Social Science

Copyrights are retained by the author. Please contact Garrick Dickson for further use of this material.

Copyrights are retained by the author. Please contact Erin Tate for further use of this material.

This thesis will provide a general background of how women musicians, both Caucasian and African-American, were subject to idealized standards of beauty and gender prejudice within their profession as musicians. Monographs by Fauser, Sullivan, Jones, Lang, and Tucker will be analyzed to provide readers with a complete picture of the current state of historiography concerning music of the World War II era and its importance to American culture. Real life examples of how women were forced into patriarchal norms within their work environments will add credence to the concept that song narrative story lines served an integral purpose in perpetuating patriarchal gendered standards during World War II. Song storylines will then be analyzed to demonstrate that it was a vital medium by which patriarchal standards of gender were demonstrated to men and women who were exposed to music regardless of race. However, tropes for African-American women differed from those of their white counterparts. This thesis will address their unique challenges performed by a sample of African-American women artists., Copyrights are retained by the author. Please contact Sarah Gaudioso for further use of this material.

Black women and the concept of Black Feminism stems from the continual exclusion of Black women from the American women's movement. Throughout the suffrage movement, the fight was for white women. Although some black women did take part in the movement, they were few in comparison due to not only the issue of class, but also race. Race and class have been the two contributing factors that continue to separate the women's movement all the way into the Second Wave beginning in the 1960s and into the 1970s. Black women have been torn between their identities, having to choose between race or gender., Copyright is retained by the author. Please contact Ariel Phillips for further use of this material.