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How evangelical Christian women negotiate discourses in the construction of self: A poststructural feminist analysis

Hewitt, Kimberly Kappler
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259981731

Abstract Details

2009, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
Situating my research within the theoretical framework of poststructural feminism, I pose the question, “How do evangelical Christian women negotiate, appropriate, resist, and embrace the multiple and conflicting discourses through which they are constituted and constitute themselves?” To explore this question, I asked participants to create artifacts to address a prompt designed to explore their multiple and conflicting discourses. I also conducted two-part interviews with each participant. Using the methods of textual analysis and deconstruction, I concluded that each of the women moves—often uneasily—between the dominant discourse of complementarianism and the counter-discourse of egalitarianism. Each woman’s views are complex, nuanced, and at times paradoxical. While each of the women remained committed to the discursive construct of headship at least symbolically, each of the women also employed multiple strategies to emasculate it. Further, all of the women rejected dominant and hegemonic readings of key biblical passages and used a variety of strategies to re-read and un-read the passages. While each participant invokes the language and claims of liberal feminism, especially within her professional discourse, most participants eschew the term “feminist,” and all of them evince complex views on the discourse of feminism. These findings have implications for teacher education, K-12 public education, and the advancement of feminism.
Lisa D. Weems, PhD (Committee Chair)
Kathleen Knight-Abowitz, PhD (Committee Member)
Peter Magolda, PhD (Committee Member)
Tammy Schwartz, PhD (Committee Member)
356 p.
Education; Gender; Religion; Womens Studies
evangelical; Christian; discourse; poststructural; feminist; poststructural feminist; deconstruction; egalitarianism; complementarianism; headship

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hewitt, K. K. (2009). How evangelical Christian women negotiate discourses in the construction of self: A poststructural feminist analysis [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259981731

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hewitt, Kimberly. How evangelical Christian women negotiate discourses in the construction of self: A poststructural feminist analysis. 2009. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259981731.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hewitt, Kimberly. "How evangelical Christian women negotiate discourses in the construction of self: A poststructural feminist analysis." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1259981731

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1259981731
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© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.