University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2019 Painting the Leaky Pipeline Pink: Girl Branded Media and the Promotion of STEM Juniper Patel University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Mass Communication Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Patel, Juniper, "Painting the Leaky Pipeline Pink: Girl Branded Media and the Promotion of STEM" (2019). Theses and Dissertations. 3158. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3158 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Painting the Leaky Pipeline Pink: Girl Branded Media and the Promotion of STEM A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication by Juniper Patel University of Arkansas Bachelor of Arts in Communication, and English, 2015 May 2019 University of Arkansas This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ____________________________ Ryan Neville-Shepard, Ph.D. Thesis Director ____________________________ ________________________ Lauren DeCarvalho, Ph.D. Stephanie Schulte, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member Abstract This thesis provides a critical feminist analysis of girl branded media depictions of girls in STEM. Through close textual analysis of three case studies—Disney Fairies films, Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures, and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls media—I found that such STEM promotion tends to emphasize traditional gender roles and neoliberal market values.