Empowerment or exploitation? An analysis of young women’s experiences in compensated dating

The built environment and perceived HIV risk among young women living in the peri-urban slum of Kibra, Nairobi, Kenya.

This chapter outlines three different sociological considerations and research paradigms that are used to analyze the phenomenon of compensated dating (CD). The first sociological issue concerns the pro-sex feminist notion of prostitution and focuses on the sexual agency of girls in CD. The second sociological issue concerns the transformation of intimacy. It explores the social and cultural changes in modernity that have shaped and facilitated the practices of CD. It also reviews how CC–Brother relationships reflect and resist romantic relationships and gender patterns in modern times. The last sociological issue discusses the authenticity of emotions in commercial sex, which has important implications for the analysis of participants’ CD experiences and the nature of CC–Brother relationships. Combining all three sociological perspectives, a holistic theoretical framework is developed to understand the CD phenomenon and its participants in relation to the larger society.

This chapter explores men’s process of becoming compensated dating (CD) clients—Brothers, and how Brothers come to understand their roles in relation to CCs. It spells out the major stages that a Brother may go through during his CD journey with concrete examples. These stages include the first step of exploration, in which men become familiar with the CD etiquette; the second stage of actualization, in which men put the things that they have learned in the exploration stage into practice; and the final stage of protection, in which men extend their client role into a guardian role. Each of these stages provides a different type of psychological satisfaction and new life experiences for Brothers. The chapter shows how Brothers construct, redefine, and polish their self-identity and masculinity through these stages, which are part of the voyage of not only the CD journey but also their reflexive project of the self.

To describe and interpret the lived experiences of young women with advanced breast cancer. 12 women, aged 25-39 years with advanced breast cancer, were recruited from private Facebook groups for women with breast cancer. Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenologic method was used. Data were collected through one or more semi-structured interviews over a six-month period. Analysis was conducted using NVivo, version 11. The participants' multidimensional experiences were described by the overarching theme of wearing the mask of wellness in the presence of life-threatening illness. This study provides insight into the experiences of young women living with advanced breast cancer. Because these women may not appear ill to the general population, their needs and struggles are not well understood. The results of this study can be a baseline for additional research and clinical interventions.

For many young women, their relationships with fitness, health and the body are shaped by unrealistic beauty ideals. Body image scholars have long focused on the impacts of the media and more recently, social media, on the way young women experience body satisfaction. This research investigates the lived experiences of young women in Aotearoa New Zealand, in relation to the social media trend of the ‘glow up’ as it connects to body transformation, beauty practices and fitness culture. This article draws upon a thematic analysis of focus groups with 15 young women (18–25 years) living in Aotearoa New Zealand. Engaging with feminist writings on the ‘body project’, including those drawing upon postfeminism and affect theories, our analysis reveals how the ‘glow up imperative’ powerfully combines ‘body positivity’ discourses with transformational trends (i.e., ‘fitspo’ and ‘makeover’) in highly affective ways, prompting many young women to feel guilt or shame (‘ugly feelings’) when they are unable to achieve or maintain the time, financial and energetic investments required for, a successful ‘glow up’. In so doing, we reveal that while the ‘glow up’ trend is often presented as an empowering trend for young women, it is promoting another unrealistic standard that can prompt negative feelings and ffects. Evenfor those who are critical of the negative effects of the ‘glow up imperative’, they were unable to escape its reach, thus highlighting the power of such pervasive social media trends on young women. The first to document the affects of the ‘glow up imperative’ on young women, this paper highlights the need for feminist research that explores how young women's fitness practices and embodied experiences of health, beauty, and ‘successful’ femininity continue to be (re)shaped by social media trends, and connected to a range of consumption practices.

This chapter explores dance hall culture in Buenos Aires during the 1920s and 1930s, paying special attention to the cultural depictions and lived experiences of young women who patronised dance halls. In particular, it explores the rise of these places and their impact on young women's leisure time. In order to do this, the first section investigates the development of milongas, academias and cabarets, and analyses the diverse patrons that attended them, the social values these places endorsed and the dances that were in vogue in Buenos Aires during this period. The second section explores female representations and young women's involvement in dance hall culture. It examines two female types that condensed the moral panic generated by the dance hall, and explores 'actual' young women's visual styles and their encounters with men at the various dance venues. The chapter analyses the yellow press, general interest magazines and women's magazines in order to examine representations of gender and dance hall culture, and explores how young women experienced them through opinion pieces, advice columns and letters to the editor sections. The historiography on Argentine women in the 1920s and 1930s has explored women's significant involvement in the public sphere. It has focused, particularly, on the feminist movement and on female political engagement, education and labour market participation from a social history perspective. This article engages with this scholarship and argues that popular culture, and principally beauty, fashion, intimacy and courtship, were relevant practices in the lives of young women as well as crucial discourses in the shaping of their identities.

Purpose– Evaluation of the Teens & Toddlers (T & T) positive youth development (PYD) and teenage pregnancy prevention programme suggested that the intervention had minimal effectiveness partly due to its unclear theory of change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the lived experiences of young women participating in the programme to contribute to a clearer understanding of intervention process and potential mechanisms.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted four focus groups (n=20), eight paired or triad interviews (n=12) and 15 interviews with young women participating in an randomized controlled trial of the T & T programme in England, analysing these data using a phenomenological approach.Findings– T & T provided some opportunities to experience the “five Cs” that underpin PYD programme theory: competence, confidence, connection, character and caring. However, the young women did not experience the programme in a way that would consistently develop these characteristics. The lack of opportunities for skill-building and challenge in the activities constrained their ability to build competence and confidence. Some programme facilitators and counsellors were able to achieve connections and caring relationships with the young women, though other adults involved in the programme were sometimes perceived by the participants as overly critical. The character development activities undertaken in the programme addressed attitudes towards sexual risk-taking.Originality/value– Few studies of the PYD approach examine young people’s perspectives. This research suggests that the young women were not consistently provided with opportunities to achieve youth development within the T & T programmes. In refining the programme, more thought is needed regarding how delivery of particular components may facilitate or impede a PYD experience.

In this article, I examine the lived experiences of two young women from urban slums in India who participated in an after-school program focusing on issues of gender inequality within their homes, communities, and schools. Through unstructured and semi-structured interviews and observations, this paper argues that young women from marginalized spaces resist patriarchal structures of society through everyday acts of resistance. Using narrative inquiry, the data reveal that young women use different yet interconnected means to resist oppression in their daily lives. The article makes a case for expanding feminist resistance scholarship to be inclusive of young women at the periphery and their everyday resistance for finding a voice. Keywords: youth activism, narrative inquiry, lived experiences, pedagogical praxis, feminist resistance

We sought to identify the key dynamics in the relationship between social media and violence by identifying new mechanisms that elucidate how Internet banging becomes offline violence through the perceptions of the Black and Latino boys and men. We conducted 33 interviews with Black and Latino boys and men aged 14–24 who live in Chicago, have experience with gang violence, and are social media users. In our investigation of the use of social media by boys and young men to navigate neighborhood violence, we uncovered a recurring narrative about gender relationships in violence. Male participants often attributed escalations of violence to girls and young women, beginning with online communications that migrated to face-to-face meetings. They described girls and young women as the precipitators of violence through “set-up” meetings that began under the guise of romance, dating, and courtship. This study provides an in-depth examination of how males perceive girls and young women as unique threats to their personal safety, a narrative we must engage with in order to further current violence prevention efforts. Future research is needed to examine the lived experiences of young women, their experience with and exposure to social media-related gang violence, and their view of social media behaviors of men that may lead to violence.

ICT4D is slowly making inroads into various communities in developing contexts globally, and this slow pace is equally noticeable within the field of gender and development. This paper draws from an ongoing research project that uses a qualitative feminist framework to investigate young women’s participation in the call centre industry in Cape Town, South Africa. The paper further draws on intersectionality to tap into lived experiences of young women working in different call centres to critically explore the “value” for call centres as a project empowering young women economically in the South African context. Drawing from descriptive data collected from young women working as call centre agents, the paper argues that call centres may indeed be a huge ICT4D empowerment project for young women in the South African context, but also cautions that call centres continue to parade the hallmarks of ‘traditional female employment ghettos’.

BackgroundRecent data in England show rising levels of mental health difficulties among young women, as compared to young men. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of young women and girls (across different ethnic groups, who are neurodivergent, and/or who identify with the LGBTQIA + community) in the UK about their mental health and associated support.MethodNarrative interviews were conducted with 29 young women and girls aged 14 to 24 years. Using ideal-type analysis, a method for identifying broad patterns or ‘types’ within qualitative datasets, two typologies were developed to explore similarities and differences between participants’ stories and delineate overarching narratives across stories.ResultsThe first typology was titled: ‘What is my mental health story?’ Three overarching types or narratives within the dataset were identified in terms of participants’ mental health stories: ‘Traumatic and impactful experiences’; ‘Body-mind-society interaction’; and ‘Prolonged distress and disruption’. The second typology was titled: ‘How would I like to be supported in relation to my mental health?’ Three overarching types or narratives were also identified in relation to participants’ stories about how they would like to be supported with their mental health: ‘Empathy, understanding, and connection’; ‘Support from/for intersecting (overlapping) identities’; and ‘Heard, seen, and accepted’.ConclusionsHearing from young women and girls, in their own words, about their mental health stories is crucial to optimise prevention and treatment efforts. Our findings show that a positive therapeutic relationship, supportive social relationships, feeling heard and accepted, and consideration of the multiple overlapping facets of one’s identity are key mechanisms influencing the utility of support. Ultimately, mental health support should be individualised, consistent, and available.

Previous researchers have described the decline of fatherhood as one of the most simple, unanticipated, and extraordinary trends of our time affecting one out of three children in America (Blankenhorn, 1995; Popenoe, 1996; Vespa, Lewis, & Kreider, 2013). This decline in fatherhood is further established to contribute to societal issues including substance abuse, crime, sexual promiscuity, teenage pregnancy, and the increasing number of women and children living in poverty. Existing research on father abandonment is predominantly from the perspective of sons; little research is available on the daughter's perspective. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of young women who experienced father abandonment during adolescence after parental relationship breakdown. This study explored the perspectives of 14 women between the ages of 24 and 44 that experienced father abandonment during adolescence due to parental divorce or relationship breakdown. From analysis of the data captured through one-on-one interviews and observations, textural descriptions of the young womens' experiences revealed the essence of father abandonment. The key findings centered on relationship patterns, self-image, disappointment, resilience and acceptance of the experience father absence. These findings served as the foundation of practical recommendations as well as suggestions for future research. The research questions that guided this study were: 1. How do daughters abandoned by their biological father, after parental divorce or separation, describe the essence of their lived experiences in growing up without their father's presence? 2. How do these women describe the effect that father abandonment had on their lived experiences as an adult? 3. How do daughters describe the effect of father absence on their perceived self-efficacy?

Adolescents are sexual beings, and many are sexually active. They are very often able to develop the knowledge and skills required to protect their sexual health, and to take the action required for doing so. Unfortunately, many experience barriers to accessing information through school-based sexual health education. The research outlined here represents an effort to better understand the origins of barriers which prevent young women from receiving maximally effective sexual health education in their schools in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada. Building upon research which the authors carried out in the context of a community development project aimed at enhancing the sexual health of young people in Amherst, the article presents the lived experiences of young women in that community as they have attempted to acquire knowledge related to this very important aspect of their lives. The research examines barriers to learning about sexual health at the levels of the curriculum, teachers, and students themselves, leading to a better understanding of the potential for positive change in these domains.

176 Background: Little is known about daily life experiences of young mothers with advanced breast cancer. Limited research suggests they face unique challenges differing from those of women at other life stages and with earlier stages of breast cancer. The larger study aimed to describe and interpret the lived experiences of young women with advanced breast cancer to contribute to our understanding of the needs of this population. Their role as mothers emerged as a significant theme. The goal of the overall study was to inform the development of person-centered interventions. Methods: Van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenological method was employed in this longitudinal qualitative study. AYA women (25-39 years) with advanced breast cancer were purposively recruited via private Facebook groups specifically for women with breast cancer. Enrollment continued until thematic saturation was achieved. Data were collected through one or more semi-structured interviews over 6 months depending upon participant willingness, desire, or ability. Journals were provided to write additional thoughts. Data were drawn from interviews about daily life experiences. A major theme related to their identities as mothers emerged. Results: Twelve AYA women (mean age: 35.9) were included. All were married, had at least one child (10 months -14 years, median: 6.0 years), and most (n=7, 72.7%) worked full-time. Twelve participated in the first interview, 9 in a second interview, and 6 in a third interview. Three returned journals. The meaning of their experiences as mothers is captured by the theme: “ I’m Still Mom” and 7 subthemes: “ it’s so hard”, ” being a mom still”, “ what I can still do”, “there’s not enough time”, “being remembered”, “searching for resources”, and “ it’s not easy for my kids”. Conclusions: Being a mother is the first priority for these AYA women with advanced breast cancer, but they are hindered in their parenting activities by physical effects of their cancer and its treatment, uncertainty about their future, and worry for their children’s future. This study provides a base for further research on daily priorities for this population to inform future interventions to optimize quality of life consistent with their parenting priorities.

This critical phenomenological study investigates the lived experiences of young women returning to secondary school after pregnancy in Malawi. Through the lens of Ubuntu, an African philosophy on humanness, the article conducts an analysis of the driving and restraining forces affecting student mothers’ schooling experience. The data were gathered from young women who left secondary school due to pregnancy and later returned after delivery. The findings highlight important but complex forms of support and challenges embedded within familial and school systems related to student motherhood. This article argues for Ubuntucentric educational practices for student mothers that pursue continuation-oriented approaches and resist structural inequalities that ‘push the learners out’ of the school system.