Women’s History ETDs

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    “You Know Me Best”: Perspectives of Adult Siblings with Typical Abilities and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities
    (2015-05-01) Staniszewski, Kristy Lynn
    This thesis explores the lives of adult typical (ADTYP) siblings, their siblings with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD), their unique relationship, and their need for support. Over seventy percent of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in the United States currently live at home with their families. In most cases, the parents of an individual with disabilities are assigned the role of primary caregivers. With this role comes great responsibility and, in households with multiple children, the ADTYP sibling gradually assumes the burden of that responsibility and all the joy and heartache that come with it. By reviewing narratives and conducting oral histories of both ADTYP siblings and siblings with I/DD, I reveal that ADTYP siblings often can provide more insight than parents into the interests of their siblings with I/DD and will often make more appropriate decisions about day-to-day care than those of which their parents are capable. Siblings with I/DD can attest to this better than anyone, and it is therefore equally important to closely examine the ways in which sibling relationships are meaningful to individuals with disabilities. The first chapter of this thesis explores the creation of sibling support programs and organizations historically, and illustrates how typical siblings benefit from these systems as adults. The second chapter then, discusses literature of the sibling movement and the importance of local support groups for ADTYP siblings. The third chapter brings us to the heart of this work as it introduces the voices of siblings with I/DD, who must constitute an essential component of sibling research. When siblings with disabilities are provided the opportunity to have their voices heard, they become the spokespersons for their own lives. Some individuals with I/DD can experience significant challenges in communicating, but when both the ADTYP sibling and the sibling with disabilities are part of the same conversation, clarity and understanding of what is most important to those with I/DD can be shared. Through the interviews in this thesis, what becomes evident is that ADTYP siblings provide more than logistical support and caregiving; they give their siblings with I/DD access to independence and create opportunities for them to exceed their disabilities and limitations.
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    Selfish Bitch: Representations of Childfree Women in Media, Academia, and IRL
    (2022-05-01) Lee, Laura
    Since the proliferation of America’s television sitcom in the 1950’s and 60’s, there has been one group of women that has been woefully underrepresented; those who are childfree by choice. During second wave feminism, this lack of both media representation and overall cultural acceptance was brought to the mainstream discourse by Ellen Peck and Shirley Radl, the founders of The National Organization of Non-Parents. Through their writing and their activism, Peck and Radl pushed for the acceptance of the childfree lifestyle, as well as fought to have it represented in the media. Over the years, however, this representation has remained elusive, with traditional heteronormative depictions of family continuing to be the norm to this day. The following work will look at how childfree by choice women are represented on television, and whether those representations are an accurate depiction of the childfree by choice lifestyle in general. Interviews with childfree women will both examine whether these fictional characters are an honest reflection of their lives as well as attempt to dismantle some of the more harmful stereotypes that these media depictions portray. This thesis will also try to provide a better understanding of the many reasons why women choose to be childfree, as well as how television can create a more nuanced approach to childfree by choice characters.
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    Working Witches: Fortune Tellers, Clairvoyants, and Astrologers in the Golden Age of Spiritualism
    (2022-12-01) Kredell, Grace
    Scholars of Spiritualism have long held that the movement grew spontaneously, forming around the Fox sisters as news of their novel “spirit-rapping” spread through New York in 1849. My thesis argues that a wide spectrum of occult workers, already active in New York City, paved the way for these genteel celebrities and their followers. These working women were already refashioning their trade before Spiritualism’s arrival, evident by the myriad new professional identities they claimed. Through newspaper advertisements, public commentaries, and popular occult literature, I closely examine several professional monikers common in New York City at the time. Chapter One chronicles the widespread practice of fortune-telling and its focus on prophecies of romance. By examining the specific services of working-class practitioners and the recreational divination of middle- and upper-class women, I demonstrate how reactions to these pursuits differed across class lines. Chapter Two takes up clairvoyance, its origins in the medical practice of mesmerism, and professional clairvoyants’ partial claim to respectability based on adherence to a scientific methodology. Chapter Three addresses astrology, a centuries-old, male-dominated tradition that in the 1840s was increasingly claimed by women hoping to dissociate themselves from the stigma of fortune-telling. Studying these occult workers is crucial to complicating an overly simplistic story of Spiritualism’s rise and a step in recovering histories vital to modern practitioners, who continue to face discrimination and broken lineages.