British Women Research Articles

Nurturing Professionals: De Facto Maternal Roles in British New Woman Novels, 1880–1900

Abstract This article situates the modern ideals of female motherhood and professionalism in the fin de siècle creation of the professional New Woman in Britain, and posits that future feminist discourses would find value in identifying similar strands of commonality with underrated historical feminist movements. Presenting snapshots of nineteenth-century British novelistic plots, this article shows how altered settings and character types in early, mid, and late Victorian novels do not diminish the Western investment in marriage and procreation as the future of culture, civilization, and hegemony. The article then analyzes how late Victorian narratives reconceptualize maternity as civic duty. Consequently, the physicality of biological motherhood and the complex Victorian epistemologies about sex and sexuality are relegated to animality with distinctly classist and racist connotations. Unwanted birth, along with its discomfiting relationship with infanticide in Victorian society, is subtly pushed into the sexualized realm of the lower classes or foreign, other races. Finally, this article explores the figure of the maternal professional woman, de facto non-biological mothers to childlike figures in the interest of civic duty that emerged, fairly clearly, from the discursive construction of the proto-professional New Woman in the fin de siècle. In this way, this article argues that the ideal of the New Woman gave rise to the modern notion of female professionalism that is nurturing and maternal, and involved the rearing of both biological and non-biological children.

Using the Candidacy Framework to understand individual, interpersonal, and system level factors driving inequities in women with breast cancer: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundPersistent inequities in breast cancer outcomes exist. Understanding women’s experiences along the care pathway is the first step to finding solutions to tackle these inequities.MethodsSecondary data analysis of the 2017/2018 English National Cancer Patient Experience Survey (n = 25,408) using logistic regression to explore inequities in care experience by sociodemographic factors (age, ethnicity, socioeconomic position, sexual orientation) across 59 survey questions. We used the Candidacy Framework to interpret and organise our findings.ResultsCompared to older (65–74) and White British women, young (35-44, OR = 0.55 [0.44, 0.69]), Asian (OR = 0.52 [0.41, 0.67]), Black (OR = 0.67 [0.46, 0.97]) and White Other (OR = 0.63 [0.49, 0.81]) women were more likely to rate their overall care experience less positively, respectively. Similar findings were observed along all domains of the cancer pathway. Through a candidacy lens, we identified multilevel factors related to this variation including prolonged help-seeking behaviours (individual), poor patient-provider communication (interpersonal), and variation in access to healthcare professionals and resources (system level).ConclusionMultilevel factors influence inequities in the experience of care along the breast cancer pathway for young women and women from minoritised groups. Interventions are necessary to ensure cancer care systems are responsive to women’s health needs and provide equity of care to all patients.

Personification in Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant"

The research has displayed the role of the literary figure of speech, personification used in the story of Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant". It has linked the four types of the personifications and how the British women have been applied as the personifications to extend the colonial government as the civilized and the superior race in the globe. As the British women have been found to be powerful to the British colonial government, so is the strength of the use personifications in the work of art and in the literary creativity. The personified objects and the seasons in the story have elevated its classic form to the fairy-tale as the story of the children and it has lured the attention of the readers. Reading such personified tales enhances the creativity of the children and of any readers but it is to be identified as the language of personifications by the readers while reading it. The beauty and the strength of the fairy-tale would be lost in absence of the personified objects and the seasons in the story "The Selfish Giant". Overall, personification in “The Selfish Giant” makes the story’s moral lessons more accessible and memorable for children by giving human traits to non-human elements and depicting their interactions in a way that resonates with the readers' own experiences and emotions. While younger children might understand personification more through the narrative and illustrations, older children might analyze it more critically and recognize it as a literary device used to enhance the story’s themes and moral lessons. It has been found that the teachers have to apply some of the techniques in the context for the students in making them comprehending the use of the personification in the story and by displaying the effectiveness of the use of the figure of speech in creating the curiosity for the learners.

Twenty year analysis of professional men’s rugby union knee injuries from the English premiership shows high rates and burden

ObjectivesTo determine the rates, severity and burden of knee injuries in professional male rugby union from the English Premiership.MethodsInjury and exposure data were captured over 20 seasons using a prospective...

Copyist or Creative? The Emergence of the Woman Fashion Artist in Britain, 1880–1920

Abstract The period between 1880 and 1914 was a critical time for the redefinition of high fashion as a form of art, with couture garments displayed at international exhibitions and couturiers like Paul Poiret claiming the legal protection applied to artworks for his fashion designs. At the same time, a massive expansion in illustrated journals and catalogs selling mass-produced garments offered new possibilities for graphic artists, including women trained in the applied arts by public and private colleges. These trends intersected in the figure of the female “fashion artist,” who conceived new designs or presented them to the public—but did not stitch them. In some cases, this person was a designer working for a dressmaking firm or sample house, while others were copyists of existing garments. This article will analyze surviving documents produced by British women fashion artists; examine the life cycle of fashion artists, as revealed in census data; analyze the pathways for training and career development; and consider the ways in which fashion artists were discussed in women’s magazines, both as role models for employment and as fashion mediators.

Bidirectional association between frailty and quality of life within English longitudinal study of aging.

The relationship between quality of life (QoL) and frailty has previously been investigated cross-sectionally and longitudinally as unidirectional where QoL depends upon frailty and where frailty depends on QoL. Here a bidirectional relationship is examined. This work uses a latent curve model with structured residuals to address the bidirectional association between QoL and frailty in older English people considering within-person and group levels. The study measures frailty using a functional frailty measure and quality of life using CASP-12. The sample size is 17,529. There is a strong relationship between QoL (Quality of Life) and frailty, which is almost linear and inversely proportional over time. Although the cross-lagged coefficients from QoL to frailty and vice versa showed statistical significance, the impact was found to be minimal. The time between assessments (which are two years apart) and/or the few observations available per individual may have impacted the effect of this relationship. When accounting for gender, age, net wealth, and multimorbidity, some variations in the results were observed at the group level but not at the within-person level. The study provides empirical evidence that supports a bidirectional association between QoL and frailty in older individuals who reside at home. These results offer valuable insights for healthcare providers, as participants did not exhibit an advanced need for health services. Additionally, involving participants in evaluating and assessing these services enhances their effectiveness and overall benefit.

Efficacy of a culturally adapted, cognitive behavioural therapy-based intervention for postnatal depression in British south Asian women (ROSHNI-2): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial

Postnatal depression necessitates timely and effective interventions to mitigate adverse maternal and child outcomes in the short term and over the life course. British south Asian women with depression are often underserved and undertreated due to stigma, language barriers, and cultural barriers. This trial aimed to test the clinical efficacy of a culturally adapted, group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)-based intervention, the Positive Health Programme (PHP), delivered by non-specialist health workers for postnatal depression in British south Asian women. This study was a randomised controlled trial, with culturally adapted recruitment and an internal pilot, comparing the PHP (intervention group) with treatment as usual (control group) in British south Asian women with postnatal depression. The study was conducted at five centres across the UK. Participants were aged 16 years or older, met the DSM-5 criteria for depression, and had infants aged 0-12 months. Randomisation (1:1) was stratified by centre, with a block size of 18, and was done through an independent remote telephone service. The PHP was delivered over 12 group sessions in 4 months. The primary outcome was recovery from depression (defined as a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale [HDRS] score ≤7) at 4 months after randomisation, and an assessment was also done at 12 months. Analysis was on an intention-to-treat basis including only participants with non-missing outcome data; we used a random-effects logistic regression model including fixed covariates for study site, baseline depression severity (HDRS score), parity, and years in education and a random coefficient for therapy group. This trial is registered with the ISRCTN (ISRCTN10697380). Of the 9136 individuals approached for recruitment between Feb 8, 2017, and March 29, 2020, 4296 women were eligible for and consented to screening, among whom 732 screened positive and were randomly allocated: 368 (50%) to the PHP group and 364 (50%) to the control group. Participants were mostly of Pakistani (397 [55%] of 719 with available data), Indian (176 [24%]), or Bangladeshi ethnicity (127 [18%]), with an overall mean age of 31·4 years (SD 5·2), with their youngest infants having a mean age of 23·6 weeks (14·2). At 4 months from randomisation, the proportion of participants who showed recovery from depression on the HDRS was significantly higher in the PHP group (138 [49%] of 281) than in the control group (105 [37%] of 281; adjusted odds ratio 1·97 [95% CI 1·26-3·10]). At the 12-month follow-up, this difference was no longer significant (1·02 [95% CI 0·62-1·66]). In British south Asian women with postnatal depression, a culturally adapted group CBT-based intervention could aid in quicker recovery from depression compared with treatment as usual. Further research is needed to identify how to sustain the treatment effect and establish strategies for scale-up. UK National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Domesticity to Autonomy: Women, Pre-Drinking, and the Liminoid Experience

ABSTRACT Drinking before going out, also referred to as ‘pre-drinking’ or ‘pre-loading’, has received little academic attention in adult female populations. This comparative research analyses women’s pre-drinking routines by drawing on ethnographic data from a broader study of women’s wine drinking practices in Australia and England. Informed by Catherine Bell’s ‘ritualised activities’, and the work of Victor Turner on ‘liminoid’ experiences and ‘communitas’, it finds that pre-drinking is a dynamic, ritualised, liminoid experience, with distinct contextual variations. In both groups, pre-drinking acts as a ritual and liminoid event which signifies the cue from ‘domestic’ home roles to ‘free’ social times. However, it finds that for the English women, pre-drinking is typically performed as a solo routine involving construction of idealised gender roles through which self-presentation is performed. In doing so, it supports previous research that posits that women drink wine to feel decadent and sophisticated, as part of a gendered embodiment of femininity. In the case of the Australian women, pre-drinking typically manifests as a feeling of ‘sisterhood’ among friends in an expression of communitas.

BINARY OPPOSITION «RICH-POOR» IN KAZAKH AND ENGLISH LINGUACULTURES

In this study, binary oppositions are referred to be mechanisms for producing cultural notions that are indicated by lexical antonyms and represent both the Kazakh and English population's worldview and the language's conception of the universe. On the basis of an analysis of the materials and important cultural concepts from both countries, a sampling of binary oppositions was created. The findings of the comparative study allowed for the definition of key components of Kazakh and English ethnic cultures,which serve as basic components in the self-identification of both countries and aid in the reconstruction of their worldview. The purpose of this work is to identify the features of the national expression of the concepts of wealth and poverty in the Kazakh and English languages. To achieve the goal, the following tasks were set: 1.study of the concept of "proverbs" in the system of Linguistics, their role in creating a linguistic picture of the world. 2.selection, analysis and comparison of Kazakh and English proverbs and sayings. 3.identification of general and various features of the concepts of wealth and poverty in national characteristics, identification of the main features in the values and ideals of the Kazakh and English peoples in relationto these concepts.Research methods depend on the goals and objectives of the work. The work required the use of methods of sampling, comparison and descriptive analysis. The theoretical significance of the work is to identify the features of the national expression of the concepts of wealth and poverty in the Kazakh and English languages within the framework of the theory of cognitive linguistics. The practical significance of the work is that the results of the study can be used in teaching English in courses such as lexicology, phraseology, comparative typology, cognitive linguistics.

Consuming place: Women, wine and imagination

AbstractThis paper examines wine drinking among English and Australian women to discover and analyse the connection between their consumption of wine and their experiences, thoughts and imaginings. Comparing the experiences of women from the English town of Halifax with women from the southern suburbs of Adelaide and McLaren Vale (South Australia), I show how imbibing wine enables both groups of women to consume place, space and time, thus extending a liminal experience. Importantly, both groups of women engage with notions of national or regional identity. However, whereas English women typically experience wine drinking as a temporal engagement of social imagination involving a form of armchair alco‐tourism, Australian women mostly engage their social memory, and experience wine drinking as embedded within imagined communities of belonging. As such, this study demonstrates that wine drinking is not just gendered, but a complex, culturally situated practice and experience.

Зарубежная историография о положении женщины в англосаксонском обществе VII–XI веков

The article focuses on foreign historiography devoted to the place and role of women in Anglo-Saxonsociety of the 7th – 11thcenturies. Based on a review of the main academic publications, three successive periods are identified: the end of the 19th – 1st half of the 20th cc. – the beginning of the study of early medieval English women as subjects of history; 1950–1980s – the beginning of systematic research in this area; the turn of the 1980–1990s to our days – a significant increase in the number of publications due to the wide use of gender methodology. While in the second period medievalists demonstrated the importance of women in Anglo-Saxon society, historians of subsequent generations sought to emphasize their suppression. It is shown that despite the extensive number of special works, in modern medieval studies there is no holistic understanding of the position of women in early medieval England.

Socioeconomic inequalities in frailty distribution: A cross-national comparison of the United States and England.

To examine differences in socioeconomic gradients (i.e., education, income, and wealth) in frailty by gender in the US and England. We used harmonized data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) in 2016. Frailty status was determined from measured and self-reported signs and symptoms in five domains: unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, low physical activity, slow walking speed, and weakness. Respondents were classified as robust (no signs or symptoms of frailty), pre-frail (signs or symptoms in 1-2 domains), or frail (signs or symptoms in 3 or more domains). Gender-stratified multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the relationship between educational attainment, household income, and household wealth with the risk of frailty and pre-frailty, with and without covariates. We also calculated the slope index of inequalities on the predicted probabilities of frailty by income and wealth quintiles. We found socioeconomic gradients in pre-frailty and frailty by education, income, and wealth. Furthermore, the educational gradient in frailty was significantly steeper for US women compared to English women, and the income gradient was steeper for US men and women compared to English men and women. The between-country differences were not accounted for by adjusting for race/ethnicity and behavioral factors. Socioeconomic gradients in pre-frailty and frailty differ by country setting and gender, suggesting contextual factors such as cultural norms, healthcare access and quality, and economic policy may contribute to the effect of different measures of socioeconomic status on pre-frailty and frailty risk.

Multi-level correlates of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis discontinuation among English and Spanish-speaking transgender women of color in New York City: the TURNNT cohort study

Background Transgender women of color in the US are disproportionately vulnerable to HIV risks. Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) has demonstrated effectiveness in preventing HIV transmission among transgender women of color. However, factors across multiple levels can hinder oral PrEP adherence. Methods We analyzed the baseline data from The Trying to Understand Neighborhoods and Networks Among Transgender Women of Color (TURNNT) Cohort Study of women not living with HIV. We analyzed questionnaire responses to identify why participants stopped using PrEP and if they would consider taking it again. To identify multi-level determinants that were associated with PrEP discontinuation, we conducted bivariate analysis and created multivariable modified Poisson models comparing factors between former users and current users. Results Among 140 transgender women of color included in this analysis, 44.3% were currently on PrEP, 25.0% were on formerly on the regimen, and 30.7% had never used it. Participants reported many reasons for discontinuing PrEP, notably, 22.9% reported being concerned about interactions with hormones. 60.0% reported that they were likely to take PrEP again in the future. Discontinuation was positively associated with history of sexual assault (Prevalence Ratio: 1.78; 95% CI: 1.01, 3.14) and negatively with having a primary care provider (PR: 0.43; 95% CI: 0.25, 0.73). Conclusion Many factors can influence PrEP discontinuation among transgender women of color. A majority of those who discontinued PrEP were interested in restarting it again, indicating a potential for reengagement. We recommend a holistic approach to HIV prevention to reduce PrEP discontinuation.

Frames of Glass: Goldfish and Gender in Paint, Performance, and Print, 1870–1914

Abstract: This article draws upon examples from fiction, popular journalism, travel writing, theatre, and fine art from 1870 to 1914 to trace the evolving representation of goldfish in relation to shifting attitudes toward women in British and American culture. Beautiful and domesticated, yet quiet, unobtrusive, and often confined to its own miniature domestic "sphere," the goldfish seemed initially to parallel the domestic wife and had been used to naturalize domestic ideology. In the 1870s and 1880s, however, the importation of fancy goldfish with different and exaggerated morphological traits unsettled what the Victorians had taken to be self-evident and natural about this species and, by extension, their own. I argue that, at a time when the gender debate was inflected by biologically deterministic arguments about women's "natural" societal roles, the figure of the goldfish became a remarkably flexible discursive tool to grapple with (or endorse) the changing economic and social trajectories of Anglo-American women. A hitherto unexamined alternative to the quintessential Victorian image of the "bird in the cage," this study of the goldfish and its bowl provides insight into how the Victorians' confrontation with other species encouraged them to look more critically at themselves.

British Women and their obtainment of Membership in the House of Commons (1918-1927)

The Qualification of Women Act, which granted women the right to membership in the House of Commons and to participate in its debates, is a positive step that complements a law previously approved by the British government in the same year, which is the law granting women the right to vote after years of hard work and tireless efforts, a positive step that has proven Through it, the feminist segment and its presence in a society dominated by male dependence.These laws came as an appreciation for the feminist effort, and in appreciation of the active roles that the country’s women exercised during the years of World War I.The law received positive reactions when it was discussed in Parliament, as it is an inevitable and natural result after granting them the right to vote Since women have always been eligible to vote, it is logical that they are eligible to sit in the House of Commons.

The influence of muscle strength and aerobic fitness on functional recovery in elite female soccer players.

We examined the influence of muscle strength and aerobic fitness on wellbeing and muscle function recovery in female soccer players. Sixteen players from the English Women's Super League (age: 26±4 yrs; height, 1.70±0.07 m; mass, 67.9±6.4 kg) completed an isometric mid-thigh pull test (IMTP) and maximal aerobic speed test (MAST). Using a median split, players were divided by strength into high (H-IMTP) and low (L-IMPT) groups and by fitness into high (H-MAST) and low (L-MAST) groups. Countermovement jump height (CMJ), Reactive Strength Index (RSI) and wellbeing were measured 2 days prematch, then 3 subsequent days post-match (M+1, M+2, M+3). In H-IMTP, CMJ, RSI and wellbeing were higher at M+1-M+3 (P<0.05). At M+3, CMJ in H-IMTP was 30.3±3.5 cm vs. 26.2±3.4 in L-IMTP. CMJ and wellbeing were unaffected by fitness, but RSI was lower at M+1-M+3 in the L-IMTP group (P<0.05). In conclusion, isometrically stronger but not aerobically fitter female soccer players recover quicker after matches.

A Project-Led Framework for Coach Development in English Men’s Professional Football: A Premier League Case Study

Coach education and development programmes are central to the professional development experiences of sport coaches. Typically, these programmes are structured and sequenced in a linear pathway, and present an opportunity for certification which can be a prerequisite to practice and/or employment. Increasingly, as learning becomes viewed as part of a coach’s lifeworld, versus simply as a means to an end, education and development provision is beginning to reflect this. This article introduces and explores the Coach Development Institute Programme, part of the Premier League’s Elite Coaching Plan, which seeks to improve the quality of football coaching in English boys’/men’s football by engaging coaches in a 2-year work-based learning opportunity. Built around a core of project-based learning and assessment, coaches are supported as they examine a series of meaningful performance problems in their unique practice environments. Through this work, we demonstrate how theories, concepts, and principles from the adult education and assessment as learning literature might work as they are applied in a coach education and development context. With such sparsity of case-based examples like this within the peer-reviewed literature, we intend that our contribution could inform, promote dialogue, and raise questions about authentically supporting coaches beyond a minimum standard of practice.

Exploring the impact of custodial parkrun in an English women’s prison: HMPPS psychologists and partners delivering a best practice evaluation

Exploring the impact of custodial parkrun in an English women’s prison: HMPPS psychologists and partners delivering a best practice evaluation

The relationship between Rose Anna Shedlock (c1850-1878) and Emile Roux (1853-1933).

The famous French scientist, Emile Roux, was previously discovered to have been secretly married to an English woman, Rose Anna Shedlock, one of the first women medical school students in Britain and Europe. Emile and Rose most likely met while in medical school in Paris, although for very different reasons, neither graduated. It was previously suggested that Rose left medical school after only a few years, although we present new evidence that that she was still a medical student four years later when she would have been near completion. Regardless, Rose moved back to England prior to taking her qualifying exams, where we found she lived at a girl's boarding school where one of her sisters was head mistress. In the following year, Emile travelled to London where he and Rose were married in a quiet civil ceremony. Soon after the wedding, Emile returned to Paris where he began working as an assistant to Louis Pasteur. In a tragic twist of fate, Rose died a year later in Madeira, which we have now noted was within days of when Emile performed his breakthrough experiments that led to the creation of vaccines in the laboratory.

Using hybrid qualitative analysis to explore lived experience of motherhood and postnatal depression: A thematic-dialogical approach

This paper illustrates a novel hybrid approach to analysis which offers unique insights into the experience of postnatal depression in British Pakistani-Muslim women, through the prioritising of voice. To do so, we combine thematic and dialogical analysis, using data from a study on motherhood and postnatal depression. Participants were part of the birth cohort ‘Born in Bradford's Better Start’. The rationale for developing a hybridised approach is discussed. The ensuing analyses highlight the role of internal voices and chronotope, which give a detailed insight into women's meaning making of psychological distress and motherhood during the postnatal period. We go onto discuss the strength and limitations of hybridising thematic-dialogical analysis in the context of health research.