This dissertation examines two policies that affect women's education, bargaining power, son preference, and awareness of domestic violence in developing countries. The first chapter evaluates a conditional cash transfer program in Bangladesh to identify its impact on the education of multiple generations and explores the pathways behind the…

Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are historically disadvantaged communities that face discrimination on the grounds of their lower social positioning in society. This dissertation comprises 5 Chapters. Chapter 1 provides a brief outline regarding the stratification in India based on Caste and illustrates the importance of studying…

One in three women report being a victim of intimate partner violence (IPV) in her lifetime. IPV is a type of behavior classified as causing physical, psychological, or sexual harm to those in an intimate partnership. Violence affects women in all settings, and among all racial, religious, and socioeconomic groups. Abused women are likely to visit…

This program evaluation explored whether the transitional vocational rehabilitation program at a non-profit organization in Tennessee, named Thistle Farms, was effective in improving trauma-related mental health symptoms and in increasing the sense of empowerment among female survivors of intimate partner violence. The study additionally evaluated…

This qualitative study utilized a transcendental phenomenological approach in which eight female participants, considered to be coresearchers, were interviewed to explore their lived experiences in overcoming pervasive crises in their lives to achieve great academic success. All the women experienced one or more of the following crises in their…

Domestic violence is a continuing public health problem. Immigrant women facing domestic violence have additional challenges in dealing with domestic violence and accessing services. Hopeful thinking has been identified as a strategy for intervening and surviving beyond domestic violence. The purpose of this multiple descriptive case study was to…

An increasing number of women are returning to school as nontraditional students to complete their bachelor's degrees. These women may have specific needs related to life transitions and re-entry into postsecondary education that traditional students do not. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the experiences of women who are…

This purpose of this research is to examine the critical issue of intimate partner violence and to explore a how non-battering "well-meaning men" can help to end this violence against women. Domestic violence has been primarily considered a women's issue, and current efforts to prevent this violence have been led mostly by women. In…

This qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explored the subjectivity of the phenomenon of homelessness among women with children. The study examined the perceived critical incidents homeless women with children ascribe to their homelessness alongside the perceptions held regarding the accessibility of available resources…

Domestic Violence (DV) continues to be a worldwide public health problem. Research in the area indicates that domestic violence has damaging, long-term serious mental, emotional, as well as physiological consequences both for the partners of the perpetrators and for their children. Even though various programs focused on treatments of the damaging…

This dissertation explores the role of creative, participatory methods of communication in response to the impacts of climate change and other environmental and social pressures in Sub- Saharan Africa. Specifically, the research seeks to understand the extent to which narrative and participatory drama influence social interaction, attitudes, and…

Overwhelming evidence shows that domestic violence is a very serious problem affecting women in the United States. Black et al. (2010) report that approximately 34 million women in the United States, or approximately 30%, have experienced some form of violence including rape, physical, violence, and/or stalking in their lifetimes. Twenty-two…

Domestic violence is a national concern that affects women of all ages and ethnicities, as well as women with disabilities. Although there is literature focusing on attitudes about domestic violence toward women, the literature review provided no studies that investigated attitudes about domestic violence toward women in relation to domestic…

Domestic violence is a growing social and health problem that affects many women each year. While the reasons that a great number of battered women stay in or return to an abusive relationship are multifaceted, reasons extracted from the domestic violence literature revealed that the lack of economic resources and the lack of financial…