Maternal Citizenship Research Articles

‘Dutch’ according to children and mothers: Nationality stereotypes and citizenship representation

AbstractThis research examines the endorsement of the nationality stereotype Dutch = White among children and associations with citizenship representations of their mothers (Study 1). Additionally, Study 2 explores how mothers include the concept of Dutch citizenship in the upbringing of their children. Study 1 shows that children (n = 197, 57% girls, 7–13 years old) from different ethnic‐racial backgrounds (White Dutch, Turkish‐Dutch, Black Dutch, Chinese‐Dutch) all endorsed the nationality stereotype and did so to a similar extent. Most mothers rated civic citizenship as more important than ethnic citizenship, but maternal citizenship representations were unrelated to child nationality stereotype. Study 2 shows that mothers often do not actively and consciously include the topic of Dutch citizenship in their upbringing, but might confirm the nationality stereotype in more implicit ways. Future studies are needed to examine how to work towards a more inclusive view of nationality among children in the Dutch context.

Unforgetting: national memory and women’s personal narratives about abortion in Australian public spaces since 1970

‘Silence’ is commonly invoked to characterise the place of women’s personal narratives of abortion in public spaces. Yet women have been publicly speaking their abortion stories at least since the beginning of the Women’s Liberation Movement. This article argues that ‘forgetting’ is the better term to describe the public place of women’s stories of abortion. After recovering a 50-year history of public story-telling, it argues that the imperatives of whiteness and white maternal citizenship in Australia underpin institutionalised forgetting of stories of abortion. It concludes that the claim of silence only reproduces the forgetting, and the innocence of white national memory.

Discretionary maternal citizenship: state hegemony and resistance of single marriage migrant mothers from mainland China to Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the scholarship on marriage migration and citizenship by drawing attention to an under-studied group of single marriage migrant mothers who are widowed, divorced, or separated from their citizen-husbands. It examines the ways in which nation-states regulate the dissolution of cross-border marriages and allocation of citizenship rights to single marriage migrant mothers. Drawing on the experiences of 25 mainland Chinese single marriage migrant mothers, this article unravels the dynamic process of citizenship negotiation between top-down state hegemony and single marriage migrant mothers’ bottom-up resistance to the exclusionary immigration system in Hong Kong by claiming maternal citizenship through state discretion. As the article illuminates how discretion has been used as a strategic mechanism by both the state and single marriage migrant mothers to negotiate the boundaries and substance of citizenship, it offers insights into how the family becomes a critical site where citizenship is experienced, negotiated, and contested.

Association of Maternal Citizenship and State-Level Immigrant Policies With Health Insurance Coverage Among US-Born Latino Youths

The association of state-level immigrant policies with uninsurance among Latino youths remains unknown. To assess the association of state-level immigrant integration and criminalization policies with health insurance coverage among US-born Latino youths by maternal citizenship. This cross-sectional study analyzed secondary data from the American Community Survey, January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2018, for US-born Latino youths (age, ≤17 years) and their mothers (age, 18-64 years) as well as state-level indicators of immigrant integration and criminalization policies (in all 50 states and the District of Columbia). Immigrant integration and criminalization policies. The main outcome was maternal reports of youth uninsurance status at the time of the American Community Survey interview. Variation in youth uninsurance by maternal citizenship, state immigrant integration policy context, and state immigrant criminalization policy context were examined. All analyses were conducted with weighted survey data. Of the 226 691 US-born Latino youths (115 431 [50.92%] male; mean [SD] age, 7.66 [4.92] years) included in the study, 36.64% (95% CI, 36.21%-36.92%) had noncitizen mothers. Overall, 7.09% (95% CI, 6.78%-7.41%) of noncitizen mothers reported that their youths were uninsured compared with 4.68% (95% CI, 4.49%-4.88%) of citizen mothers. Of uninsured youths who resided in states with a low level of immigrant integration policies, 9.10% (8.22%-10.06%) had noncitizen mothers and 4.75% (95% CI, 4.19%-5.37%) had citizen mothers; of uninsured youths who resided in states with high criminalization policies, 9.37% (95% CI, 8.90%-9.87%) had noncitizen mothers and 5.91% (95% CI, 5.64%-6.20%) had citizen mothers. In states with few immigrant integration policies, the probability of uninsurance among youths with noncitizen mothers was 3.3% (95% CI, 2.3%-4.4%) higher than that among youths with citizen mothers. Among youths with noncitizen mothers, the difference in the probability of uninsurance between those residing in states with a low level vs a high level of immigrant integration policies was 2.1% (95% CI, 0.6%-3.6%). Among youths residing in states with high levels of immigrant criminalization policies, those with noncitizen mothers had a 2.6% (95% CI, 1.9%-3.0%) higher probability of being uninsured compared with those whose mothers were citizens. Among youths with noncitizen mothers, the difference in the probability of uninsurance between those who resided in a state with a low level vs a state with a high level of immigrant criminalization policies was 1.7% (95% CI, 0.7%-2.7%). The findings of this cross-sectional study suggest that among US-born Latino youths, disparities in uninsurance by maternal citizenship are associated with state-level immigrant integration and criminalization policies and that anti-immigrant policies may be associated with disparities in health care access for US-born Latino youths.

Association of maternal characteristics with latino youth health insurance disparities in the United States: a generalized structural equation modeling approach

BackgroundDisparities in access to care persist for Latino youth born in the United States (US). The association of maternal characteristics, such as maternal citizenship status and insurance coverage, on youth health insurance coverage is unclear and is important to examine given the recent sociopolitical shifts occurring in the US.MethodsWe analyzed pooled cross-sectional data from the 2010–2018 National Health Interview Survey to examine the association of Latina maternal citizenship status on maternal insurance coverage status and youth uninsurance among US-born Latino youth. Our study sample consisted of 15,912 US-born Latino youth (ages < 18) with linked mothers. Our outcome measures were maternal insurance coverage type and youth uninsurance and primary predictor was maternal citizenship status. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between maternal characteristics (maternal citizenship, maternal insurance coverage status) and youth uninsurance.ResultsOverall, 7% of US-born Latino youth were uninsured. Just 6% of youth with US-born mothers were uninsured compared to almost 10% of those with noncitizen mothers. Over 18% of youth with uninsured mothers were uninsured compared to 2.2% among youth with mothers who had private insurance coverage. Compared to both US-born and naturalized citizen Latina mothers, noncitizen Latina mothers had 4.75 times the odds of reporting being uninsured. Once adjusted for predisposing, enabling, and need factors, maternal uninsurance was strongly associated with youth uninsurance and maternal citizenship was weakly associated with youth uninsurance among US-born Latino youth.ConclusionMaternal citizenship was associated with both maternal uninsurance and youth uninsurance among US-born Latino youth. Federal- and state-level health policymaking should apply a two-generational approach to ensure that mothers of children are offered affordable health insurance coverage, regardless of their citizenship status, thus reducing uninsurance among US-born Latino youth.

Health Care Access and Utilization for Latino Youth in the United States: The Roles of Maternal Citizenship and Distress.

We sought to determine the associations between maternal citizenship and health care access and utilization for US-born Latino youth and to determine whether maternal distress is a moderator of the associations. Using 2010-2017 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series National Health Interview Survey data, multivariable logistic regressions were run to examine the associations among maternal citizenship and health care access and utilization for US-born Latino youth. Maternal citizenship and distress interactions were tested. Noncitizen mothers had higher odds of reporting uninsurance, lack of transportation for delaying care, and lower odds of health care utilization for their youth than citizen mothers. Compared with no distress, moderate and severe distress were positively associated with uninsurance, delayed medical care due to cost, lack of transportation, and having had an emergency department visit for their youth. Moderate distress was positively associated with youth having had a doctor's office visit. Noncitizen mothers with moderate distress were less likely to report their youth having had an emergency department visit than citizen mothers with moderate distress. Among severely distressed mothers, noncitizen mothers were more likely to report youth uninsurance and delayed care due to lack of transportation compared with citizen mothers. Health care access and utilization among US-born Latino youth are influenced by maternal citizenship and distress. Maternal distress moderates the associations among maternal citizenship and youth's health care access and use. Almost one-third of all US-born youth in the United States are Latino and current federal and state noninclusive immigration policies and anti-Latino immigrant rhetoric may exacerbate health care disparities.

The Role of Maternal Citizenship on Pediatric Avoidable Hospitalization: A Birth Cohort Study in North-East Italy.

Avoidable hospitalization (AH) has been widely studied as a possible measure of primary health care performance. Since studies evaluating AH in migrant children, particularly in Europe, are lacking, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of maternal citizenship on the risk of AH in children. The cohort study included all live newborns recorded in the Medical Birth Register (MBR) of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region (Italy) in the years 1989-2012, followed from 30 d after their birth up to the 14th year of life. Cox regression models were used to estimate Hazard Ratios (HRs) for any AH and for specific conditions. Among the 213,635 children included in the cohort, authors identified 23,011 AHs in 16,744 children, most of which occurred between 1 and 4 y of age. Children born to mothers from High Migration Pressure Countries had a higher risk of AH for any condition (HR 1.35; 95% CI = 1.27-1.44) than children born to Italian mothers. The risks were higher concerning gastroenteritis (HR 1.74; 1.57-1.94), upper respiratory tract infections (HR 1.58; 1.35-1.84), asthma (HR 1.53; 1.12-2.06) and bacterial pneumonia (HR 1.18; 1.01-1.37). There were no differences in urinary tract infections, short term complications of diabetes and perforated appendix. Despite the inclusiveness and universality of the Italian healthcare system, children born to immigrant mothers experienced more need of avoidable hospital care than children born to Italian mothers. Access barriers to primary care are plausible causes for the observed disparities.

Vietnamese Brides’ Practices of Maternal Citizenship at the China-Vietnam Border

This paper shows how Vietnamese brides create new transnational subjectivities through practicing maternal citizenship at the China-Vietnam border. It focuses on discussing different strategies they have adopted in their daily lives: 1) blurring the boundaries between house-keeper and breadwinner; 2) developing dual belonging; 3) establishing transnational maternal alliances; and 4) neutralizing ethnicity/nationality differences. The authors argue that through forming a ‘‘creolized’’ culture, Vietnamese brides have engaged in a conscious attempt to master both Chinese and Vietnamese elements in their making of a new transnational identity. The China-Vietnam border not only provides a favorable context for the development of personal relationships, but these relationships are also an attractive strategy for gaining a social foothold in the more and more globalized world, whether they are in a cosmopolitan center or cosmopolitan periphery.

‘Everyone needs a holiday from work, why not mothers?’ Motherhood, Feminism and Citizenship at the Australian Royal Commission on Human Relationships, 1974–1977

The Royal Commission on Human Relationships was an initiative of the Whitlam government, instigated in 1974 to investigate ‘the family, social, educational, legal and sexual aspects of male and female relationships’, with particular attention to the concept of ‘responsible parenthood’. The Commission heard evidence from thousands of Australians on a broad range of topics, and given the Royal Commission's origins in the 1973 Federal Parliamentary debate over abortion, it is perhaps unsurprising that motherhood featured so prominently in submissions presented to the Commission. In this article it is argued that mothers’ submissions to the Royal Commission on Human Relationships reveal the ways that social and cultural meanings of motherhood were being contested in 1970s Australia. Rather than making claims for rights in the established language of maternal citizenship, many women deployed their private experiences of mothering to argue that the state should facilitate their access to both paid employment and time away from mothering. These mothers argued for equal citizenship rights, challenging the reproductive compact that had long been central to maternal citizenship. The submissions reveal the ways that mothers (and their critics) drew upon both new and old meanings of motherhood to articulate new cultural and political possibilities for motherhood and citizenship in 1970s Australia.

‘Too Many’

The statement that Australia has ‘too many abortions’ often circulates with intensity in times of increased worry over the vulnerability of white demographic and sociocultural dominance in Australia. Contrasting two such periods—the 1970s (with 1979 as the apex point) and the mid-2000s (2002–2008)—this article will show that, in times of national crisis, debates over abortion can become a site where politicians, journalists and other influential social commentators displace and assuage anxieties regarding the size and constitution of Australia's future population. The statement that Australia has ‘too many abortions’ carries the imperative for white women to reproduce the nation. This demand is made perceptible through a history of maternal citizenship for white women, which reverberates in the present, and the articulation of the desire to eradicate abortion (amongst white women) alongside other key biopolitical technologies—the disavowal of Indigenous sovereignty and the exclusion of non-white immigrants from the nation. The figure of the aborting woman thus stands alongside other bodies perceived as threats to white sociocultural hegemony in Australia and one of its key institutions—the white, hetero-family. In the 1970s, such figures included the communist, the divorcee and the (non-white) immigrant, and in the 2000s, the lesbian mother, the single mother and the boatperson. The association of aborting women with other threats to the security of white sociocultural hegemony in Australia produces her as an object of fear for the nation, re-affirming the goal of white reproduction as a national duty and social good.

China Adoption

China Adoption By Jenna Cook Introduction In compiling this short bibliography of core sources related to China Adoption, I took particular care to include the perspectives and voices of all triad members: birth parents, adoptees, and adoptive parents. I have chosen to exclude works on adoption in late imperial China and to focus, instead, on adoption after the implementation of the One Child Policy in 1979. Many of the works I have included make efforts to examine the complex sociopolitical and cultural structures underlying this policy and its resulting effect on infant abandonment and adoption. Although a few sources touch upon domestic Chinese adoption, the majority of sources focus on international (i.e. transnational or intercountry) adoption from China. The selections here are methodologically diverse, encompassing personal narratives, literary analysis, psychological studies, population demography, anthropological ethnography, sociological surveys, and documentary film, and include a broad range of topics such as orphanage care, child trafficking, birth parent search, and beyond. Throughout such variety, the role of gender, race, and class—images of female adoptees reared by upper-middle-class, white parents—consistently underlie each analysis. Adams,Gregory,RichardTessler,andGailGamache.“TheDevelopment of Ethnic Identity among Chinese Adoptees: Paradoxical Effects of School Diversity.” Adoption Quarterly 8.3 (2005): 25–46. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. Anagnost, Ann. “Family Violence and Magical Violence: The Woman as Victim in China’s One-Child Birth Policy.” Women and Language 9.2 (1988): 16–22. ProQuest. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. ---. “Scenes of Misrecognition: Maternal Citizenship in the Age of Transnational Adoption.” Positions 8.2 (2000): 389­ –421. Duke UP Journals Online. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. ---. “Maternal Labor in a Transnational Circuit.” Consuming Motherhood. Ed. Janelle S. Taylor, Linda L. Layne, and Danielle F. Wozniak. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2004. 139–67. Print. Cook, “China” 53 Andrew, Anita M. “China’s Abandoned Children and Transnational Adoption: Issues and Problems for U.S.-China Relations, Adoption Agencies, and Adoptive Parents.” Journal of Women’s History 19.1 (2007): 123–31, 249. GenderWatch. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. Bebiroglu, Neda, and Ellen E. Pinderhughes. “Mothers Raising Daughters: New Complexities in Cultural Socialization for Children Adopted from China.” Adoption Quarterly 15.2 (2012): 116–39. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. Chatham-Carpenter, April. “‘It Was Like This, I Think’: Constructing an Adoption Narrative for Chinese Adopted Children.” Adoption Quarterly 15.3 (2012): 157–84. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. China Connection: A Journal for New England Families Who Have Adopted Children From China. Published bi-/tri-annually from 1995 to 2008. 1995-2001, Ed. Julie Michaels. 2002–2008, Ed. Melissa Ludtke. Print. China’s Lost Girls. Dir. Allan Myers. Perf. Lisa Ling. National Geographic, 2004. DVD. Choy,CatherineCeniza.GlobalFamilies:AHistoryofAsianInternational Adoption in America. New York: New York UP, 2013. Print. Daughter’s Return. Dir. Changfu Chang. Love without Boundaries, 2011. DVD. Dorow, Sara. “‘China R Us?’: Care, Consumption, and Transnationally Adopted Children.” Symbolic Childhood. Ed. D. Cook. New York: Peter Lang, 2002. 149–68. Print. ---. “Racialized Choices: Chinese Adoption and the ‘White Noise’ of Blackness.” Critical Sociology 32.2-3 (2006): 357­–79. SAGE Journals. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. ---. Transnational Adoption: A Cultural Economy of Race, Gender, and Kinship. New York: New York UP, 2006. Print. Dorow, Sara, and Amy Swiffen. “Blood and Desire: The Secret of Heteronormativity in Adoption Narratives of Culture.” American Ethnologist 36.3 (2009): 563–73. Wiley Online Library. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. Dowling, Monica, and Gill Brown. “Globalization and International Adoption from China.” Child and Family Social Work 14.3 (2009): 352­–61. Wiley Online Library. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. Adoption & Culture Vol. 4 (2014) 54 Evans, Karin. The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and the Search for a Missing Past. New York: Putnam, 2000. Print. Found in China. Dir. Carolyn Stanek. Tai-Kai Productions, 2007. DVD. Gammage, Jeff. China Ghosts: My Daughter’s Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. Print. Greenhalgh, Susan. “Controlling Births and Bodies in Village China.” American Ethnologist 21.1 (1994): 3–30. JSTOR. Web. 10 Jul. 2013. ---. Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China. Berkeley: U of California P, 2008. Print...

The influence of ethnicity on breastfeeding rates in Ireland: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundHistorically, breastfeeding rates in Ireland have been low compared with international averages. It has been suggested that maternal ethnicity and citizenship may influence breastfeeding rates, with ethnic minorities thought more...

Feminism, the Family and the New 'Mediated' Maternalism

This essay interrogates the emergence of a new moment in the unfolding of contemporary neoliberal hegemony which sees the political potential in creating strong connections with liberal feminism, updating this while also retaining some of its most salient features dating back to the mid to late 1970s. At the same time this process, which can be traced through the very contemporary entanglements of political culture, visual media and new social media, finds concretisation through the figure of the middle-class mother who is slim and youthful in appearance. This persona, whether in full time work or a ‘stay home Mum’ is accredited a more substantial professional status than was the case in the era of the ‘housewife’. With feminism ‘taken into account’ she is considered an equal partner in marriage and thus charged with making the right choices and decisions for her family needs. In this neoliberal version of past notions of ‘maternal citizenship’ a number of socio-political processes can be seen at work, she is compared favourably for her well-planned and healthy life in comparison to her less advantaged, low income, single parent counterparts. Her lifestyle and childcare choices mark a strong departure, indeed an entirely different trajectory to previous generations of mothers, who across the boundaries of class and ethnicity, benefited from a feminist post-war welfare ethos which regarded nursery provision for pre-school children, toddlers and indeed babies as a social good. And finally her presence and visibility in a number of campaigning and online organisations suggests a stronger class divide than was the case in the past and with this the eclipsing of the egalitarian principles of social democracy. The essay reflects on the film Revolutionary Road (2009) and the recent book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg as conduits for this new ‘maternal- feminine’.

Citizenship Projects for Marriage Migrants in South Korea: Intersecting Motherhood with Ethnicity and Class

The growing scale of international marriage migration, especially intra-regional marriage migration in Asia, has transformed the ethnoscape in destination countries. Some states, such as South Korea, have taken relatively inclusive actions regarding women marriage migrants. By closely examining the legal structure and public policies and programs, this article examines the formation of both legal and substantive citizenship for Filipina marriage migrants in South Korea. The article demonstrates that the state projects emphasize marriage migrants’ role as biological and cultural reproducers of “Koreans,” thus constructing “ethnicized maternal citizenship.” This state project, the article argues, paradoxically promotes cultural assimilation while relegating marriage migrants as gendered dependents and ethnic others. The article examines the women’s diverse responses to the citizenship projects, including appropriation, ambivalence, and resistance, finding that an important factor driving the responses is the women’s socioeconomic status after migrating. The emphasis on family roles in the state-based migration programs also means that marriage migrants must negotiate the boundaries of citizenship practices not only institutionally but also within the families.

The Association Between Acculturation and Health Insurance Coverage for Immigrant Children from Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Regions of Origin

Among immigrant children whose parents have historically had lower education, the study explored which immigrant children were most likely to have coverage based on maternal region of origin. The direct and indirect relationship of acculturation on immigrant children's coverage was also assessed. A subsample of US-born children with foreign-born mothers from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten Cohort was analyzed using multinomial logistic regressions (n = 1,686). Children whose mothers emigrated from the Caribbean or Indochina had greater odds of being insured compared to children whose mothers emigrated from Mexico. Moreover, Latin American children did not statistically differ from Mexican children in being uninsured. Maternal citizenship was positively associated with children's coverage; while living in a household with a mother who migrated as a child was negatively associated with private insurance. To increase immigrant children's coverage, Latin American and Mexican families may benefit from additional financial assistance, rather than cultural assistance.

On "Humanitarian" Adoption (Madonna in Malawi)

In a luxury hotel in Acapulco, a group of women from the United States eat, swim, take in the tourist attractions, and wait for the processing of their international adoptions so that they can return home with their new babies. These women are the protagonists of John Sayles’s film Casa de los Babys (2003). As it follows one day in their lives, Sayles’s film gives voice to the stories of these women, who—despite their varied backgrounds and personalities—all believe that adoption will fulfill their frustrated aspirations for motherhood and thus allow them to ‘‘complete’’ themselves. It creates sympathy for these characters by exposing gender norms that conflate female identity with motherhood, and it makes visible what Ann Anagnost calls a regime of ‘‘maternal citizenship’’ linking parenthood, consumption, social value, and political agency.1 But the film also conveys the colonialist belief of many of the women that the babies will be ‘‘better off ’’ in the United States simply because they will possess more economic stability. In other words, Sayles reveals the problematic vision of the adoptive mothers that satisfying their desire for motherhood will unquestionably improve the lives of the children they adopt. Such a belief resonates with what David L. Eng identifies as the original ‘‘humanitarian’’ justifications given to the public for transnational adoption, when it began to be practiced in the United States on a large scale after World War II.2 As Laura Briggs documents, at this time photographic images of starving and abandoned children from overseas war zones began to saturate the news media. After the war, such images were used to build support for organizations like UNICEF and to underpin the burgeoning practice of transnational adoption.3 The Korean War in particular proved to be a watershed, since it inspired crusaders like the evangelical Harry Holt to publicize the adoption of Korean orphans as a mode of relief work. While Korea was the first and for some time the largest site for transnational adoptions, adoptions from other conflict zones in Asia such as Vietnam and Cambodia followed.4 More recently, transnational adoption has focused on China, where the adoption of baby girls has been scripted as a way to ‘‘rescue’’ these children from a supposedly sexist culture.5 New members of the ‘‘diaper diaspora’’ are also increasingly drawn from what are seen as the povertyand violence-stricken former Eastern Bloc countries, Latin America, and Africa.6 What Anagnost calls the ‘‘theme of salvage’’ so central to the worldview of Sayles’s adoptive mothers, however, is not the whole story revealed in the film.7 Sayles carefully splices together the perspectives of the American women with those of local people whose lives interconnect with the Yanquis. One discourse that the Mexicans introduce to the debate is that of commodity extraction. A would-be revolutionary whose

Defending “The Purity of Home Life” Against Socialism: The Founding Years of the Australian Women's National League

The paradigm of maternal citizenship has been variously understood by historians as enabling and restrictive of women's action in the public sphere. This paper considers the use to which the maternal paradigm was put by the founders of the Australian Women's National League, focussing in particular upon their campaign to link the Labor party with socialism and “free love”. It observes the ease with which the ideal of the maternal citizen — central to the liberal feminism of the day — could be turned to the conservative class interests of elite women.

Interrupting Maternal Citizenship: Birth Control in Mid-wave Women's Writing

(2002). Interrupting Maternal Citizenship: Birth Control in Mid-wave Women's Writing. Australian Feminist Studies: Vol. 17, No. 38, pp. 151-164.

Is early BCG vaccination associated with less atopic disease? An epidemiological study in German preschool children with different ethnic backgrounds.

We investigated the association of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination and atopic manifestations among children. Because many children in the study area were from minority ethnic groups, the effect of ethnicity on disease prevalence was also analyzed. A mandatory health survey included all preschool children from Berlin in 1994. Trained medical personnel asked parents whether their child had ever had a diagnosis of atopic dermatitis (AD), bronchial asthma (BA), and hay fever (HF) or symptoms suggestive of these conditions. BCG-vaccination status was recorded from official vaccination documents. Ethnicity of the child was defined by maternal citizenship. We included 38 808 children in our study (20 813 children from former west Berlin), on average aged 6 years. The proportion of children with a foreign family background was 2.1% in East Berlin and 27.5% in West Berlin. BCG vaccination was more common in East Berlin than in West Berlin (94.2% vs. 16.5%) and in West Berlin more common among children with a foreign family background compared with Germans (25.3% vs. 13.2%). The adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) for BA was 0.85 (0.71-1.00) for BCG-vaccinated individuals. BCG vaccination was not significantly associated with AD or HF. Among non-German children, the odds ratios were 0.35 (0.30-0.42) for AD, 0.58 (0.48-0.70) for BA, and 0.72 (0.54-0.92) for HF. The OR for AD among children living in eastern Berlin was 1.19 (1.04-1.36), no significant regional differences were found for BA or HF. This study demonstrated a weak protective effect of BCG vaccination against asthma but a much stronger protective effect of non-German ethnicity against atopic manifestations among preschool children from Germany.

Rooms of Their Own: Public toilets and gendered citizens in a New Zealand city, 1860‐1940

Differences in the provision of public toilets for men and women point to the gendering of citizens. In the later nineteenth century, provision of public toilets in the city of Dunedin centered on the management of male bodies as the meaning of 'public decency' was transformed, while women were catered for as consumers. By the beginning of the twentieth century, when provision for women became a public issue, it was debated in terms of women's special character as citizens. The bodily and spatial characteristics of public and private were renegotiated around this issue: as women became more public, toilets became more private. This article draws on debates about the sexed and gendered body in public space, maternal citizenship, the civilising and modernising of landscapes and bodies, and shifting conceptions of privacy and public.