content was reproduced by journalists during this same period was also assessed. Findings show that journalists rarely engaged with women athletes' posts during the first year of the NCAA's new NIL policies and presented women's success in the NIL era as surprising, unexpected and unrelated to athletic achievements. This dissertation adds to the larger body of research on women's representation and self-representation in sports but adds a new dimension to this subject by exploring such representations in the collegiate environment, an arena in which athletes were previously denied the opportunity to earn money from their digital storytelling and online brands. The ways in which women challenge and reproduce hegemonic norms in their social media content during this period also contributes to the broader understanding of gender tensions in sports. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this dissertation study was to investigate how female first-year, first-generation college students' values, attitudes, and beliefs were influenced by their interactions with their peers, family, and institutions during the first-year transition period. The goal of the research was to provide insight on what their feminine standpoints revealed about their varied transition experiences. By describing the complexities of their experiences, this dissertation study can inform institutional programming to assist this population of students to navigate the complicated transition period. This qualitative, collective case study was conducted with three female, first-year, first-generation college students at Raush University which is a pseudonym for a small private institution in the southeastern United States. Data were collected over an eight-month period from September 2020 to May 2021, the first two semesters of the participants' first year at the institution. Data sources included interview transcripts, researcher generated personal documents, and participants' personal documents. Drawing from standpoint theory, a first-cycle values coding was conducted on the aggregate data set. First-cycle values codes were reduced to analytic memos. A second-cycle theoretical coding of the analytic memos enacted the standpoint theoretical framework to uncover the participants' standpoints on their transition experiences. This study utilized standpoint theory to capture the stories of the women in this study to produce knowledge that is more likely to benefit this underrepresented group. Findings revealed that their transition experiences as female, first-year, first-generation college students were challenging, rewarding, upsetting, and unique to each. Their transition stories were marked by a period of tremendous change and growth. This study has implications for educational research on first year and first-generation college students. This study fills a significant gap in the literature to include the stories of bravery, strength, grace, humility, and resolve of three women, coming into adulthood while surmounting tremendous personal obstacles to become successful in college. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Despite the fact that the sorority experience has been sensationalized in the media (e.g., movies such as "Legally Blonde" and "The House Bunny;" television shows such as "GRSSK"), few academic studies have focused on gender or sexuality within the sorority context (Berbary & Johnson, 2012; Hevel & Bureau, 2014; Kahn, 2012). By exploring the experiences of queer women in Panhellenic sororities and using a grounded theory approach to understand how they negotiate expectations of femininity, the current study suggests preliminary theoretical relations in an otherwise understudied area. The findings indicate that queer women do indeed seek and enjoy their membership in Panhellenic sororities, despite overarching heteronormative expectations and homophobic microaggressions. After obtaining membership in these elitist organizations, queer women engaged in a process of staying in bounds, allowing them to maintain inclusion and good standing with their organizations, but compromising aspects of their identities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This qualitative research explores the effects of a gendered educational organization on female leaders at the district office and building leadership level. In explaining the theoretical framework of gendered organizational structures, the literature review describes how inequitable access to power within education produces excessive challenges for females. The literature also details how normatively masculine traits (independent, decisive, competitive) are encouraged more often than normatively feminine traits (shy, sensitive, loyal, waning). The qualitative research involved fourteen 30-45 minute interviews with female educational leaders who held positions in either the secondary (middle or high school) or district level. Interviewees were asked to explain challenges that they faced as female educational leaders, how they define their leadership style, and how they describe the leadership style of those around them. Discussion of how these respondents' recollections fit into the makeup of the gendered educational organization then follows. The research project is then concluded to promote and connect this to areas of future consideration for educational leaders. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This research utilizes an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis design to investigate female senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) as they experience and implement gendered communication practices in the higher education workplace. Research regarding female SSAO interactions are absent from discourse on gendered communication and no comprehensive studies on the effect or use of gendered communication environments have been completed. This research addresses the following questions: How do female SSAOs make sense of their gendered communication practices and experiences? How do the perceptions of the female SSAO's communication practices impact their experiences? Through completing a pre-interview reflection, personal and professional demographics survey, and open-ended interview, 18 female SSAO participants shared their experiences and implementation of gendered communication. Findings show that female SSAOs fluidly use both masculine and feminine communication attributes, are recipients of negative gendered communication and gender-based microaggressions, establish connections with their female identity through communication, and are highly reflective professionals regarding their personal and professional communication. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The introduction of the virtual work environment has resulted in the creation of a new work structure where interaction between employees and leaders occurs through technological innovations such as teleconferencing, emails, and text messages. The absence of physical workspace has also created a diverse work environment with people from various cultural backgrounds working together as virtual teams. Existing studies have been conducted on leadership styles and culture in the traditional work environment, but few empirical studies have been conducted on leadership styles and culture in the virtual work environment. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental survey study was to identify the relationship between cultural backgrounds and leadership styles in the virtual work environment. The data were collected by an online survey using the Bass and Avolio multifactor leadership questionnaire and Hofstede's cultural value survey module from a random sample of 303 participants with leadership roles in virtual work environments. Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the relationship between the dependent variables, transactional and transformational leadership styles, with the independent variables, being power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. The results of the study showed a negative correlation between the transformational and transactional leadership styles for individualism and uncertainty avoidance. There were no correlations between femininity and power distance for the transformational and transactional leadership styles. The study contributes to social change by confirming that cultural backgrounds can impact the effectiveness of the transactional and transformational leadership styles, regardless of the work environment. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Informed by critical discourse analysis, this purpose of this study was to examine presidential transitions in the U.S. van Leeuwen's Social Actor Approach was used as the conceptual framework to understand how texts are used to recreate, shape and transform a social practice, such as college and university presidential leadership during times of transition. Data, covering presidential transitions in 2015 and 2016, were collected from "The Chronicle of Higher Education." Data were analyzed using a three-phase analytic process that helped identify patterns and themes in the articles to uncover social actors (images) of college and university presidents in transition. The process also allowed for an analysis of the discursive structures at play, leading to findings of predominant discourses of professionalism, femininity, masculinity, and autonomy, giving rise to images of college and university presidents that remain traditional, masculine and at times heroic. Further, the intersection of discourses and images come together through our discussions to make visible discursive tensions between the president of yesteryear and the president of today/future. Implications and recommendations for practice are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

College-aged women expect to disrupt their future careers, earn less, and be responsible for more household and childcare chores than their future spouses. This unequal division of labor has been linked to inequality in the workforce between women and men with women earning less and being concentrated in low pay, low prestige occupations. The current investigation sought to improve understanding of this phenomenon by exploring the factor structure and psychometric properties of a measure of chore division ideals and expectations in a sample of undergraduate women. Exploratory factor analyses suggested separate measures of ideal and expected chores, each comprised of two factors: traditionally feminine chores, and traditionally masculine chores. Confirmatory factor analyses did not reach satisfactory cutoff levels, but the scores on the preliminary scales showed evidence for convergent validity, internal reliability, and test-retest reliability. Results also supported hypotheses regarding relationships between the subscales. Tentative implications of these findings, future directions for research, and clinical implications are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

White, middle-class women make up the majority of public school teachers in the United States of America while the student population is diversifying rapidly (Taie & Goldring, 2017). The need for these educators to cultivate a critical consciousness is high if our education system is to be equitable for all students (Winans, 2012). This study focuses on an embodied approach to teacher reflexivity by paying attention to teachers' emotions and wondering about what those emotions might mean in relation to the beliefs and values that undergird teaching philosophies. In this post-intentional phenomenological study, I investigate the phenomenon of white, middle-class women educators reading their embodied emotions evoked in classroom moments circulating with race and/or class. Four women, including the author, shared emotionally evocative moments and analyzed them over a series of individual and collective interviews. The shared classroom moments were all marked by conflicting emotional responses within the same moment (e.g. joy and despair, guilt and pride, anger and shame, power and helplessness). When we talked about our emotionally evocative classroom moments, the ideology of white femininity and of motherhood pervaded all of the moments. The social control of emotions (Boler, 1999) was also evident in the emotionally conflicted embodied responses we felt and how we policed our own emotional responses to the moments we shared. These contradictions indicated areas to question our beliefs and values about our pedagogical choices, our teaching philosophies, and institutional narratives of teaching guiding those choices and philosophies. Implications from this study are methodological, practical, and theoretical. Identifying and writing feminist storylines that include emotions for reading educational moments is a methodological implication of this study. Historicizing teacher education with preservice teachers and incorporating the teaching philosophy as a foundational and adaptable tool are practical implications for teacher education. Decoupling the notion of caring from the ideal of the teacher/mother and transitioning to caring as teacher/artist is a theoretical implication of this work. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

For this study, empathy was defined as not only understanding and sharing another's mental state, but also responding from a perspective more closely resembling the observed rather than the observer. Based on evidence suggesting relationships between reading and empathy, between empathy and gender, and between reading and gender, the current study investigated the relationship between empathy and reading and how this relationship varies as a function of psychological gender. Canonical correlation analysis confirmed the relationship of reading behaviors and appreciation of reading to aspects of empathy. It also demonstrated the utility of investigating gender differences based not on physical, but psychological gender, and confirmed a positive relationship between femininity and empathy. Key among the findings was the discovery of a positive relationship of psychological masculinity to cognitive empathy, amount of non-fiction reading, and appreciation of reading. The greater predictive power in psychological gender, which is more malleable than physical gender, counters sex stereotypes regarding empathy and reading behaviors; if men can be more like women in personality, they may also be more empathetic. The relationships established in this study have implications for the development of empathy and programs to facilitate it. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of gendered communication on women's behavioral intentions regarding nonprofit and for-profit entrepreneurship. Women represent half of the U.S. workforce, but only about one third of all American entrepreneurs are women. Feminists have argued that because entrepreneurship is largely understood as a masculine activity, women--who are predominantly socialized to espouse a feminine gender role--are less likely to become entrepreneurs. Previous scholarship and the particular theoretical lens of social feminism suggest that communication about entrepreneurship that is congruent with a feminine gender role would lead to the recruitment of a greater number of women entrepreneurs. Findings of the current study, however, suggested the opposite, providing support for poststructuralist feminist theory. Women who viewed a feminine entrepreneurship recruiting brochure about entrepreneurship reported themselves to be more feminine and less likely to report intentions to become entrepreneurs than women who viewed a masculine entrepreneurship recruiting brochure. These findings suggested that feminine communication may prime women to think of themselves as feminine, which may then lead them to view themselves as not masculine enough to be entrepreneurs. The applications of these findings stretch beyond engaging more women in entrepreneurship and also extend to scholarship that investigates gender's effects on women's pursuit of other masculine careers, including those in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Until the larger discourse on entrepreneurship changes to be inclusive of femininity, it is unlikely that strategies that feminize entrepreneurial activity in controlled situations will have an effect on changing the patterns of women's entrepreneurial intentions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study's purpose was to compare the lived experiences of doctoral women studying Education, a prototypically female field, with women studying Engineering, a prototypically male field to illustrate the phenomenon of doctoral degree progress in the two fields. Using critical feminist theory and Valian's (1999) concept of gender schemas, this study examined doctoral education culture in Education and Engineering and how these cultures influence women's doctoral student experiences and in turn their degree progress (Tong, 2009). Although women represent over 50% of doctoral student enrollment and degrees earned, gender disparities exist in Education and Engineering. Once enrolled, women are proportionally more likely to complete Education doctorates and less likely to complete Engineering doctorates (Council of Graduate Schools, 2008; Gonzales, Allum, & Sowell, 2013; Nettles & Millett, 2006). This trend is important because it implies there is something about Education and Engineering doctoral environments that make them more and less conducive for women's success, respectively (Gardner & Mendoza, 2010). This study used a qualitative interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach to capture the essence of women's doctoral degree progress by interpreting the lived experiences of 10 Education and 11 Engineering doctoral women (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). After 63 in-depth interviews and two focus groups, four themes emerged. Overall, the Education women reported fewer positive doctoral experiences and more barriers to degree progress than the Engineering women due to the funding and research assistantship structure, the faculty advisor relationship, and the department environment. Both groups of women described doctoral education culture as proactive, independent, and competitive--characteristics more consistent with masculine gender schemas. Doctoral education culture also reflected the feminine gender schemas of flexibility and collegiality/collaboration, which were more apparent in the prototypically masculine Engineering field than in the prototypically feminine Education field. Implications for how doctoral education can be re-conceptualized, delivered, and researched are provided, calling for the incorporation of more feminine gender schemas into doctoral education culture in order to promote and achieve gender equity. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation is a qualitative study of early 21st century American female college students' experiences of their gender, sexuality, and racial identities, and of institutional politics as their single-sex college transitioned to co-education. It is an ethnography that utilizes feminist theorizing to understand tensions between feminists of different generations or waves; the complexities of identities and institutions in which gender, sexuality, and race intersect (bell hooks and Kimberle Crenshaw); and the workings of dominant gender and sexual norms (Judith Butler). As the College prepared to "go coed," the prospect of introducing male bodies into this environment generated rich discourses about sexual differences, and the operations of individual and institutional power. Data for this dissertation were gathered through individual interviews with five senior administrators and twenty-two students, a group interview with four students following one semester of coeducation, and participant observations over the course of four years. Historical and contemporary texts were analyzed for evidence of competing feminist discourses. Each chapter of this dissertation discusses my findings of feminist generational tensions between students and administrators; of Womyns College as both a nurturing place and a site for practicing resistance to gender, sexual, and racial norms; and of the difficulties of challenging societal and institutional impositions of femininity and heteronormativity. This work contributes to the fields of education and women's studies by providing a thick description of everyday life at a women's college, and of a significant institutional transition--from a women's to a coeducational college--in American higher education. It describes some young women's negotiations of the constraints of femininity and heterosexuality, and exposes how hegemonic notions about sex and gender work. It makes an argument for separatist spaces within historically masculinist and white institutions: intentionally created and institutionally sustained "homeplaces" (hooks) where radical subjectivities can be cultivated by members of non-dominant groups. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This narrative inquiry explored how transgender college students construct, experience, and make meaning of gender. Gender is not constructed or understood in isolation; it is therefore essential to consider how personal cognition intersects with and is influenced by an internal sense of self and relationships with others when exploring how transgender college students understand gender. Self-authorship theory and queer theory were used in conjunction as theoretical lenses for understanding gender meaning-making. For the purposes of this research, constructing gender relates to the epistemological dimension (how do I know?) of meaning-making. Three primary research questions guided this study: 1) How do transgender college students construct and interpret gender? 2) How does a transgender college student's internal sense of self inform gender construction? 3) How do relationships with others inform transgender college students' construction of gender? A qualitative study using narrative inquiry methodology was conducted to explore how transgender college students in a southeastern large public institution make meaning of gender. In-depth interviews were the primary form of data collection and each was digitally recorded and transcribed for data analysis. Document analysis of a reflective prompt and campus documents were also a part of the data analysis. Emergent themes evolved from thematic coding. Three overarching themes emerged from the data analysis: power in self-definition, navigating gender roles, and negotiating connections. The emergent themes weave together as the participants self-author their gender. For the participants in this study, their gender identities are not static, but are continuously evolving as they age and navigate new life experiences. Self-authorship theory and queer theory were used in conjunction to analyze the deconstruction and reconstruction process of interpreting gender. The participants' stories reveal that the gender meaning-making process is a constant cycle of breaking down external formulas, recognizing the shortcomings of universal truths and absolutes, cultivating personal values and beliefs, and redefining personal expressions of masculinity and femininity. The participants understanding of themselves and their gender identity becomes more complex over time, enabling them to deconstruct external formulas about gender and determine for themselves what to integrate into their lives. The participants' experiences also reveal that, similar to gender identity, gender expression is fluid and changeable. In facing negative stereotypes, strict gender expectations, inadequate language for self-definition, and strained relationships, the students within this study all faced "catalytic" moments that have added to their complexity of thinking and meaning-making processes. This study demonstrates that transgender college students have distinct gender identities and that a homogeneous trans experience did not exist. The participants' stories reveal that the gender meaning-making process involves breaking down gendered social norms and reconstruction. The participants daily take the disparate components of deconstructed gender messages and redefine and construct them into gender identities that are an accurate reflection of their inner self concepts. Pairing these two theories together expands both our understanding of how gender-diverse students interpret and experience gender, but also imbues subjective experiences into the abstract concepts of gender identity and expression. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation contains two studies, which are intended to expand our current knowledge about girls with ASD without intellectual disability. The first study examined sex-differences in ASD symptom endorsement and coexisting internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The second study explored the social behaviors of boys and girls with ASD at school, and the extent to which they endorsed masculine and feminine social preferences and social behaviors. There is some literature to suggest that boys and girls differentially endorse ASD social communication deficits, repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. Additionally, girls are reported to endorse greater internalizing behaviors than boys. Yet girls with ASD without intellectual disability are underrepresented in the literature and less is known about their experiences. It is unclear how gender and the deficits associated with ASD affect the social relationships of girls and boys with ASD at school. Thirty-eight girls with ASD were matched by age (µ = 9.97 (3.86)), grade, IQ (µ = 93.29 (13.34)), and city of residence to boys with ASD. In the first study, between-group comparisons of IQ, the deficits associated with ASD, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors were examined. The second study used mixed methods analysis to examine participant observation field notes and to explore the social characteristics of boys and girls with ASD at school during unstructured social periods. In the first study, differences in IQ and ASD symptom endorsement were not detected, however, the findings indicated that both parents and teachers report that girls with autism endorse greater internalizing symptomology than boys with ASD. In the second study, gender differences were also detected in the observed social characteristics and behaviors of children with ASD. Both boys and girls with ASD primarily engaged in same-gender play and socializing activities when hanging out at school. Within the ASD sample, girls with ASD made more social initiations and were more persistent in gaining access into peer groups compared to boys with ASD. Boys with ASD spent more time alone and rejected more social initiations compared to girls with ASD. The challenges associated with ASD were more difficult to detect in girls than in boys. Modifications to social skills interventions at school are needed to better address the environmental factors that influence the social behaviors of boys and girls with ASD. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Young adult literature has been a subject of contention for educators, adolescent psychologists, and critics for decades. Although some commentators maintain that young adult literature can be educationally and developmentally beneficial for adolescent readers, others argue that it often contains negative and potentially harmful messages that could influence its readers during a time when they are most vulnerable. Despite the claims on both sides, little substantive research exists on how older adolescent girls, the intended audience for these books, respond to the texts. This qualitative study examined three popular works of young adult literature to identify the overlapping messages they have regarding the depiction of adolescent females. Five adolescent girls, ages 14-17, read the books and met with the researcher in a series of one-on-one interviews to discuss their responses to the books, specifically the depiction of female characters. The participants also completed journal entries on the books and surveys on their reading habits and responses to the specific characters from the books in the study. The findings indicate these participants interpreted the books in distinctive ways based on their experiences and in keeping with prior research on adolescent development and reader response. The participants also took a critical approach to the books to find parallels to their own lives. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

College drinking is a focus of national attention due to its widespread impact on academic, social, interpersonal, and health domains of student life. Although men have historically had higher rates of drinking than women, college is a developmental time frame in which women's drinking rates have increased (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Shulenberg, 2011; Wechsler et al., 2002). The substance abuse literature has been dominated by studies of men's behavior and risk factors (Covington & Surrey, 1997; Linowski, 2004; NIAAA, 2002; Plant, 2008; Ricciardelli, Connor, Williams, & Young, 2001; Russett, 2008; Smith & Berger, 2010; Smith & Weisner, 2000) and has been stunted by the lack of attention to how women may approach drinking differently than men. Drinking increases need attention because college women are at risk of experiencing consequences from high risk drinking and, as gender roles continue to evolve toward a more egalitarian orientation, current female college students may be influenced by different gender identity expectations than females in previous generations. Researchers have only begun to frame the relationship between gender role, gender identity, and drinking (Huselid & Cooper, 1992; Peralta, Steele, Nofziger, & Rickles, 2010; Smith, Toadvine, & Kennedy, 2009). Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to gain the college female perspective on how experiences and perceptions of drinking and gender identity may contribute to drinking choices. Qualitative data from two focus groups and two individual interviews with a total of nine participants were analyzed employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Though there were similarities across all participants regarding their drinking experiences and their perceptions of gender identity, IPA yielded different themes among High Risk vs. Low Risk drinkers. Specifically, an association between how women think of themselves, their Gender Identity, was different for High Risk drinkers than for Low Risk drinkers. High Risk participants tended to identify more with being female and expressing femininity, whereas Low Risk drinkers did not place much importance on this part of their identity. Similarities and contrasts are discussed in light of the previous research, implications for counselors and counselor educators are highlighted, and areas for future research are recommended. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study investigates adults' ability to change their phonetic systems in perception and production, specifically upon exposure to a new dialect in adulthood. It further addresses the relative importance of binary biological sex and socially constructed gender in predicting an individual's sociolinguistic variation. Perception and production data was collected from lifelong residents of southern Indiana, lifelong residents of Chicago, and individuals raised in southern Indiana who moved to Chicago in adulthood (the Mobile group). The Mobile participants were shifting from their native Lower Midland or Upper South dialect and adopting the Northern Cities Shift (NCS) characteristic of Chicago. A gender identity test, the Extended Personality Attributes Questionnaire, was also administered to each participant. Results indicate that both perception and production are malleable in adulthood, but production may be more subject to change than perception. However, this relationship is not constant across individuals: some Mobile group members changed production more than perception, but others changed perception more, and still others had shifted the two equally or not at all. Analyses suggest that socially constructed gender and educational level may be reliable predictors of an individual's pattern in adopting a second dialect's phonetic system in adulthood. Interestingly, an individual's femininity level may be more important than her masculinity in determining behavior. This study has implications for the research areas of language change across the lifespan, gender and language, second dialect acquisition, second language acquisition, and American dialectology. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]