Women's Sense Research Articles

Coping with menopause – Measures that women can take

During menopause, there is a hormonal imbalance that would lead to variety of menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, weight gain, changes in the body shape, hair loss, hair becomes grayer and coarse, decreased elasticity of the skin, thinning of lining and dryness in the vagina, breast discomfort and urinary incontinence. These menopausal symptoms cause concern and discomfort for these women. It also affects their quality of life. The study aimed to explore the women's sense of body during their midlife years. A phenomenological-heuristic research design used in the study. Eight informants willingly participated in the study under an informal, semi-structured interview with the main question, What are your experiences during midlife? and How did those experiences happened? The transcribed verbatim were analyzed through the use of Moustakas method. The study revealed 7 main themes: (1) I've changed… (2) What is bothering me? (3) Looking back into the windows of the past (4) my weapons for my battle (5) Metamorphosis: A new conquest (6) Dreams: The paramount of my life. The study reflected the entirety of the participant's experiences. This study has shown that living the experience of wellness at menopause can accommodate the experience of change or symptoms. In this way the experience of menopausal change is not disruptive to the woman's continuity of experience, she continues to feel well and to do all the things she wants to do. Further recommendations are needed to enhance the understanding of the lived experience of women regarding their sense of body at midlife.

Work volition in women with fibromyalgia: a phenomenological analysis

Aims and objectives This study develops a working model characterizing work volition among women suffering from fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) to better understand the vocational challenges these women face, the drivers behind their ambitions, and the coping strategies they implement. Materials and methods A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted consisting of semi-structured interviews with 15 women diagnosed with FMS who are currently employed. The interviews were analyzed according to the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results The findings point to the enormous efforts these women make to ration their energy and preserve their careers by implementing calming cognitive, social, and solution-focused strategies. Several motivational factors governing work volition emerged from the interviews: (1) a drive for esteem, power, and control; (2) achieving self-actualization and a sense of meaning in life by nurturing of others; (3) preserving a sense of existence through their career achievements; and (4) pushing beyond their physical limits. They reported implementing four calming, cognitive-focused, social support, and solution-focused strategies to reduce pain. Conclusions Work plays an important role in grounding these women's sense of vitality and normalcy. This is coupled with their enormous efforts to pursue and preserve their careers by calming the mind and the body. Paradoxically, however, these efforts appear to aggravate their physical exhaustion and distress. The complexity of maintaining a career when diagnosed with FMS as well as issues of general physical and mental health are discussed. Implications for rehabilitation Career has an existential significance for women with Fibromyalgia. Motivational factors for work volition were identified; these include ambition for esteem, the obtaining of meaning, and gaining a sense of existence. Enormous efforts have been taken to save energy and preserve careers. Women are trapped between their desire to work and the need to conserve energy. Body-mind interventions are recommended for women's rehabilitation.

"I just can't sit around and do nothing!": A qualitative study of Indonesian women's experiences diagnosed with heart disease.

Research into cardiovascular disease and its management in Indonesia, where it currently accounts for 67% of all deaths, has heavily emphasized the biomedical aspects; little is known about the individual's experience of the disease, especially for Indonesian women. This study aimed to understand how gender shapes Indonesian women's experiences of living with heart disease in their daily lives. Twenty-six women aged 30-67 years were interviewed, and the transcriptions analyzed using a qualitative framework informed by intersectional approaches to gender and culture. Three major themes emerged: (i) the effect of cardiovascular disease on women's day-to-day activities, (ii) its effects on women's family relationships, and (iii) the women's coping strategies. The inability to fulfill their required social roles as mother or wife undermined the women's sense of self, a problem particularly acute in a cultural context where responsibility for maintaining harmony in the home and society is ascribed to women. Healthcare professionals should be aware of the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of women with cardiovascular disease, in order to deliver services that meet female patients' social, spiritual, and cultural needs.

An Applied Approach to Women's Sense of security in Urban Parks Case study: Bojnord city

The present article aims to monitor the level of women's security in urban parks first and then identify the parameters affecting women's sense of security and its priorities. The research methodology is quantitative one and its method is a descriptive-analytic study with a specific application of environmental design approach (CPTED), among 400 women from the age 15 to 65 years in Bojnord, according to the cluster sampling method, a proportional and random systematic classification has been made. The results of the study, by verifying and validating the 360 questionnaires, showed that among all the indicators for the CPTED approach, only the social activity support indicator has no role in women's security. But readability, oversight and public perception of space among other indicators of lighting, maintenance management, isolation and population density, signs and overall design of space, which confirmed their significant relationship with women's sense of security, had the highest impact on Women's feelings of security. The isolation and population density also have an inverse relationship with the sense of security. Hence, the sense of women's security can be seen as the result of management and overall design of space that should not be neglected in the policies and urban development process; In other words, if women's presence in some of the city's public spaces is low, this is the result of management structures and its semantic systems in particular regarding the role of women in the development of the city and the physical formulation of it and, therefore, inducing low security feeling for them in these spaces

Rethinking Women's Mental Health After Intimate Partner Violence.

This article reports on mixed methods research into intimate partner violence (IPV) and women's mental health. Using an online national survey and life history interviews, quantitative and qualitative data analysis demonstrates how IPV negatively impacts women's sense of self, with other multiple losses in relation to income, work, housing, and social participation further undermining recovery into the long term. The feminist concept of sexual politics is used to critically examine current responses to mental health problems after IPV, and a feminist-informed response is outlined that addresses the gender inequalities underpinning IPV and the psychological distress it produces.

Abstract A103: How do coping resources and financial hardship affect rural Latina breast cancer survivors' stress and depressive symptoms: The Nuevo Amanecer Rural Trial

Abstract Introduction: Compared to their white counterparts, Latina breast cancer survivors suffer from greater distress and poorer health-related quality of life. Yet little is known about the determinants of such distress. Purpose: Examine the independent associations of coping self-efficacy, social support, neighborhood cohesion, engagement with physicians, and financial hardship with depressive symptoms and perceived stress using baseline data from a randomized controlled trial of a stress management intervention among Spanish-speaking rural Latina breast cancer survivors. Methods: All data were self-reported and collected via in-person interviews in Spanish, except for medical information, which was obtained from medical records review. Bivariate linear models regressed either depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-8) or stress (Perceived Stress Scale) on coping self-efficacy, social support, neighborhood cohesion, difficulty engaging with physicians, and financial hardship, controlling for demographic, medical factors, and study site. Hypothesized predictors that were statistically significant at p <0.20 in bivariate analyses were included in multivariate linear models. Higher scores on all measures signify more of the construct. Results: In bivariate analyses, coping confidence (b = -2.50; p <0.0001) and social support (b = -1.14; p <0.01) were negatively associated with depressive symptoms; difficulty engaging with physicians (b = 1.51; p <0.01) and financial hardship (b = 2.30; p <0.01) were positively associated with depressive symptoms. In multivariate analyses, only coping confidence (b = -2.35; p <0.0001) was negatively and independently associated with depressive symptoms, controlling for covariates. In bivariate analyses, coping confidence (b = -4.10; p <0.0001), social support (b = -2.66; p <0.0001), and neighborhood cohesion (b = -1.83; p <0.01) were negatively associated with stress; difficulty engaging with physicians (b=1.51; p =0.05) and financial hardship (b=4.58; p <0.0001) were positively associated with stress. In multivariate analyses, coping confidence (b = -3.65; p <0.0001) and neighborhood cohesion (b = -1.03; p <0.05) were negatively and independently associated with stress; financial hardship was positively and independently associated with stress (b = 3.44; p<0.01). Conclusions: Interventions that focus on increasing women's coping confidence and sense of neighborhood cohesion, and services to reduce their financial hardship, could help alleviate psychosocial health disparities among rural Latina cancer survivors. Citation Format: Anna M. Napoles, Jasmine Santoyo-Olsson, Anita L. Stewart, Carmen Ortiz, Steven Gregorich. How do coping resources and financial hardship affect rural Latina breast cancer survivors' stress and depressive symptoms: The Nuevo Amanecer Rural Trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr A103.

Identifying and explaining experiences of fear of childbirth and coping strategies: A qualitative study

Background and Objectives: Fear of childbirth is a natural response that helps women prepare for childbirth. However, if fear is increased, it can lead to physical and emotional disabilities. This study aims to explain the experiences of fear of childbirth and, consequently, present a model for reducing such fears. Methods: A phenomenological approach was used in this study. The participants were selected from among primigravida (women who were pregnant for the first time) through purposeful sampling, and the data were collected through open and unstructured interviews. Besides, the collected data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s nine-stage method. Results: Different types of fear of childbirth identified in this study were harmful to maternal and neonatal health, normal childbirth, the feeling of inability, and cesarean section. Besides, the reasons behind fear of childbirth were inadequate awareness, lack of trust in medical staff, negative experiences from information sources, and the environment of the maternity center. Finally, the most important strategies to deal with the fear of childbirth were faith in God, feeling confident, receiving support, raising awareness, and positive thinking which were used to design the model. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that women's self-confidence plays a key role in decreasing fear of childbirth. Therefore, effective measures should be taken to increase women's sense of self-confidence to reduce their fear of childbirth.

Communication, Respect, and Autonomy: Exploring Elements of a Meaningful Birth Partnership [08P

INTRODUCTION: A health system focused on person-centered maternity care should place high value on women's sense of autonomy and perception of the decision-making process. We aim to triangulate quantitative findings to better understand the role of communication in improving maternal care delivery, in order to inform development of processes that facilitate a patient-centered birth partnership. METHODS: A paper questionnaire was self-administered to women receiving postpartum care at a hospital in the northeast United States. The questionnaire employed the Mothers Autonomy in Decision Making (MADM) scale, the Mothers on Respect (MOR) index, and questions from the Listening to Mothers III survey in asking about communication experiences and preferences during maternity care. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine which communication preferences correlated with MADM and MOR scores. RESULTS: 155 participants consented and enrolled into the study, with a mean age of 27.1 (SD 5.5). The mean MADM and MOR scores were 36.06 (SD 6.55) and 73.76 (SD 8.78), respectively. Use of overly medicalized terminology by maternity care providers negatively correlated with perceived respect. Satisfaction with time spent with maternity care providers and encouragement of participation in care positively correlated with perceived autonomy. Websites and “Apps” with pregnancy and childbirth information were considered twice as valuable as childbirth education classes. CONCLUSION: Data obtained from this study will significantly add to understanding of the patient experience and will inform future interventions that encourage a patient partnership in the provision of childbirth care.

Positive childbirth experience: A qualitative study.

AimThis study aimed to explore the meaning of a positive childbirth experience expressed by women who had given birth in Iran.DesignQualitative exploratory study.MethodsThis is a qualitative study conducted on 10 women aged 20–38 years with positive childbirth experience. Data were collected using semi‐structured interviews from 72 hr–2 months after childbirth.ResultsData analysis led to into two themes and five subthemes. The themes include control and empowerment. Control theme consisted of three subthemes of preparation, coping and support; and empowerment theme consisted of two subthemes of self‐efficacy and self‐esteem. Women's sense of empowerment to childbirth can be the result of a positive childbirth experience. Therefore, it seems that providing positive experience factors of childbirth plays an important role in women's self‐efficacy and self‐esteem, which requires cooperation and effort at the level of the individual, family, education system and healthcare system.

The impact of gender discrimination on a Woman's Mental Health

The impact of gender discrimination on a Woman's Mental Health

A Critical Analysis of Intimate Partner Sexual Violence in Iran.

According to global data, intimate partner violence and its corresponding impact threaten the lives of almost 35% of women at some point in their life. The aim of this research was to explore the effects of intimate partner sexual violence on women’s sense of self-efficacy when it comes to speaking out against violence and seeking help. In-depth interviews and a thematic analysis approach were employed to collect and analyze the data. The participants were 10 women with experiences of intimate partner sexual violence. They were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Two main themes were drawn from the data, including Exposure and Empowerment. Exposure refers to the type of violence women have experienced and its physical and emotional effects; and Empowerment refers to factors women considered as giving them the courage to speak out against perpetrators, to seek help from others, or to refrain from doing either. It is concluded that Iranian women are not passive when exposed to intimate partner sexual violence, and social support, mainly from family and friends, was a pathway to feelings of empowerment; without this support, women’s emotional health is put in jeopardy. Due to the importance of social networks in creating a sense of empowerment, it is recommended that professionals involved in cases of intimate partner sexual violence create an alliance with the women’s families and friend and educate them on how to prevent violence or offer help before the violence takes its toll on woman’s emotional and physical wellbeing.

ADDRESSING DIVERSITY AND GENDER ISSUES IN A CORNERSTONE DESIGN COURSE

In the cornerstone engineering design course for Mechanical and Industrial Engineering undergraduates at Ryerson University, students’ design approaches were being negatively affected by gender and other biases. Therefore, the course was modified to encourage students to explore these biases, with an initial emphasis on gender so that they may design with a fuller sense of women’s issues. This novel endeavour aimed to change the course’s culture via awareness, and by connecting equity, diversity, and inclusion to an engineering context. Qualitative analysis of student reports before and after these modifications showed that the intervention led to user groups that more closely matched actual demographics and included a higher number of women, LGBTQ, and elderly Personas than before. Furthermore, the qualitative descriptions showed less of a skewed tendency to attribute positive characteristics to men and negative characteristics to women after the course modifications were implemented. Student surveys indicated that there was a potential cultural shift within the course, and a broadening of student focus to include equity, diversity, and inclusion when undertaking an engineering design project.

Exploring women's leadership labyrinth: Effects of hiring and developmental opportunities on gender stratification

Many factors have been proposed as potential causes for the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions. The present research leverages computational modeling and simulation to examine the impacts of external hiring and developmental opportunities, which may have consequences at different junctures in women's leadership labyrinth. Two agent-based simulations examined 1) the emergence of gender stratification in gender-balanced organizations and 2) the impact of reducing bias in external hiring and developmental opportunities in gender-stratified organizations. Results revealed that gender differences in external hiring heightened women's sense of tokenism and their turnover rates and that bias in developmental opportunities increased women's turnover rates due to a lack of promotions - a “sticky floor” effect. Further, improving women's leadership representation in gender-stratified organizations may be a rocky road – positive impacts were preceded by elevated turnover for women. Implications for organizational interventions are discussed. All code and datasets are available at https://github.com/grandjam/SamuelsonEtAl_GenderStratModel.

Women as Veterans in Britain and France after the First World War. By Alison S. Fell

Alison S. Fell addresses a continuing need to shed light on how women's contributions to the First World War were recognized in the aftermath. Introducing a variety of historical actors, from spies and factory workers to nurses and aviators, Fell’s method is accomplished in its comparison of the social and cultural history of the United Kingdom and France in the inter-war period. With this approach she interrogates the extent to which women in both nations were successfully able to carve out a veteran status for themselves, and on what basis, allowing for a sophisticated and nuanced evaluation of a period that has thus far been under-explored in gender histories. The analysis is clear and accessible throughout, with a rich and intriguing set of examples drawn from previously unknown primary sources. Privileging a focus on the lived experience of French and British women, Fell begins by discussing the role of female agency in commemorative processes as part of a wider claim to wartime sacrifice shared with combatants after the conflict. She then explores processes of heroization, and compares the various veteran groups of the 1920s, before achieving a sense of experiential voice, with chapters on women’s memoirs and other personal writings. Throughout, she answers questions relating to why and how women sought to attribute to themselves a cultural capital such as that much more easily assumed by the male heroes of war in the aftermath. The nuance to Fell’s writing insists that not all of the claims to veteran status were motivated by suffragist or feminist objectives and she raises important questions about multiple ways in which women’s sacrifice as part of a collective can be understood, other than as a driving force for the vote campaign in France, or a leftist, anti-war movement in both countries. She also acknowledges the limitations of women’s new political or cultural status in the 1920s and 30s, particularly in the case of working women, thereby drawing subtle distinctions between social classes in both countries, and addressing the extent to which these helped or hindered their inter-war prominence. Throughout, Fell gives a sense of women’s varied responses to life after war, from driving political agendas to expressing a distinct dissatisfaction with peacetime. She interrogates both heroic, normative and unheroic, untraditional roles undertaken by British and French women, and presents the complex ways in which both sets of roles were used by them to claim economic, cultural, political, or personal clout after 1918. Overall, this is a comprehensive and well-crafted book, which drives the field forward and contributes to still-emerging debates about hierarchies of remembrance and the gendered memory of wartime sacrifice in Britain and France. Its only flaw would ordinarily be interpreted as a merit, in that it cannot answer every question that it raises, but its conclusion acknowledges this in suggesting interesting new lines of enquiry for historians to follow in the future.

‘I'm having a baby not a labour’: Sense of coherence and women's attitudes towards labour and birth

ObjectiveIn Western countries, caesarean section rates are increasing and spontaneous vaginal birth rates are decreasing at a rapid rate. This trend has implications for childbearing women's health and calls into question the use of pathogenesis to frame maternity services. The theory and practice of salutogenesis offers a viable alternative as it emphasises health rather than illness. Sense of coherence and generalized resistant resources (GRRs) are the cornerstones of salutogenesis and sense of coherence is a predictive indicator of health. As strong sense of coherence in pregnant women is associated with half the likelihood of caesarean section compared to women with weak sense of coherence, the objective of this study is to examine the association between sense of coherence and women's attitude towards their birthing experiences. Design, setting and participantsThis paper reports on the qualitative component only of a longitudinal study where 753 women planning to have their babies in an Australian tertiary maternity service, completed questionnaires in pregnancy and postnatally. Women answered one openended question during the pregnancy and one open-ended question approximately eight weeks postnatally. Data were analysed by qualitative content analysis. FindingsWhen the open-text responses of 119 women with strong sense of coherence and 177 women with weak sense of coherence were analysed, the categories of Language, Demeanour and Focus were identified. Women with strong sense of coherence have a positive, relaxed and baby-focused attitude. In salutogenic terms this attitude towards labour and birth can be described as increased comprehensibility, increased manageability, decreased meaningfulness in the experience of giving birth, increased internal GRRs and increased external GRRs. Women with weak sense of coherence have a more negative, worried and labour-focused attitude. In salutogenic terms this attitude towards labour and birth can be described as decreased comprehensibility, decreased manageability, increased meaningfulness in the experience of giving birth, decreased internal GRRs and decreased external GRRs. Key conclusionStrong sense of coherence in childbearing women is expressed through a positive, relaxed and baby-focused attitude while weak sense of coherence is expressed through negative, worried and labour-focused attitude in childbearing women towards labour and birth. Implications for practiceAs sense of coherence is a modifiable predictor of health, application of the study findings could focus on midwifery work including antenatal education that aims to decrease caesarean section rates by strengthening women's sense of coherence in pregnancy.

Reevaluating the Business Case for Diversity: Consequences for Advocates, Women, Leaders, & Scholars

An increasing number of organizations acknowledge the lack of diversity within their ranks, and convey their support for diversity in official corporate statements. A prevalent such case, called the “business case for diversity” argues that diversity at work is valuable because of the performance benefits it yields to organizations – in contrast to the less prevalent “fairness case for diversity”, which argues that diversity is valuable on the grounds of morality and social justice principles. This symposium takes a 360 approach to examining the consequences of the business case for diversity for its various audiences: advocates, women, business leaders, and diversity scholars. The first paper provides evidence that the business case for diversity limits advocates’ ability to promote meaningful social change for women in organizations. The second paper builds on prior findings that the business case undermines sexual minorities’ and women’s sense of belonging to organizations, and investigates the mechanisms and consequences of this effect. The third paper shows that the business case for diversity can weaken organizational members’ support for diversity programs. The fourth paper shows that the business case leads business leaders to form unrealistic expectations about diversity’s effects, and diversity scholars to neglect the motivations driving business leaders’ support for the status quo. Finally, the discussant, Professor Unzueta, will integrate the findings presented into a discussion of the potential perils of making the business case for diversity, and propose theory-driven insights into alternative, more effective approaches to promoting diversity and social equality in inclusive organizations. Why Do Feminists Make the Business Case for Investing in Women? Presenter: Sarah Kaplan; U. of Toronto Presenter: Bretton Fosbrook; U. of Toronto The Business Case Undermines Women's Sense of Belonging at Work: Mechanisms and Consequences Presenter: Oriane Georgeac; London Business School Presenter: Anita Rattan; London Business School When the Business Case Backfires: Economic Standards Jeopardize Support for Diversity Programs Presenter: Hannah Birnbaum; - Presenter: Evan P. Apfelbaum; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Adam Waytz; Northwestern Kellogg School of Management How Business Leaders and Diversity Scholars Overestimate the Power of the Business Case Presenter: Robin Ely; Harvard U. Presenter: David Thomas; Morehouse College Presenter: Susan Sturm; Columbia U.

“With middal smal and wel ymake”: Objectification and Power in Medieval English Love Songs

Through reading sets of medieval love songs one can notice trends that are connected to the conventions of fin’amor or courtly love. Troubadours, medieval French poets, would compose and sing songs that reflect the trends of courtly love during the time period. Within the lyrics of these songs there are two main trends when it comes to the objectification of the female beloved. First, they spend a great deal of time in describing the physicality of the beloved, but make no inferences or connections to her interior life—going so far as to animalize her. Even when those beautiful features may be manufactured, their artificiality still supersedes her personhood. Second, they use the lyric technique of reprisal to formally reinforce sense of woman as inanimate. Using the anonymous “Alison” and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Complaint to his Purse” as example cases, in this essay I demonstrate the techniques that effect this displacement of power, as well as how they are still prevalent in popular music today. Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Elizabeth E. Tavares

Holidays with aging parents: pleasures, duties and constraints

I explore filial duty in the holidays from a feminist perspective through the lens of the experiences that Norwegian midlife single women have of how this duty shapes intergenerational holidays and singlehood. Data was collected through interviews, diaries and autoethnograpical reflections. Filial duty is embedded with the simultaneity of love and respect, and the women's needs and desire for agency and ‘me-time’. It is also shaped by parental age, health, personalities and roles, as well as siblings' involvement, which not only direct the family's expectations towards the women, but in turn can affect the women's sense of agency. The women's filial duty during the holidays is imbued with singlism and heteronormativity, yet is also a demonstration of love and care.

The impacts of rail transit on the lives and travel experiences of women in the developing world: Evidence from the Delhi Metro

In response to the rapid rates of urbanization and motorization, cities in the developing world have increasingly invested in urban rail transit systems in recent decades. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews with 51 female passengers in the Delhi Metro, we provide empirical evidence of the impact of rail transit on women's lives in the developing world, which is lacking in the existing literature. We adopt the notion of empowerment as a theoretical framework. The findings of the study reveal that the Delhi Metro provides a comparatively empowering and positive travel experience for women, which is mainly enabled by safety measures and women's relative sense of safety in transit compared to other public spaces. However, this does not mean that female passengers are free from the threats of harassment in the Metro, and thus they adopt behavioral strategies to avoid risk. These results suggest that implementing policies that address women's safety concerns and needs are key to mass transit's success in the developing world.

Mary Wollstonecraft, Social Constructivism, and the Idea of Freedom

AbstractThis article considers Mary Wollstonecraft as a theorist of freedom for women through the lens of social constructivism. Previous republican readings of Wollstonecraft as promoting a vision of freedom as independence or non-domination are compromised by their underpinnings in liberal individualism. Instead, we suggest her theory displays elements of positive liberty and particularly what we call “subjectivity freedom.” Reading Wollstonecraft as an early social constructivist, we show her grappling with how women's subjectivity is constructed in patriarchal societies such that they desire the conditions of their own subordination. This troubles the very notion of domination and its putative opposite, freedom-as-independence. Paradoxically, while noting how women's sense of self was profoundly and intimately shaped by the patriarchal structures they inhabited, Wollstonecraft's own argument was limited by these same constructions. Nonetheless, she struggled to conceive a radically emancipatory vision of women's lives, aspirations, and desires from within the confines of a context and discourse premised on their devaluation. A social constructivist approach shows that Wollstonecraft sought not simply to change women or specific structures of male dominance, but rather the processes within which men and women defined gender, the family, and personal identity: in short, their subjectivity.