VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Calasanti, Toni M."

Browsing by Author "Calasanti, Toni M."

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Ageism and Feminism: From “Et Cetera” to Center
Calasanti, Toni M.; Slevin, Kathleen F.; King, Neal M. (Indiana University Press, 2006)
Although women’s studies scholars and activists do not deny the reality of ageism, they have relegated it to secondary status, neglecting to theorize age relations or place old age at the center of analysis. After explaining what we mean by age relations and their intersections with other inequalities, we discuss the ways in which old people are oppressed, and why age relations represent a political location that needs to be addressed in its own right. We then demonstrate ways in which feminist theories and activism might change if the focus shifted to old people.
Alternative Tourism: A Social Movement Perspective
McGehee, Nancy G. (Virginia Tech, 1999-06-24)
This study develops and tests a theoretical model drawing on social psychological and resource-mobilization perspectives of social movement theory to explain changes in social movement participation and support for activism among Earthwatch Expedition volunteers. The social psychological perspective of social movements recognizes the role of self-efficacy and consciousness-raising for the participation in and success of social movement organizations. The resource mobilization perspective of social movements stresses rationality and the importance of funding and networks for the success of social movement organizations. Utilizing these two theoretical perspectives as my foundation, I hypothesize that participation in an Earthwatch Expedition increases volunteers' participation in social movement organizations in ways such as making monetary donations, voting with the organization's platform in mind, or attending rallies and marches. I also hypothesize that volunteers will increase their support for others who participate in these same types of activities. Earthwatch Expeditions are a form of alternative tourism in which volunteers participate in any of 126 different types of 10-14 day research-oriented expeditions that may include evaluating the health of a coral reef, studying maternal health among west African women, assessing the killer whale population off the coast of Puget Sound, or recording oral history in Dominica. I conducted pre- and post-trip surveys in June and July of 1998, resulting in 363 completed surveys. I analyzed data using multiple regression to discover relationships between pre-trip and post-trip measures of social movement participation, activism support, networks, self-efficacy, and consciousness-raising. In other words, I explored ways in which an alternative tourism experience like Earthwatch can change a person's ideas about their own social movement participation, the social movement activities of others, their perceived ability to overcome obstacles in order to implement social change, and their awareness of social issues. Results suggest that participation in an Earthwatch Expedition has a positive effect on volunteers' social movement participation, their awareness of social issues, their networks, and their ability to overcome obstacles, but little effect on activism support.
An Analysis of the Factors That Influence Older African-Americans to Self-Define as Retired
Jackson, Tanara (Virginia Tech, 1999-04-14)
Research that examines gender and retirement has given us insights on the ways in which gender structures the work and retirement experience primarily for white men and women. At the same time, a small but growing body of research on race-ethnicity and retirement reveals that race-ethnicity also serves as a context that structures the work and retirement experience. However, research that examines the intersections of race-ethnicity and gender in relation to retirement is almost non-existent. Our subsequent knowledge of how race-ethnicity and gender serve as contexts defining the retirement experience is severely limited. One result is that it is difficult to make generalizations or draw reliable conclusions concerning non-dominant populations. To address this gap, I conducted an exploratory investigation on the general topic of race, gender, and retirement, specifically focusing on how the process of self-definition as retired occurs among African-American men and women. Using data from Wave I of the Americans' Changing Lives Survey, this investigation identified the gender-and class-specific paid and unpaid productive activities that African-Americans ages fifty-five and older perform. Since unpaid activities are gender-specific, examining them, along with measures of income, income sources, education, marital status, age, and disabled status would help reveal the extent to which gender interacts with race-ethnicity to structure self-definition for Black men and women. These findings suggest that for older African-Americans, gender significantly impacts the decision to self-define as retired. However, when considering the impact of gender-specific unpaid productive activities, the above finding is not true. It is only in relation to the receipt of Social Security income, disabled status, and work status that gender significantly interacts with race-ethnicity to structure the decision to self-define as retired. In general, these findings substantiate pre-existing research on race, gender, and retirement. Importantly, they prompt further development of scholarly literature in this area of research, as this body of literature is still largely underexplored and inconclusive.
Are All Bodies Good Bodies?: Redefining Femininity Through Discourses of Health, Beauty, and Gender in Body Positivity
Streeter, Rayanne Connie (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-06)
Previous research has explored the ways in which health, beauty, and gender discourses are used to promote and regulate an ideal of thinness. Further, research has explored how the fat acceptance movement and fitspiration has fought to resist such narratives. However, in the age of hashtag feminism a new group on social media, body positivity, has become the buzzword among celebrities, news conglomerates, and fashion companies. This study draws on interviews with body positive influencers and Instagram posts tagged #bodypositive and #fitspiration to examine the extent to which body positive influencers and users modify understandings of normative feminine body ideals and to what extent they resist and accommodate traditional discourses of gender, health, and beauty. In doing so, I explore which bodies are newly included and who is left out.
At-Risk, First-Year Students' Patterns of Perceptions of Their Academic Performance Activities and Grades Earned
McGuire, Sharon Paterson (Virginia Tech, 1998-12-04)
Researchers and practitioners in an attempt to understand academic performance, and thus reduce academic failure, have identified variables associated with academic performance. Although this research has been useful, there are limitations and critiques: 1) findings are often inconsistent; 2) student experiences and perceptions tend to be constructed as dichotomous variables: thus little is known about interconnections and contradictions in students' lives; and, 3) gender, race and class are constructed as variables to assess difference and not as social structural positions of power. The purpose of this research is to explore at-risk, first-year students participating in a structured intervention program and their perceptions of their academic performance. In addition, the ways in which their perceptions are shaped by gender. Through multiple qualitative techniques of semi-structured interviews, content analysis, and observations over an 8-month period I constructed an understanding of students' perceptions of their academic performance. The students' perceptions are interconnected such that themes emerged illuminating three patterns of perceptions. My analysis illuminated some manifestations of how gender shaped students' perceptions. However, gender was but one lens, not the dominant analytical lens, from which to explore and understand these students' perspective. Using extensive quotes from students in a narrative form, these patterns are described and discussed. As a sociologist, a feminist, and student affairs professional, I am concerned with structural elements of a given phenomenon; therefore I make particular mention of organizational and policy issues and implications associated with the patterns of student perceptions.
#BlackMamasMatter: The Significance of Motherhood and Mothering for Low-Income Black Single Mothers
Turner, Jennifer Laverne (Virginia Tech, 2019-05-02)
In the present neoliberal era, low-income Black single mothers receiving public assistance must grapple with heightened state surveillance, the devaluation of their mothering, trying to raise Black children in a racist society, and navigating the neoliberal economic system. This dissertation examines how, in light of all this, such women perceive themselves as mothers and what they identify as the greatest influences on their ability to carry out their mothering activities. It specifically investigates how they perceive their race as influencing their motherhood and how they perceive employment in relation to motherhood. Based on in-depth interviews with 21 low-income single Black mothers in Virginia, findings illustrate that the mothers in this study recognize and resist controlling images of low-income Black single motherhood, such as the "welfare queen" and the "baby mama," and that a key aspect of their mothering activities is socializing their children around race and class. Findings also demonstrate that motherhood is a central identity for the women in this study and that they prioritize their motherhood identities over their work identities. In addition, in a departure from previous research on Black motherhood/mothering, findings show that the women in this study do not mother within dense networks of kin and community support.
Bodies in Contempt: A Mixed Methods Study of Federal ADA Employment Cases
Dick-Mosher, Jennifer (Virginia Tech, 2013-12-10)
This paper draws on theories of gendered organizations to examine discrimination against people with disabilities in the workplace. A sample of 200 cases which document disability discrimination lawsuits was drawn from the Westlaw legal database. Each case was coded for gender, job, disability and discrimination type and analyzed using multinomial logistic models. Of those 200 cases, 34 were selected for in depth qualitative analysis. This study finds that disability type and gender do have an influence on the type of discrimination someone is likely to experience. In addition, the qualitative analysis finds that the social processes of discrimination differ based on job type and gender pointing to intersections of disability and class as well as gender and disability.
Commitment in African-American Relationships
Hillian, Lenette D. Jr. (Virginia Tech, 1998-05-06)
This study investigated commitment in the romantic relationships of 16 African-American men and women, eight men and eight women, aged 20-23. Ten participants were currently in a committed relationship and six participants were not currently in a committed relationship at the time of the study. Interdependence theory guided this qualitative study to examine how participants defined commitment, what they expected from their partners, sources that were instrumental in their development of expectations of how a partner should behave in a committed relationship, and the meanings they attached to relational alternatives, investments, rewards, costs, and barriers. Results indicated that eight relational themes defined commitment: exclusivity, honesty, being supportive, spending time, communicating, getting respect, trust, and love. In addition, two types of commitment were identified, short-term and long-term. From this sample, there was a connection between the definition of commitment and the meanings attached to relational alternatives, investments, rewards, costs, and barriers. The sources of how a partner should behave served as the context for the definition of commitment and meanings attached to alternatives, investments, rewards, costs, and barriers. Suggestions for future research on close relationships among African-Americans are discussed.
Confronting the West: Social Movement Frames in 20th Century Iran
Poulson, Stephen Chastain (Virginia Tech, 2002-12-06)
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 received considerable attention from modern social scientists who study collective action and revolution because it allowed them to apply their different perspectives to an ongoing social event. Likewise, this work used the Iranian experience as an exemplar, focusing on a sequence of related social movement frames that were negotiated by Iranian groups from the late 19th through the 20th century. Snow and Benford (1992) have proposed that cycles of protest are associated with the development of a movement master frame. This frame is a broad collective orientation that enables people to interpret an event in a more or less uniform manner. This study investigated how movement groups in Iran developed master frames of mobilization during periodic cycles of protests from 1890 to the present. By investigating how master frames were negotiated by social movement actors over time, this work examined both the continuity and change of movement messages during periods of heightened social protest in Iran.
The construction of social problems and the experience of human service programs: contradictory relations in a support group for adolescent mothers
Luff, Tracy L. (Virginia Tech, 1997-01-15)
The patterned interactions in a support group for adolescent mothers are analyzed in the context of the specific construction(s) of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood that legitimate the program's existence. Particular attention is paid to the way in which staff and clients are positioned vis a vis one another through the typification of the program's mission and goals. Data analyzed include field notes recorded during ten months of participant observation with the group, program documents describing the history, mission, and goals of the program, and an in-depth interview with the Program Director. Changes in funding patterns led to an increased emphasis on the prevention of child abuse as a goal of the program. The resulting expectations of program staff and assumptions about adolescent mothers cast these two groups of women into social identities containing inherent contradictions. Differences of social class further complicate the relationship between the groups. Varying strategies of self-presentation are employed by clients and staff as they struggle with these contradictions. The young mothers present themselves in ways that maintain distance between themselves and staff. While the staff are never completely successful and breaking down the barriers between themselves and the young mothers, one style of self-presentation has the potential to bridge the gap. The findings have practical implications for the design and implementation of human service programs, particularly those which address stigmatized categories of women. The findings also have theoretical implications relevant to ongoing discussions of feminist epistemology, and the intersection of gender and social class.
Correlates of a sense of control of aging
Herrin, Judith Mitchell (Virginia Tech, 1989-12-01)
During the past few decades much research has focused on the salutary effects of personal control over life events generally and specifically in the area of health. Studies indicate that people who feel that they are in control of the events in their lives cope more effectively than do those people who feel that their lives are governed by chance, luck, or fate. Feelings of control or mastery are an important psychological coping resource. In recent years much has been written about whether the expanding elderly population will place a burden on society because of their greater susceptibility to illness and disability, or whether life-style changes made by progressive cohorts will bring about modifications of the aging process. The question arises as to whether some sense of control over the aging process exists in a similar fashion as does control over one's health. Further, if such a sense of control over aging exists, what social structural conditions contribute to such a perceived control of aging. The present study, conducted among members of an athletic facility in a southwest Virginia city and among staff, faculty, and graduate students at a major state university, seeks to determine if a sense of control over the aging process exists, and what social structural variables and personal attributes might contribute to such a perception. Results indicate that several social structural variables (for example, gender, age and education) are predictors of perceived control over the aging process. Self-related variables (for example,self-efficacy, beliefs concerning the health benefits of exercise, and exercise behavior itself) are also significant predictors of perceived control over aging.
Disarticulated agricultural growth: a comparative study of two Chilean regions
Gacitúa Marió, Estanislao A. (Virginia Tech, 1992-12-15)
During the last twenty years, Chilean agriculture has experienced unequaled modernization and growth. The uneven character of this process shows that economic development and the expansion of some agricultural sub-sectors can be associated with the absolute and relative increase of poverty, particularly in rural areas. This dissertation postulates that the disarticulated nature of the accumulation pattern has impeded the achievement of sustained national growth and social equity, as well as threatened the preservation of national food security. This study explains the disarticulated character of Chilean agricultural growth during the last 25 years, analyzes the effects that disarticulation has on national food production and consumption levels, and attempts to advance some policy alternatives. An important contribution of this dissertation is to interpret the ongoing process of regional differentiation in Chilean agriculture through the analytical framework of disarticulated growth. The results of this study indicate that decreasing disarticulation requires restructuring of the prevalent accumulation pattern. Otherwise, alternative policy instruments would not accomplish the goals of growth, equity, and sustainability. The development of the agricultural export sector is nut contradictory to the achievement of sustainability and equity. In fact the expansion of the export sector could contribute to the articulation of the economy. However, this would require a shift in the investment priorities and increasing state support to the annual crops and livestock sub-sectors, particularly to the campesino producers. At the same time, investment in the agroexport sector would have to shift from expanding production via incorporation of new lands to increasing productivity and overall increasing the value of the products. That is, investment would have to be geared toward agroindustrial processes that would add value to the unprocessed agricultural commodities that are currently exported. Finally, sectoral and macroeconomic policy should contribute to internal expansion by increasing employment and minimum wage levels.
Do the Views of the Prosecutor's Offices Have an Impact on Whether Intimate Partner Violence Cases Go To Trial?
Kershaw, Njeri (Virginia Tech, 2009-03-30)
Each year there are approximately 589,000 nonfatal violent victimizations (e.g., aggravated assault, simple assault) committed by an intimate partner (US Dept. of Justice, 2003). Of that, roughly 85% of these violent victimizations were committed against females (US Dept. of Justice, 2003). Even with this large amount of violence against women, only about 33% of the perpetrators of those crimes are brought to trial in state courts (US Dept. of Justice, 2005). Even a cursory look at the literature indicates that extra-legal factors, including the personal views of the police, judges, and prosecutors, have an effect on which cases are brought to trial. Mandatory prosecution laws attempt to overcome these extra-legal factors. I will investigate if these laws succeed in reducing prosecutorial discretion and result in a greater percentage of domestic violence cases going to trial or if the views of the prosecutors' offices still determine which cases are brought to trial.
"Do You Want Excitement? Don't Join the Army, Be a Nurse!": Identity Work and Advantage among Men in Training for the Female Professions
LoMascolo, Anna F. (Virginia Tech, 2008-05-29)
This study examines the identity work strategies that men students in nursing, elementary education, and social work programs employ in order to manage and assert their masculinity in the face of negative gender assessment, as well as the identity work involved in verifying their professional identities. It also examines the perceived benefits and disadvantages that men experience as numerical minorities in their fields of study. Interviews with 12 men students majoring in these disciplines reveal that while men do perceive disadvantages as men in these educational spheres, they believe that the advantages and benefits they enjoy in the form of special treatment, recognition, and access to opportunity far outweigh them. A key perceived disadvantage is the ongoing challenges they face to their social identity as men and their role identity as rising professionals. These men employ identifiable identity work strategies for doing masculinity; some of which have implications for gender equality in the educational setting, as well as in on-site training (i.e., workplace) settings as well. This study contributes to an understanding of how men verify contradictory identities, and how gender shapes, privileges, and constrains their lives. In addition, it builds on extant literature focusing on men's experiences in higher education as they prepare for careers in gender-nontraditional occupations.
Economic Consequences on Gays and Lesbians of Heteronormativity in the Workplace
Morgan, Meredith Leigh (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-01)
Feminist scholars have theorized that the workplace is gendered and heteronormative1, but little research quantifies the economic consequences of those organizations. This study investigates income discrepancies between gay men and straight men and between lesbians and straight women, to quantify these consequences. Using the National Survey of Family Growth 2006-2010, and controlling for several correlates of income, I use ordinary least squares regression to test the hypothesis that lesbians have higher incomes on the average than straight women do, and that straight men earn more than gay men. I also use hierarchical regression to test the relative strengths of the associations between income and possible causes of variation in it. The study found that gay men earn more than straight men because of higher educational attainment, and that lesbians earn more than straight women, though this finding is not statistically significant.
The Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Race on Functional Limitations and Self-Reported Health in Old Age
Bowen, Mary Elizabeth (Virginia Tech, 2006-06-12)
Elderly Black and Hispanic adults have poorer overall health, higher disability rates, and lower life expectancies than elderly Whites and other racial and ethnic minority group members. There are also sex differences in health, with women more likely to suffer from non-life threatening chronic conditions and men more likely to suffer from acute conditions. Health pathways, or the processes to good or poor health, are shaped by race, SES, and sex. This study focuses on the race and SES literature, framing race and SES inequalities within a cumulative advantage lens. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling techniques to examine data from the Health and Retirement Survey, this study finds that there are racial differences in health through health problems, health insurance, and health care treatment, and that Black, Hispanic, and other racial and ethnic minority group members have worse self-reported health than Whites in old age. This study also finds evidence of cumulative advantage through friends in the neighborhood, and finds evidence of cumulative disadvantage through health problems and hospital and nursing home treatment. There are also cumulative disadvantages for women, who have more functional limitations in old age than their male counterparts, and these disadvantages grow over time. This study adds support to the race literature, by furthering understandings of race and SES as interconnected but not interchangeable systems of inequality. In lieu of the findings, this study provides implications for future research and ways to reduce racial health disparities in old age.
An Evaluation of Family Planning Services in Southwest Virginia
Lukyanova, Valentina Vladimirovna (Virginia Tech, 2005-05-09)
The goal of this study is to assess the quality of family planning services in rural areas of Virginia. Through interviews with the public and not-for profit clinics, I collected various facts and through client survey, I obtained women's perceptions and feeling about the services provided to them. The goal was to reconcile responses wherever possible, and furthermore, identify differences between facts provided by the clinics and perceptions of clients. From the client surveys, I found that the majority of women are satisfied with the family planning services. Moreover, Appalachian women report higher satisfaction with the family planning services than non-Appalachian women. However, accessibility remains one of the major problems and obstacles to the family planning services. Women that report long waiting time and lack of transportation also have lower satisfaction scores with the services. From qualitative interviews, it is apparent that staff is doing a good job at assisting rural Appalachian women. However, as in client survey, staff reported problems with access to family planning services, such as transportation, unawareness of women of existing services, financial difficulties, and the need of more days and hours of clinic operation.
An examination of the effects of mentoring on social and institutional isolation
Smith, Janice Witt (Virginia Tech, 1995)
This dissertation examines some of the more subjective aspects of individuals' experiences of isolation within the context of racialized and gendered work organizations. This research develops two constructs--institutional and social isolation--and attempts to ascertain the extent to which racial and gender groups experience isolation similarly. Other attitudes, such as intent to turnover, affective commitment, and alienation, are analyzed with respect to feelings of isolation for these groups. Finally, because current thinking has advocated the use of organizational interventions, such as mentoring programs, to ameliorate individuals' feelings of separateness within the organization, the relationship of mentoring to the aforementioned constructs was examined for its usefulness in understanding similarities and differences between these groups. This research extends previous work by providing support for new conceptualizations of social isolation and isolation. It extends work done by Nkomio and Cox (1990) and others who found that individuals who had achieved some objective measures of success in organizations, still did not feel, subjectively, as if they were a part of the organization. Thus, the use of these isolation constructs will expand our knowledge of organizational processes in examining groups based on gender and race/ethnicity. The results indicate that isolation docs exist on two dimensions: institutional isolation and social isolation. Asian-Americans have higher levels of institutional isolation, and African-Americans have higher levels of social isolation than any other group. Females experience higher levels of social isolation--but not institutional isolation--than males. There are some differences when race and gender are examined simultaneously in levels of experienced institutional and social isolation. Younger faculty feel more institutionally and socially isolated than older faculty. There is no significant effect of the presence of mentoring on institutional or social isolation; nor is there differential access to mentoring relationships by race. However, females enter mentoring relationships in greater proportions than males. There are also effects from cross-racial mentoring relationships. Finally, there are no significant differences, by race or gender, in the levels of affective organizational commitment or intent to turnover.
An Exploration of Older Men’s Acceptance of Age Inequality
King, Neal M.; Pietilä, Ilkka; Calasanti, Toni M.; Ojala, Hanna (Virginia Tech, 2014)
Age relations treat old people as marginal to occupational and dating networks, stigmatizing them as unattractive and unfit to do valuable work (Calasanti 2003; King 2006). Those systems intersect with gender, in which men gain privilege by associating themselves with skilled, valuable work and athletic performance, and women with sexual receptivity and artificial display (Calasanti and King 2007). In the intersection of age and gender, men lose much of their privileges as they grow old and leave the workplace, dismissed as no longer able to perform on valued jobs (King and Calasanti 2013). A large anti-aging industry markets to men products that promise to restore sexual potency and workplace assertiveness, as ways to counter the emasculating effects of old age (Calasanti 2007). Among studies of inequality, that of age relations provides a unique opportunity to test the extent to which a group can reify its own eventual subordination. This is due to the temporal nature of age relations (Calasanti 2007; Spector-Mersel 2006). We test for the hegemonic effect of masculinity.
Exploring the Effect of Caregiver Burden among Alzheimer's Caregivers: A Test of The Stress Process Model
Zhao, Yuxin (Virginia Tech, 2019-01-22)
The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is stressful for both patients and their family caregivers (FCG). As the disease progresses, the patient's memory, functioning status, and behavioral problems get worse, and the needs of the patient that must be addressed by family caregivers increase dramatically. This research examines the impact of the subjective burden with the objective stressors on FCG's depression and to determines which psychosocial resources can be used to either mediate or moderate this relationship. I examine the baseline data that was collected from 670 family caregivers of Alzheimer's patients in the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II clinical trial (REACH II), 2001-2004. The measurements used in the current study are caregivers' background and context factors, objective stressors, subjective burden, psychosocial resources, and symptoms of depression. Three research questions will be investigated in this study: (1) How do the caregivers' background and context factors affect FCGs experiences of objective stressors and subjective burden during the caregiving process? (2) What is the relationship between the objective stressors and subjective burdens, and what impact, if any, do they have on FCGs'depressive symptoms? (3) How do psychosocial resources mediate and or moderate the relationship between the primary stressors and FCGs'depression experiences?

Browsing by Author "Calasanti, Toni M."

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