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…

Despite a lack of conceptualization, Johan Galtung's theory of cultural violence is applied across a variety of disciplines. This case study seeks to conceptualize cultural violence in a public, 4-year university and describe how cultural violence varies based on women's cultural backgrounds and roles within the university. Using semi-structured,…

In modern society, some African American women are choosing a career before accepting the traditional role of birthing a child or children at an early age and marriage is not always part of the equation. Women's freedoms (i.e., equality, personal choice, sexuality) have increased since their early struggles for their rights as citizens and as…

Sexual violence on college and university campuses is a significant public health concern for educators in the context of postsecondary institutions across the United States. One of the populations on college campuses most at-risk of being victimized by sexual assault is women within a sorority (Mohler-Kuo et al., 2004). Partly in response to…

This dissertation explores the newly theorized concept of "sexualized aggression" in U.S. college women's social drinking spaces (e.g., parties, bars, clubs). I developed the concept of sexualized aggression to refer to understudied and overlooked forms of sexual assault and aggression--more specifically, sexual assault that happens in…

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…

This qualitative, action research study explored how practitioners' understanding of the academic impacts of sexual violence on female college students transformed. The professional development innovation called "SAAIT: Sexual Assault Academic Intervention Training" was designed using the theoretical framework of Transformative Learning…

This study sought to document the lived experiences of women who teach in rural Iowa secondary schools. It aims to bring light to the ways in which rural women teachers experience power, marginalization, and oppression in their personal and professional lives. Additionally, this project hopes to provide insight for rural school leaders into how…

This Educational Leadership Portfolio is documentation of my efforts to better understand the perspectives and racialized and gendered lived leadership experiences of Women of Color K-12 educational leaders who work in predominantly White public school systems within a county in a mid-Atlantic state. The problem addressed is that there is too…

The present preliminary study is aimed at finding the interconnection between maladaptive personality characteristics, sexually aggressive behaviors, and rape myth endorsement in a sample comprised of college men. Sexual violence is particularly rampant in the college venue, therefore, understanding more about the risk factors associated with…

This dissertation study is an examination of the relationship among rape culture, hookup culture, and social structure (i.e. regular and patterned forms of interaction over time which crystalize ideological constructs and channel behavior in specific ways). Since few efforts have examined female-on-female rape myth acceptance, I first explore…

Sexual violence is an issue every college in America must work to prevent. Critical race scholars such as Derrick Bell may argue sexual violence can be viewed through a lens of race because racism is ordinary and not aberrational (Crewe, 2021). Historical context can affect the perceptions racialized groups or populations have when discussing…

Black women experience higher rates of unwanted sex, assault, and harassment, yet rarely report these incidents to police or campus officials (Slatton & Richard, 2020; Washington, 2001). To date, most research on campus sexual assault reporting focuses on white, heterosexual, cis-gendered women at elite institutions (Brubaker et al., 2017;…

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…

Historically, students of color have experienced an increased risk for exclusionary discipline outcomes (Children's Defense Fund, 1975). Discipline disproportionality continues to be a major problem in our schools today (McIntosh et al., 2018). The focus of most of the research has been on African American males; however, African American females…