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PubMed1998

Negotiating reproduction and gender during the fertility decline in Turkey.

This paper is concerned with the cultural construction of reproduction and gender in Turkey as it relates to the remarkable decline from high levels of fertility to near-replacement levels. It critiques demographic transition theory and family systems theory as found in the Turkish demographic discourse. A combination of ethnographic and demographic methodologies are used. The ethnographies are from working-class communities in Istanbul. A concept of negotiated conduct is used to interpret family dynamics in matters of reproductive control replacing the family systems models that are based on the assumption of male domination or patriarchy. It is found that the physical characteristics (male or female) of methods of contraception do not directly reveal whose power dominates negotiations. The variety of experience shows that not only women, but also men, negotiate in favor of birth control or, in some instances, to birth more children. The changes in structural conditions that brought fertility from high levels to near-replacement levels in Turkey were effective without very much "empowerment" of women. The proposition that women's status, in terms of education and economic activity, must improve to bring about a fertility decline is questioned by the Turkish experience.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed1998

Promoting health, promoting women: the construction of female and professional identities in the discourse of community health workers.

Community health worker (CHW) programs are implemented in the third world and among racial minorities in the U.S. by public health professionals with the goal of improving people's access to basic health services. There is a shared view that women's roles as mothers make them effective CHWs because most health practices are located within the realm of the family. The objective of this paper is to inquire how and what concepts of woman are constructed and promoted in CHW programs. Viewing CHW as a discourse, I examine literature on CHWs using a critical feminist perspective and insights from narrative and rhetorical analyses. I argue that CHW positions women living in the third world and non-white Hispanic women in the U.S. as the "other" woman. The natural attributes of this other woman include mother, care giver, oppressed, child-like, and victim of patriarchy, religion, poverty, and diseases. These attributes are used to define categories of the female such as "the third world woman" and "Hispanic woman". These categories, in turn, define two unnamed opposite categories: "the first world woman" and "the public health professional". I conclude that CHW is a colonizing discourse and that public health professionals and feminists need to practice reflexivity.

Caregivers↗
PubMed1998

Gendered health policies and a women's movement: the Gypsy case.

Health concepts depend on socially constructed hygiene practices. Many accounts of "traditional" Gypsy hygiene make gender differentiation primary, implying that traditional health practices reinforce patriarchy and emphasizing the special needs of Gypsy women. This paper argues, however, that the position of women is contested in Romani society. Although prioritizing the more apparent health needs of women and small children appeals to health professionals, this cannot by itself create an effective critique of the health system's response to Gypsy needs. The emergence of a Gypsy women's movement has led to a new critique, and challenge to the victim image of women.

Europe↗
PubMed1999

Staying alive: evolution, culture, and women's intrasexual aggression.

Females' tendency to place a high value on protecting their own lives enhanced their reproductive success in the environment of evolutionary adaptation because infant survival depended more upon maternal than on paternal care and defence. The evolved mechanism by which the costs of aggression (and other forms of risk taking) are weighted more heavily for females may be a lower threshold for fear in situations which pose a direct threat of bodily injury. Females' concern with personal survival also has implications for sex differences in dominance hierarchies because the risks associated with hierarchy formation in nonbonded exogamous females are not offset by increased reproductive success. Hence among females, disputes do not carry implications for status with them as they do among males, but are chiefly connected with the acquisition and defence of scarce resources. Consequently, female competition is more likely to take the form of indirect aggression or low-level direct combat than among males. Under patriarchy, men have held the power to propagate images and attributions which are favourable to the continuance of their control. Women's aggression has been viewed as a gender-incongruent aberration or dismissed as evidence of irrationality. These cultural interpretations have "enhanced" evolutionarily based sex differences by a process of imposition which stigmatises the expression of aggression by females and causes women to offer exculpatory (rather than justificatory) accounts of their own aggression.

Aggression↗
PubMed1998

Research notes on social order and subjectivity: individuals' experience of susto and fallen fontanelle in a rural community in central Mexico.

Disciplines such as sociology and anthropology have showed that the experience of illness, is above all, a social product, that is, that social factors of different kinds play a central role in shaping individuals' subjectivity. This paper refers to the case of Ocuituco, a rural town of central Mexico. The article presents some of the results achieved through an interpretive sociological study of individuals' subjective experience of traditional illnesses such as susto, soul-loss, and fallen fontanelle. The aim is to analyze how Ocuituco's inhabitants attach meaning to, interpret, and experience these illnesses. The main point being made is that the subjective experience of traditional illnesses is shaped both by the cultural background of individuals, and by the sociological features of the setting where these individuals live. Data are interpreted in connection both to structural factors (poverty, medicalization, and patriarchy), and to the main traits that characterize individuals' view of their world: a sense of uncertainty, a sense of the unexpected as being normal, a sense of being oppressed, a familiarity with a patriarchal order. It is shown that both susto and fallen fontanelle are belief systems which allow individuals to interpret their circumstances and attach meaning to their problematic everyday life.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

Clinically abusive relationships in an unselected birth cohort: men's and women's participation and developmental antecedents.

In an unselected birth cohort (N=980, age 24-26 years), individuals in abusive relationships causing injury and/or official intervention (9% prevalence) were compared with participants reporting physical abuse without clinical consequences and with control participants who reported no abuse, on current characteristics and prospective developmental risks. In nonclinically abusive relationships, perpetrators were primarily women. In clinically abusive relationships, men and women used physical abuse, although more women needed medical treatment for injury. Women in clinically abusive relationships had childhood family adversity, adolescent conduct problems, and aggressive personality; men had disinhibitory psychopathology since childhood and extensive personality deviance. These findings counter the hibitory assumption that if clinical abuse was ascertained in epidemiological samples, it would be primarily man-to-woman, explained by patriarchy rather than psychopathology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

A cross-cultural analysis of the demand-withdraw marital interaction: observing couples from a developing country.

The authors used cross-cultural methodology to examine the demand-withdraw pattern of marital communication. In Western countries, women usually make more demands, whereas men are more likely to withdraw. But the recently advanced marital structure hypothesis suggests that this pattern can be altered by gender roles and beliefs, particularly in traditional marriages. To test such hypotheses, the authors conducted an observational study of marital communication across very different cultures, with varying levels of patriarchy (i.e., 50 White American couples, 52 Pakistani couples in Pakistan, and 48 immigrant Pakistani couples in America). Across cultures, demand-withdraw communication was related to marital distress, extending previous findings to new groups. However, the findings challenge the notion that demanding and withdrawing behaviors are inherently male or female; rather, the results point to the relevance of contextual factors, specifically gender power differences and acculturation, in understanding the demand-withdraw marital interaction pattern. Therapists working with foreign or immigrant couples must consider the cross-cultural generalizability of existing theories of marital communication.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: implications for the origins of sex differences.

This article evaluates theories of the origins of sex differences in human behavior. It reviews the cross-cultural evidence on the behavior of women and men in nonindustrial societies, especially the activities that contribute to the sex-typed division of labor and patriarchy. To explain the cross-cultural findings, the authors consider social constructionism, evolutionary psychology, and their own biosocial theory. Supporting the biosocial analysis, sex differences derive from the interaction between the physical specialization of the sexes, especially female reproductive capacity, and the economic and social structural aspects of societies. This biosocial approach treats the psychological attributes of women and men as emergent given the evolved characteristics of the sexes, their developmental experiences, and their situated activity in society.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMed1986

[Union of the male and female--in partnership. Illustrated by interpretations and demonstrations from Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism].

Following the originally dominant matriarchate, patriarchy took over and still reigns in present-day society, although we are now in the midst of a period of transition towards a man/woman relationship on partnership basis. This principle of "two units combining to form one", this unification of two opposing and complementary principles has been depicted in a model manner in the iconography of Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism. The attributes of these religions are described with the help of characteristic pictures and sculptures.

Buddhism↗
PubMed1999

Empowering strategies: the physician's point of view.

This paper proposes that the healing suggestions we create when utilizing psychotherapy with hypnosis reflect the current dominant cultural belief systems. Since Western medicine is founded on and continues to rely on the model of patriarchy, then it is not surprising that common hypnotic metaphors reflect this mindset, best represented by the military metaphor. Because this very cultural view has been so damaging to women's health, continuing to utilize this same language only serves to perpetuate victimization and thus poor health. An entire shift in thinking about the way our culture views health and disease is already in progress and is explored as a source of new healing metaphors. This new healing paradigm may be especially beneficial for women's health as it emphasizes tapping into ones internal resources thus promoting self-worth and self-empowerment rather than giving up one's power in the name of modern western medicine.

Female↗
PubMed2002

Explaining gender segregation.

Occupational gender segregation--the tendency for women and men to work in different occupations--is an important feature of all societies, and particularly the wealthy industrialized ones. To understand this segregation, and to explain its significance, we need to distinguish between vertical segregation entailing inequality and horizontal segregation representing difference without inequality, with overall segregation being the resultant of these components. Three major theoretical approaches to understanding occupational gender segregation are examined: human capital/rational choice, patriarchy, and preference theories. All are found to be inadequate; they tend to confuse overall segregation with its vertical component, and each entails a number of other faults. It is generally assumed or implied that greater empowerment of women would reduce gender segregation. This is the reverse of what actually happens; in countries where the degree of women's empowerment is greater, the level of gender segregation is also greater. An alternative theoretical approach based on processes of social reproduction is shown to be more useful.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Fertility and son preference in Korea.

In Korea, total fertility declined from 6.0 in 1960 to 1.6 in 1990, in spite of a strong preference for male offspring. This paper addresses the notion that son preference hinders fertility decline, and examines the effects of patriarchal relations and modernization on fertility using the 1991 Korea National Fertility and Family Health Survey. It was found that women who have a son are less likely to have another child, and that women with a son who do progress to have another child, take longer to conceive the subsequent child. This pattern prevailed for women of parity one, two, and three, and became more pronounced with higher parity. A multivariate analysis showed that preference for male offspring, patriarchy, and modernization are all strong predictors of second, third, and fourth conceptions.

Family↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Antisocial personality disorder: diagnostic, ethical and treatment issues.

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is a complex disorder that creates a diagnostic, ethical, and treatment dilemma for mental health professionals. Psychosocial, biological, and cultural influences play a role in the development of ASPD. People with ASPD often had harsh early childhoods that impaired their ability to trust in adulthood. Research supports intriguing biological links, but it remains unclear if biological differences are the cause or the effect of ASPD. Individualism, patriarchy, and widespread media violence create the cultural context for the development of ASPD. ASPD is difficult to clinically diagnose and treat, and there is controversy concerning whether ASPD is a psychiatric or a legal-ethical problem. However, the management of ASPD often falls to mental health services. This article addresses treatment and primary prevention of ASPD in a way that is relevant to mental health practice.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Medicine, gender, and disability: disabled women's health care encounters.

In this article I examine the intersection of gender and disability in the medical arena by considering disabled women's experiences of receiving health care in the United Kingdom. Drawing on the "social model of disability," I focus on the attitudes and practices of doctors. I use two sources of qualitative data: (i) 68 disabled women's narratives gathered in the United Kingdom in 1996-1997; (ii) interviews with 17 disabled women regarding their reproductive experiences in the United Kingdom. I suggest that disabled women health service users are at risk of experiencing oppressive medical practices because two forces of oppression appear to be frequently, and interactively, in play: patriarchy and disablism.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2005

Black skin, 'cowboy' masculinity: a genealogy of homophobia in the African nationalist movement in Zimbabwe to 1983.

This paper examines the intellectual and social origins of racialist homophobia in contemporary Zimbabwean political discourse, exemplified by President Robert Mugabe's anti-homosexual speeches since the mid-1990s. It challenges the notions that such homophobia is either essential to African patriarchy or simple political opportunism. Tracing overt expressions of intolerance towards male-male sexuality back to the colonial period, it focuses on ways in which notions of appropriate, respectable, exclusive heterosexuality within the 'cowboy' culture of White Southern Rhodesia trickled into, or were interpreted in, the African nationalist movement. It concludes that understanding this history could improve efforts to address concerns around sexual health in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the region, particularly silences around same-sex sexuality in HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

Female↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Homophobia, hypermasculinity and the US black church.

Black churches in the USA constitute a significant source of the homophobia that pervades black communities. This theologically-driven homophobia is reinforced by the anti-homosexual rhetoric of black nationalism. Drawing on a variety of sources, this paper discusses the sources of homophobia within black communities, and its impact upon self-esteem, social relationships and physical health. Religion-based homophobia and black nationalism point to wider structures which have influenced their emergence, including racism, patriarchy and capitalism. It is vital for US black churches and communities to understand and transcend their longstanding resistance to openly addressing complex, painful issues of sexuality and embrace healthier definitions of black manhood.

Black or African American↗
PubMed2005

Policing the social boundaries of the American Medical Association, 1847-70.

In May 1870 the American Medical Association (AMA) voted to deny the admission of black delegates and their white colleagues to the national meeting in Washington, D.C. Historians of race and medicine have customarily viewed this decision as marking a crucial milestone in the formation of the nexus between racism and the development of the American medical profession in the era after the Civil War (1861-64). This study recasts this narrative by locating the 1870 decision in relation to the antebellum practices of the association and their social consequences for American medicine. It argues that the viability of the AMA as the national voice of the profession was critically dependent on rejecting racial equality. Indeed, at a moment when the question of the abolition of slavery polarized the nation, the AMA was founded in 1847 to create a voluntary professional organization, national in scope, dedicated to raising the standards of medical training and practice. To this end, the AMA elected presidents and selected host cities for annual meetings in the North, South, and West. Seven out of the fourteen meetings and six out of fourteen presidents were from slave and/or border states. These institutional practices together with the representation of blacks as different and enjoying an appropriate status as slaves grounded the national identity of the profession in black subordination. Similarly, the gendered discourses about healing and practices of female exclusion privileged medical authority as male by drawing on and reinforcing patriarchy. In the wake of the war, leaders hoped to restore the national character of the organization by resuming antebellum practices. In response to the new possibilities for blacks in medicine--as represented by the biracial National Medical Society--the AMA took steps to vigorously police the racial boundaries of the national profession. As this study will show, the 1870 decision reflected the logic of the racial politics at the heart of the association's antebellum past and would loom large in its future.

American Civil War↗
PubMed1990

Feminism and nursing: historical perspectives.

Feminists have often criticized nursing for lack of commitment to women's movements. This article addresses the contradictions and conflicts in the relationship of feminism and nursing from a historical perspective. Different feminist epistemologies, those of enlightened liberal, cultural, and radical feminism, are examined historically and their relevance to nursing is discussed. A reflexive theory, proposed by Harding, is used to conceptualize the differing responses, feminist and nonfeminist, of women and nurses, as alternative reactions to the many types of patriarchy they have encountered.

Authoritarianism↗