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Browsing by Subject "Gender Roles"
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Item African-American Heterosexual Women Facing The HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Giving Voice To Sexual Decision-Making(2008-07-07T16:08:35Z) Hill, Delthea Jean; Black, Carolyn J.HIV infection is escalating among African-American heterosexual women in alarming rates. African-American women are 23 times as likely to be infected with the AIDS virus as white women. African-American women account for 72% of new HIV cases among women in 29 states. The risk of contracting HIV virus is highest in African-American communities, which inevitably places African-American women at higher risk than other populations of women. The purpose of this study was to advance knowledge regarding what is unknown about risky sexual behaviors among African-American heterosexual women by giving them the “voice” to share their own personal experiences in their natural environments. I examined participants’ perceptions of risk for contracting HIV/AIDS in relationships with male partners. This qualitative research design focused on a constant comparative analysis. I conducted one focus group [four members and one recorder] along with seven individual interviews, of African-American heterosexual women involved in the Women In Motion [WIM] HIV/AIDS prevention program. The following three health behavior frameworks were examined as a means of understanding the limitations of existing models of sexual risk behaviors among African-American women: The Health Belief Model (HBM), the Transtheoretical Change Model, and the Black feminist perspective. Gaps in the literature included insufficient knowledge of how cultural taboos and myths influence sexual decision-making. An overview of the findings of this study has been explicated under the following three main headings: (1) Observation, (2) Interpretation, and (3) Application. The results of the study are discussed under the following three main categories 1) Understanding Sexual Decision-Making, 2) Understanding Intimacy, and 3) Understanding HIV/AIDS Prevention With Male Partners. In conclusion, sexual decision-making in this inquiry became an all encompassing construct based on African-American women’s perceptions of how they viewed the paradox of sexual needs in intimate relationships with male partners and the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.Item Redefining Women's Work: Female Entrepreneurs on the South Side of Indianapolis, 1880-1920(2019) DeMatteo, Stephanie Marie; Mullins, Paul R.; Hyatt, Susan B.; Wilson, Jeremy J.Research on the roles of women in the past commonly focuses on either the demure or the radical. This study of female entrepreneurs shows an area in which women occupied a more central position in their communities. Female entrepreneurs were able to possess a certain degree of independence without being viewed, or viewing themselves, as rebellious. This thesis focuses exclusively on the women who owned businesses on a two-block length of one street, South Meridian, in Indianapolis, over a forty-year period. Even with this limited focus, there is substantial variation in the motivations of the women. Some entered in to business with the support of their wealthy families, while others were obligated to work to support their families. The stories of these women can be revealed through their presence in official documents, city directories, and newspapers of the time. In addition to the individual stories of female entrepreneurs, these sources provide information about who the businesswomen of the time were as a group. The majority were born in the United States and among that group most were born in the state of Indiana. The most common businesses owned by women were millinery shops, dress shops, and boarding houses. Other demographic characteristics, such as age, marital status, and time in business, do not form a pattern across the group. These sources also show how women compared to men who were in business in the same location over the same period. Most of the female entrepreneurs of the South Side of Indianapolis around the turn of the century worked in fields that could fit under the heading of “women’s work,” but this categorization ignores the intricacies of their positions as business people. These women were not solely providing a service or producing a good, similar to what they would be expected to do in the home as wives, mothers, or daughters. They were also responsible for the other aspects of business ownership, including finding and maintaining premises, purchasing products and materials, and managing finances. It is these details that, for example, set apart the owner of a dress shop from a woman making clothes for her family.