Women In Montreal Research Articles

Perinatal health care for undocumented women in Montreal: When sub-standard care is almost the rule

Objective: This mixed method study examines the perinatal health care for undocumented women in Montreal (Quebec) and documents their experiences of that care. Method(s): Files of precarious status women were reviewed (n = 591) at a major hospital and two community health centres in Montreal to document maternity services received. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews, 18 undocu- mented women described their experiences of help seeking during pregnancy. Results: File review confirmed that being uninsured is associated with substandard prenatal care. The qualitative analysis highlighted the numerous difficulties and sometimes abusive situations that undocumented pregnant women encounter while trying to access perinatal care. Conclusion: These results suggest that it is urgent to revise provincial health policies in order to facilitate the access of undocumented women to care during the perinatal period.

The Composer's Voice: "What women can do"

In this interview, conducted on 18 August 1994, Violet Balestreri Archer revisits her past, recreating the experiences of her youth from the earliest days of her childhood in Como and Montreal to her graduation from Yale University in 1949 and sharing highly personal memories of her family, teachers, and friends. She recalls her first visit to Italy, her school years, her piano lessons, her early attempts at composition, her participation in the Montreal Women's Symphony, and her compositional studies with Douglas Clarke at McGill University, Béla Bartók in New York, and Paul Hindemith at Yale University. In listening to her story, we discover "who" she is and "how" she succeeded in establishing her compositional voice and in creating a space or "room" for herself in a profession traditionally dominated by men.

Found poetry – Finding home: A qualitative study of homeless immigrant women

The focus of this article is on the use of found poetry as a tool in qualitative research to examine the experience of precarious housing and homelessness among immigrant women in Montreal. Immigrant and refugee women exhibit greater risk for homelessness than women in general or male newcomers due to higher rates of poverty. Yet little is known about migrant women's experiences of homelessness and less is available from their own perspective, specifically. The article provides a context for understanding female, newcomer homelessness and summarizes the history of the found poem in a variety of disciplines with an emphasis on “social work and the arts” context. This article also details the study methodology and illustrates the process of the found poem technique with two found poems used as data representation. The found poems we present in this article reveal two of the study's key findings related to causes of homelessness: unexpected crises (tipping points) and exploitation.

Complexity of Food Preparation and Food Security Status: In Low-income Young Women

This study was conducted to explore whether preparing more complex meals was associated with higher food security status. This mixed-methods, community-based study involved the use of semistructured interviews to examine the cooking practices of a group of young, low-income women in Montreal. Fifty participants aged 18 to 35 were recruited at 10 locations in five low-income neighbourhoods. Food security status was the main outcome measure and the main exposure variable, "complex food preparation," combined the preparation of three specific food types (soups, sauces, and baked goods) using basic ingredients. Low-income women preparing a variety of meals using basic ingredients at least three times a week were more than twice as likely to be food secure as were women preparing more complex meals less frequently. Women who prepared more complex meals more frequently had higher food security. Whether this means that preparing more complex foods results in greater food security remains unclear, as this was an exploratory study.

Food selection and preparation practices in a group of young low-income women in Montreal

This paper presents results from an interview and focus group study of cooking practices in a group of young, low-income women in Montreal. Overall, food choices appeared to be high in refined carbohydrates and relatively low in fresh vegetables and fruit. Participants prepared packaged noodle and sauce dishes often, as well as other packaged sauces, in part because of concern for food waste. Participants felt that the cost of spices was prohibitive. Results illustrate how individuals manage their resources under conditions of financial challenge, given other life circumstances.

The Domestic Foodscapes of Young Low-Income Women in Montreal: Cooking Practices in the Context of an Increasingly Processed Food Supply

Over the course of the past century, the quantity of prepackaged, pre-prepared foods available in the North American context has increased dramatically. This study examines the shifts in food practices that are taking place through an exploration of the day-to-day cooking practices of a group of young, low-income women in Montreal and considers how these contribute to health problems such as obesity and nutritional deficiencies in addition to health inequalities within populations. The participatory study uses data from five focus groups with a total of 22 participants to contribute to our understanding of how social and physical food environments (the "foodscape") shape daily food and cooking practices. Aspects of these environments that were discussed include household roles and responsibilities that require complex management, personal food choice and skill, as well as health, learning, and access to food.

Social Movement Campaigns: Mobilization and Outcomes in the Montreal Women's Movement Community

Social movement campaigns help create the networks and collective identities needed to build social movement communities, which in turn support subsequent collective campaigns. This article examines the interactions between movement communities and campaigns using the case of the 2000 World March of Women in Montreal. We find that movement community resources and networks, mobilized by leaders in stable movement organizations and institutions, support campaigns. Centralization, diversity, and size of movement communities affect campaign mobilization. Movement campaigns alter movement communities by creating bonds that form the basis for subsequent campaigns and by keeping movement communities politicized. Prior campaigns generate public consciousness, put issues on the public agenda, create new frames and discourse, forge connections to new constituents, and leave behind new networks, coalition organizations, leaders, and activists. Our research contributes to an understanding of the connections between the submerged networks of social movement communities and the contentious politics of movement campaigns.

Psychosocial Stressors and Buffers Affecting Black Women in Montreal

Black women in Canada have not been the focus of intensive mental health research, even though data suggests they may be vulnerable to mental health disparities. The present study utilizes in-depth qualitative methods to explore the psychosocial experience of Black women in Montreal. Twelve women participated in semi-structured interviews that aimed to elicit principal psychosocial stressors and buffers. Three notable stressors emerged from analyses: financial adversity, racism, and absent fathers. Three notable buffers emerged from analyses: families, the church, and cultural pride. Implications for further research on this vulnerable population are discussed.

Culture and Ritual in the Montreal Women's Movement

This paper focuses on how culture and ritual in social movements can be forms of protest or conduits to contentious politics. Based on the Montreal cases of the anglophone women's performance scene in the 1990s and the 2000 World March of Women campaign, we argue that the context in which culture is produced and consumed affects its political character and potential. Networks among activists and organizations in social movement communities affect the extent to which participants interpret and use cultural productions and rituals to support political change. Movement campaigns play an important role in giving political meaning to cultural rituals and providing opportunities for participants in cultural activities to become involved in contentious political action.

Older Women and ‘Frailty’

The concept of ‘frailty’, as used within public health and social services, represents a powerful practice where cultural constructions, the global economic rationale of cost restriction and the biomedical focus on ageing collide as inscriptions on the bodies of older women. This article draws on complex forms of resistance witnessed within three separate studies: narrative interviews on ‘frailty’, semi-structured interviews and participant observation in community organizations with older women in Montreal and Boston. Findings reveal how older women exercise resistance in complex ways, both consciously subverting and coopting the notion of ‘frailty’ on an individual and collective level. Such resistance demonstrates the tensions between undermining dominant notions of ageing, and fulfilling prescribed gendered and age-based assumptions about older women and their bodies. The intersections and forms of older women’s resistance challenge social constructs, social expectations and what is recognized as resistance.

Effects of maternal vitamin A status on kidney development: a pilot study

Nephron endowment ranges widely in normal human populations. Recent autopsy studies have drawn attention to the possibility that subtle congenital nephron deficits may be associated with increased risk of developing hypertension later in life. Since modest maternal vitamin A deficiency reduces nephron number in rats, we designed a pilot study to determine the prevalence of maternal vitamin A deficiency in Montreal (Canada) and Bangalore (India) and the usefulness of newborn renal volume as a surrogate for nephron endowment. Among 48 pregnant Montreal women, two (4%) had one isolated mid-gestation retinol level slightly below the accepted limit of normal (0.9 mumol/L), whereas 25 (55%) of 46 pregnant women in Bangalore had at least one sample below this limit. Average estimated retinoid intake was correlated with mean serum retinol in pregnant women from Bangalore. In Montreal where maternal vitamin A deficiency was negligible, we found that newborn renal volume (estimated by renal ultrasonography at 2-6 weeks of age) was correlated with surface area at birth and was inversely correlated with serum creatinine at 1 month. Interestingly, renal volume adjusted for body surface area in Montreal (184+/-44 ml/m(2)) was significantly greater than in Bangalore (114+/-33 ml/m(2)) (p<0.01). Definitive studies are needed to establish whether maternal vitamin A deficiency accounts for subtle renal hypoplasia in Indian newborns. If so, there may be important public health implications for regions of the world where maternal vitamin A deficiency is prevalent.

Unmaking Manly Smokes: Church, State, Governance, and the First Anti-Smoking Campaigns in Montreal, 1892-1914

This paper examines a series of anti-smoking campaigns by the Montreal Women's Christian Temperance Union that were part of local, provincial, and federal campaigns for age restrictions on smoking and cigarette prohibition. The Montreal campaigns were particularly unsuccessful in comparison to those undertaken in other provinces. The article argues that while women's exclusion from formal politics and the particularly masculine symbolism of smoking were important factors in accounting for the weakness of the Montreal WCTU's campaigns, the specificity of the Montreal case is found in the religious demography of the city. The paper uncovers the social gospel beliefs of the Montreal WCTU and the theological roots of anti-prohibitionists in the city. Ultimately, the question is situated in a debate over the liberal order at the turn of the twentieth century and the proper role of the church and state in the moral formation of individuals.

Modeling the Sexual Transmissibility of Human Papillomavirus Infection using Stochastic Computer Simulation and Empirical Data from a Cohort Study of Young Women in Montreal, Canada

The authors estimated plausible ranges of the probability of human papillomavirus (HPV) transmission per coital act among newly forming couples by using stochastic computer simulation. Comparative empirical data were obtained in 1996-2001 from a cohort study of female university students in Montreal, Canada. Female prevalence and frequency of sexual intercourse and condom use were set equal to those in the cohort. Simulations included 240 combinations of male prevalence, the relative risk for protected versus unprotected sex, and per-act transmission probabilities. Those that produced expected HPV incidence within the 95% confidence interval observed in the cohort were selected. The observed 6-month cumulative incidence following acquisition of a new partner was 17.0% (95% confidence interval: 11.4, 23.0). Expected incidences consistent with those from cohort findings occurred in 54/240 simulations. The range of per-act transmission probabilities was 5-100% (median, 40%). Male HPV prevalence was the same as or greater than that for women in all consistent simulations. Varying condom effectiveness did not produce better-fitting data. This simulation suggests that HPV transmissibility is several-fold higher than that for other viral sexually transmitted infections such as human immunodeficiency virus or herpes simplex virus 2. With high transmissibility, any potential protective effect of condoms would disappear over multiple intercourse acts, underlining the need for an effective HPV vaccine.

The contextual and social locations of older women's experiences of disability and decline

Understandings of disability and decline within health and social care seem to focus mainly on the bodies and function of older persons. However, the way that older people's experiences of disability and decline are fixed into rigid functional classifications such as ‘frailty’ are problematic. Drawing on the narratives of twelve diverse older English-speaking women in Montreal, Canada, I will argue that older women's experiences are more connected with the contexts within which they experience disability and decline, and the social locations they bring to these experiences, than the functional limitations of their bodies. Older women's stories – particularly those related to the home and the bus – reveal the clash between dominant understandings of ‘frailty’ and older women's contextual and social experiences of disability and decline; expose tensions within health and social care practices; and highlight the potential which exists in both context and social location.

Factors Associated with Depression in Pregnant Immigrant Women

This study examined psychosocial risk factors for depressive symptomatology in a community sample of pregnant immigrant women in Montreal, Canada. One hundred and nineteen participants were recruited through hospitals and responded to questionnaires assessing depression, somatic symptoms, functional status, social support, stressful life events and marital adjustment. Forty-two percent of participants scored above the cut-off for depression. Depressive symptoms were associated with poorer functional status and more somatic symptoms. Depressed women reported a lack of social support, more stressful life events and poorer marital adjustment. Transitions associated with migration may place pregnant immigrant women at high risk for depression.

Sex, Love, Revenge, and Murder in &amp;quot;Away Down in Jamaica&amp;quot;: A Lost Short Story by Sui Sin Far (Edith Eaton)

Tucked between advertisements for Ever Ready Dress Stays ("Impervious, Pliable, Durable, Reliable"), Jonas' Flavoring Extracts ("Perfectly Pure Extracts of Choicest Fruits"), and Bovril Fluid Beef ("A Genuine Social Reform") in the Montreal women's newspaper the Metropolitan from 19 March 1898 is an unknown and previously unrecovered story by Sui Sin Far (Edith Eaton, 1865-1914) with a decidedly unladylike content. "Away Down in Jamaica" details a love triangle or even quadrangle between four people. Kathleen Harold (a white woman) spurns Phil Everett (a white man), instead agreeing to marry Wickliff Walker (a white man) who has had an affair with and cast aside a Jamaican ("brown" [4]) woman with the symbolically weighted name of Clarissa. Eventually Everett dies from love, Clarissa vanishes after poisoning Kathleen Harold, and Wickliff Walker is left bereft. Set against the dramatic backdrop of Jamaica, with its "magnificent sea of fire" caused by the "mingling together in great numbers of phosphorescents" (4), and obsessed with its themes of interracial sex, magic, magnetism, betrayal, murder, and revenge, the story would seem to be extremely unusual in the corpus of Sui Sin Far's fiction. Perhaps even more odd is the placement of this story in the socially upright ladies newspaper the Metropolitan, with its ornate masthead of angels and cherubim (see illustration), and its advertisements for respectable businesses. Further deepening the mystery surrounding the story is its location at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles among letters between Sui Sin Far and her mentor and editor, the well-known and influential Californian publisher of Land of Sunshine and Out West, Charles Fletcher Lummis. What was Sui Sin Far's purpose in writing this story? And what was her goal in sending it to Lummis? I found this story in the archives at the Southwest Museum while doing research at both the Southwest Museum and the Huntington Library on how Sui Sin Far's publishers attempted to shape her literary identity and capitalize on her appeal as an "exotic" Asian American writer. "Away Down in Jamaica" was among letters that probably had not been part of this archive at the Southwest Museum (the Marion Parks Collection) until the late 1990s. Marion Parks was a librarian at the Southwest involved in the project of trying to save the Lummis homestead. According to the current archivist at the Southwest Museum, Kim Walters, [End Page 85] The short story that you referred to came in with other letters from Edith Eaton about 4 years ago [in 1998]. It is not in the part of the Lummis collection that everyone else has published previously. You will be the first. As far as I can tell Marion Parks, the woman that had all of the Lummis correspondence, worked here at the Museum briefly in 1927-1928, [and] she continued to be affiliated with the Museum, and with the Charles F. Lummis Foundation, which did not last very long. This would have been in the early 1940's when people were trying to save El Alisal (Lummis' home).... I have a feeling that this woman just went through and picked up bundles of Lummis papers and correspondence. We left the papers organized the way they were donated, because they were tied up with string, with Lummis' handwritten notes on each group. From some other things that we found in Marion Park's personal files, I think she had intended upon writing a biography of Lummis which she never did. This may mean that other new materials—such as new letters written by Sui Sin Far to Lummis—are now in this archive at the Southwest Museum. Based on what I know about the correspondence, I surmise that Sui Sin Far sent a copy of this short story to Lummis with a letter, as was her frequent practice. However, it is unclear...

Changing the Rules: A Board Game Lets Homeless Women Tell Their Stories

ABSTRACT This article describes a project carried out at Auberge Madeleine, a shelter for homeless women in Montreal, Canada, the objective of which was to better understand the strategies used by homeless women to deal with the difficulties they encounter in their day-to-day lives. Working in partnership with shelter workers, the authors sought to amplify the voices of a population whose strength and life skills are often devalued. To create a setting that would support the women's narratives, the workers created an original board game that would give participants new ways to think and talk about themselves. This article examines how this game, in addition to serving as an interesting data collection instrument, also turned out to be a promising intervention tool with excellent potential for practioners interested in group work with marginalized populations.

Negative Consequences of Acculturation on Health Behaviour, Social Support and Stress among Pregnant Southeast Asian Immigrant Women in Montreal: An Exploratory Study

It is frequently assumed that migrant status constitutes a health risk because migration is inevitably associated with a period of significant adjustment and stress. This paper describes the role of acculturation in understanding the relationship between migration and low birthweight (LBW). Psychosocial and behavioural risk factors for LBW were explored using semi-structured interviews with 17 pregnant Southeast Asian women who represented different levels of acculturation. Findings suggested that acculturation had negative consequences for immigrant women. Higher levels of acculturation were associated with dieting during pregnancy, inadequate social support and stressful life experiences.

Risk factors for familial and sporadic ovarian cancer among French Canadians: A case-control study

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to compare risk factors between familial and sporadic ovarian cancer by means of a case-control approach. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a case-control study among French Canadian women in Montreal during 1995-1996. One hundred seventy women 20 to 84 years old with histologically confirmed diagnoses of primary ovarian carcinomas or borderline tumors were interviewed concerning their reproductive, family, and medical histories. During the same period 170 randomly selected population control subjects, frequency-matched to the case patients according to age and ethnic group, were also interviewed. Unconditional logistic regression methods were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The major factors influencing the risk of development of ovarian cancer were as follows: (1) family history of breast or ovarian cancer, (2) a late age at use of oral contraceptives (a protective effect), and (3) a late age at last childbirth (a protective effect for familial case patients only). CONCLUSION: These factors had equally great impacts in familial and sporadic cases, implying that the underlying mechanisms of carcinogenesis in sporadic and familial ovarian cancer may be similar and that hereditary ovarian cancer may be preventable. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1998;179:403-10.)

Socioeconomic geographical links to human immunodeficiency virus seroprevalence among childbearing women in Montreal, 1989-1993.

To describe the socioeconomic profiles of geographical areas on Montreal Island in which human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositive women delivering live births between 1989 and 1993 reside. Leftover dried blood spot filter paper specimens collected from newborns were irretrievably unlinked from identifying information prior to testing. Seroprevalence estimates were calculated based on Western blot confirmed positive samples. Using data from the Canadian census, Revenue Canada, and provincial birth records, the socioeconomic characteristics of postal zones in which seropositive mothers reside were described. Montreal Island had an overall 5-year HIV seroprevalence rate estimate of 16.6 (95% CI: 14.1-19.3) per 10000 childbearing women. Areas in which at least one seropositive woman gave birth had lower mean infant birthweights and higher percentages of single mothers and single-parent families. The HIV-positive neonatal blood specimens were more likely to originate from areas where a higher proportion of residents reported less education, greater unemployment, and lower income. Higher HIV infection rates were found among childbearing women from lower socioeconomic areas of Montreal. Increased understanding of the relationship between socioeconomic status and HIV acquisition and transmission is required to inform the development of targeted HIV prevention programmes.