Women Talk Research Articles

Female Sexual Dysfunction: Indian Perspective and Role of Indian Gynecologists.

Background:One rarely finds Indian women talking about their sexuality like this due to sex taboo in our society. This does not mean that sexual dysfunction is uncommon in Indian women. Female sexual dysfunction is widely prevalent.Aim and Objective:Indian women seek less assistance for them, despite undergoing physical and marital problems. Data of prevalence of such problems was collected to understand the scope of these problems and how Indian women deal with it. The objective was to understand prevalence of sexual dysfunction in women attending Gynaecology OPD and their perception about sex.Material and Methods:A questionnaire based prevalence study comprising of 520 patients from January, 2018 to June, 2018 was done. The questionnaire was designed on the basis of prior used ones in various studies and modified according to current patient scenario at the tertiary centre where study was conducted.Results:The data collected showed that sexual problems are not reported even when they were widely prevalent. 64% of women can't talk regarding this to their partners too. 82% patients had some sort of sexual problem. Only 18% patients said that they have no sexual problem and were satisfied with their sexual life. However, none of them consulted or took any form of assistance from any medical personnel.Conclusion:Indian women are reluctant and shy to discuss sexual problem unlike westerners who are more open and demanding when it comes to their needs. Gynecologists need to discuss with the patients about their sexuality and pertaining issues with utmost warmth, care and respect. They need to pull out the problem from within their patients and handle it effectively.

Men pause and women talk too much: Power and gender negotiations in eliciting data during semi-structured interviews

Aim: Rather than solely analyzing interview data, this interpretive study considers how the interview was conducted. The study’s overarching objective is to learn about graduate students’ perspectives and sentiments during their academic journey.Method: The phenomenological method was chosen for this investigation so that researchers could better comprehend the participants’ first-hand accounts of the phenomenon under study. Three current MSc students at the University of Exeter were interviewed; two were male, and one was female. All three interviews were semi-structured.Findings: It was clear from the data that the power dynamic during the interview was more pronounced \ between the two men than it was between the woman. Power dynamics between the interviewer and the interviewees surfaced at various points.Implications/Novel Contribution: This assignment in Interpretive Methodology lays the groundwork for future researchers interested in pursuing similar projects. It taught me things about research that will be useful in the future. A researcher’s understanding of what is expected of them and how to handle sticky situations during interviews can be bolstered by reflecting on their own semi-structured interviews.

Muslimah Beauty: Negotiating Veiling, Piety and Commodity in the New Indonesian Public Sphere

This paper explores the veiling issues and the negotiation of piety among women in Komunitas Muslimah Beauty of Detik Forum. This paper examines to what extent this online community discusses hijab as fashion and piety? what the basis of the arguments for negotiating them? and how is piety constructed through commodity by women in that forum? The answers to this question are important to understand because they examine the assumption considering the lack of connection between piety and veiling when both are more materialized in such of commodity fetishism. To do this, I analyze the online discussion within the Komunitas Muslimah Beautiful in detik.com website. The findings of the paper inform both sociological understanding of the rise democracy in terms of the public sphere as well as the negotiation of women in their effort to connect veiling and piety within their online discussion. Keywords: agency, piety, commodity, public sphere, beauty

Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of a Digital Storytelling Intervention for Smoking Cessation in Women Living With HIV.

People living with HIV in the USA smoke at a rate nearly three times that of the general population, and Black women are disproportionately affected by HIV infection. This study was conducted to test the preliminary efficacy of a digital storytelling intervention for smoking cessation in U.S. women living with HIV. Participants in the treatment arm viewed a film in which women living with HIV talk about quitting smoking, and those in the control arm viewed an attention-control film in which women talk about living with HIV infection. Participants in both arms received eight weekly video-call counseling sessions focused on smoking cessation and nicotine patches or gum during the same period. Participants were followed on a monthly basis from quit day for 3 months. Of the 53 participants randomized, four withdrew before receiving any intervention, one dropped out during the intervention, and 48 (90.6%) completed the study. No difference was found in the baseline characteristics between the two arms with the exception that the treatment arm had higher nicotine dependence scores [t(1.51) = 2.30, p = .03] than the control arm. Seven day point-prevalence abstinence rates at 3 month follow-up were not found to differ between the two arms. However, the odds of achieving 3 month prolonged abstinence were four times greater (odds ratio = 4.23, 95% confidence interval = 1.10, 16.23) in the treatment arm than the control arm when the analysis was performed with those (n = 49, 92.5%) who received any part of the allotted intervention. A digital storytelling intervention seems to be a valuable strategy to enhance the effect of conventional tobacco dependence treatment for women living with HIV. However, the underlying mechanism of the effect of digital storytelling necessitates further investigations in a large RCT.Clinical Trials Registration No. NCT03289676.

Holistic, trauma-informed adolescent pregnancy prevention and sexual health promotion for female youth experiencing homelessness: Initial outcomes of Wahine Talk

Female youth experiencing homelessness are at high risk for pregnancy due to a host of individual, family, and community-level risk factors. This embedded mixed-method quasi-experimental pilot study examined the initial outcomes of Wahine (woman) Talk, a comprehensive sexual health program delivered by an interdisciplinary team to female youth experiencing homelessness. Wahine Talk includes provision of and connection to basic needs resources, peer mentoring, group based sexual health education, and linkage to and provision of sexual health care. Process and outcome data were collected throughout and for six months after Wahine Talk from a diverse group of 14–22-year-old female youth (N = 51) experiencing homelessness. In-depth individual and focus group interview data were collected from providers and youth after Wahine Talk, and analyzed using Template Analysis. Over half (62.7%) of participants were linked to sexual health care during Wahine Talk and birth control usage tripled following the program. Depo-Provera and long acting reversible contraception (LARC) usage, in particular, increased during Wahine Talk (1–19% and 0–25.5%, respectively). Within six months, 31.4% of youth had adopted LARC and 3.9% were using Depo-Provera. Individual and focus group interviews with providers and youth affirm program acceptability and appropriateness.

NEGOSIASI IDENTITAS PEREMPUAN MUSLIM HIJABERS COMMUNITY: STUDI KASUS PADA BRAND RIA MIRANDA

The rise of pious lifestyle among the middle class in Indonesia has emerged various expressions of pious identity. City areas with modern and dynamic lifestyles are now the contestation for urban identities. Middle class and urban living Muslim in Indonesia are the most active agent of representation in both production and consumption of culture and cultural products, such as fashion, and consequently become the trend setter for national and international Muslim living. By putting the focus on Muslim women in Hijabers Community, one of the most popular Muslim women organization in social media, I discuss the identity negotiation of Muslim women that is shaped and represented in Ria Miranda fashion brand. Ria Miranda, made by one of Hijabers Community founders, has been part of the community since its beginning in 2011. Ethnography study and in-depth interviews with Hijabers Community, Ria Miranda brand, and the consumers were conducted in Hijab Day events created by Hijabers Community from 2016 to 2019. Qualitative data were gathered and analyzed. In the result, I argue that Indonesia middle class urban Muslim women’s identity is continuously in flux and negotiated in between the urban identity of becoming trendy, individualistic, and modern, and the pious Islamic identity of modest, communal accepted, and pious.

A Study of the Art of Abuse in Ola Rotimi's Drama

The study explored the art of abuse in Ola Rotimi’s drama. It identified the art of abuse in his drama. It analysed and discussed the artistic, cultural and sociological import of abuse inthe playwright’s dramaturgy. This was with a view to discussing how the art of abuse projected the comic form, thematic preoccupation, characterisation, conflicts and settings in four selected plays by the playwright. The study employed both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary source comprised four purposively selected plays of Ola Rotimi: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again; Man Talk, Woman Talk; When Criminals Turn Judges and Who is a Patriot? These plays were selected because they manifested ample deployment of the art of abuse. The secondary source included books, journal articles, and the Internet. The data were analysed using the principles of superiority, incongruity and release theory of humour as espoused by Thomas Hobbes and Henri Bergson. The results showed that the employment of abuse in the drama of Ola Rotimi had its foundation in the African performance traditions such as ‘Kami suotoi’ among the Ijaws or Izons of Nigeria and as ‘Halo’ among the Anlo Ewes of Ghana. The study further discovered that through the use of abuse, Rotimi exposed vices and foibles in individuals, groups and institutions while he also offered the audience emotional release through laughter. The study identified various devices of abuse employed among the characters, which include taunt, mimicry, name-calling, imprecation/vituperation and scurrility among others. The study concluded that abuse as a feature of human interactions occupies a significant place in Ola Rotimi’s drama, projecting the comic form, thematic preoccupation, characterisation, conflicts and settings in his plays.

Women’s experiences of ceasing to breastfeed: Australian qualitative study

ObjectiveTo investigate mothers’ infant feeding experiences (breastfeeding/formula milk feeding) with the aim of understanding how women experience cessation of exclusive breastfeeding.DesignMultimethod, qualitative study; questionnaire, focus groups and interviews.SettingNorthern and Southern...

Intergenerational Considerations for Educators and Healthcare Providers Who Assist Girls and Women Transitioning Through Menarche and Menopause

The present study, informed by multigenerational communication, was designed to produce practical implications for mothers, teachers, and healthcare providers who prepare adolescent girls for menarche and women for menopause. Our findings revealed four themes: (1) too little or too much media information; (2) preparation for menarche at and away from home; (3) mothers talk to daughters, fathers talk to sons; and (4) am I normal? An examination into how three generations of women talk about reproductive health within their immediate familial context(s) offers insight for mothers, teachers, and healthcare providers who educate and prepare women for transitions that shape self-confidence, perceptions of themselves in society, and their development of negative and/or positive beliefs about reproductive health.

“It Is So Swedish That You Have to Work”. Returning Swedish Migrant Women’s Negotiations of Gender Equality and Heterosexuality

ABSTRACTNotions of gender equality are strongly linked to the Swedish self-image. This article explores returning Swedish migrant women’s negotiations of heterosexual gender equality ideals based on their experiences of being housewives to middle- and upper-class men with work contracts abroad. From fieldwork conducted within two networks for returning Swedes, the article provides an analysis of the ways in which the women talk about work, gender equality, and domestic workers.The analysis of the women’s accounts of gender relations shows that different ways of doing femininity are central in their narratives. By using the concepts “emphasized femininity” and “gender-equal femininity” the article highlights the different forms of femininity that can be traced in the women’s narratives. Drawing from the empirical examples, it is shown that the women are troubled by Swedish gender equality ideals and express a feeling of not “fitting in” after returning to Sweden. I suggest that the women’s articulations of not “fitting in” to (imagined) gender-equal Sweden tend to downplay the fact that they still have advantages that assist with “fitting in” from social positions such as class, whiteness, and (hetero)sexuality: positions which may create space for negotiating social norms in Sweden.

How Moroccan Muslim Women Negotiate Their Identity in Today’s America

Abstract The aim of this study is to conduct an intersectional analysis of Muslim women identity in the days of anti-globalization in the US. Drawing from longitudinal qualitative interviews, this study explores how women of Islamic Moroccan origins negotiate their identities. One of the goals of this study is to expand intersectionality framework to include more studies on religion. But more importantly is to show that the current “talk” about race in post-elections is opening a hopeful new discursive space that is more “tolerant” to Muslim women.

How Women Talk in Indian Democracy

In democracies, political institutions based on deliberation offer citizens scope for talk-based participation in development and governance. A prominent example is the Indian gram sabha, or village assembly. We undertake a talk-centered analysis of women’s participation in village assemblies and examine if associational membership, in the form of self-help group (SHG) membership, makes a difference in how women frame their concerns and demands addressed to the state. Analyzing 255 village assembly transcripts from four South Indian states, we find that women’s participation varies vastly between states, and SHG membership matters for narrative style. In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, women associated with SHGs employed a wider variety of narrative styles and utilized a more complex structure to convey their problems and demands compared to non-member women. Drawing on this analysis, we argue that SHGs contribute to deepening democracy by improving the quality of women’s participation in deliberative political institutions. We discuss the mechanisms through which this influence might come to bear. This study contributes to understanding the link between associational life and democracy and the political sociology of democracy.

When Syrian ‘Girls’ Meet Turkish ‘Boys’: Mapping Gendered Stories of Mixed Marriages

This article explores the gendered experiences and negotiations of Syrian refugee women throughout forced migration processes and the different strategies during family formation that both Turkish men and Syrian women develop in mixed marriages. Its aim is to unravel fluid gendered experiences that are different from ‘reported’ stereotypical stories in the media and ‘constructed’ in the society. By doing so, we argue that the partners’ narratives in these mixed marriages enable us to map the intricate ways in which agency is used and echoed gendered experiences of couples in forced migration and family formation. We conducted in-depth interviews with eight couples voicing different narratives on how they have negotiated with forms of hierarchies, discourses and how they have refined and transformed their refuge. The incorporation of agency into our analysis unpacked (1) heterogeneity of the spouses and their experiences; (2) potential gendered spaces/discourses to be transformed/refined; and (3) nuances of multifaceted impacts of forced migration. Hence, other than macro studies and tantalizing framings in media, this research offers a dynamic reading of gendered experiences to contribute to the growing literature on Syrian refugees.

Djuna Barnes's Ladies Almanack and the Politicization of Gossip

Written simultaneously for the insiders and outsiders of Natalie Barney's Académie des Femmes, Djuna Barnes's cryptic, playful Ladies Almanack publicizes the coterie's private lives and loves. By positing Barnes's text as a descendent of Les Caquets de l'accouchée, an early work of gossip literature, this essay shows how Barnes critiques and subverts social norms through the seemingly trivial chatter of women's talk. In so doing, she underscores the significance of women's words, redefines the boundary between the public eye and the private life, turns gossip toward progressive ends, and establishes powerful, long-lasting communities of readers and critics.

Men Pause and Women Talk Too Much: Power and Gender Negotiations in Eliciting Data during Semi-Structured Interviews

In most interpretive research, the relationship between the researcher and the participant is sometimes blurred, and the control over the research is often shared by both of them. Not only does power is manifested in all human interaction and all relations, but it is also changeable according to the situation in which they occur. In other words, power is not maintained by one person and resistance usually exists where power is found. However, researchers ought to be conscious of the power hierarchy that exists between the interviewer and the interviewee, which can be minimalized by practicing reflexivity which can minimize objectifying the interviewee and achieving self-awareness throughout the study. This interpretive research study reflects on the process of conducting the interview rather than simply analysing the interview data. I have adopted a phenomenological approach in this study in order to understand the participants’ own experiences and own description of the phenomena. The data revealed that the the power struggle during the interview with the two male interviewees was more prominent than with the female participant. The interview situation resulted in power tension instances between the interviewer and the participants.

La vie sauvage des femmes by Bénédicteb Brézillon

Reviewed by: La vie sauvage des femmes by Bénédicteb Brézillon Davida Brautman Brézillon, Bénédicte. La vie sauvage des femmes. Lattès, 2018. ISBN 978-2-7096-6252-9. Pp. 256. Agathe leads a typical and charmed life: She is a successful business woman, is married, the mother of a young girl and boy, whom she takes to various after-school activities. She likes cooking, has a hard-working and understanding husband, and even gets to go to gallery openings. She is pre-menopausal and still has her sense of humor. So, what could go wrong? "Et toi, tu es qui?" (51). This simple sentence uttered transforms her life: "J'ai rencontré un homme. Le jour se lève avec une nouvelle couleur" (59). Agathe's friends are gossiping hypocrites, insecure and jealous, and fearful perfectionists; in other words, similar to our own. Brézillon peppers her novel with a rich and modern vocabulary, from descriptions of Agathe and the people in her life, to where she lives and works. As she is predominantly in publicity and marketing, her references are accurate. We have a protagonist in full mid-life crisis. The author's references to Grey's Anatomy (in full and accurate detail), Ko Samui, and Xanax help this reader to relate to Agathe. Even her visit to the salon to color her hair for her tryst with Julien M. becomes an investigatory experience, skimming the latest magazines for trends and scandals, and what is new in Botox. Girls' night out also offers the reader a view of how these forty-something-year-old women talk of sex, dating, sex, business, sex, flirting, all while drinking champagne and gnawing on various snacks with rich product/logo names. Finally comes the "j'ai trompé mon mari" (155). Life's boring routine is just that. The Xanax, champagne, interludes—nothing can stop time from aging us. Agathe does not see her life through rose-colored glasses. Even shopping for sexy lingerie is sheer torture for her. She does come to the realization that what she has done is futile and lowers her self-worth. To compensate, she decides to help someone less fortunate regain his esteem. Brézillon uses self-deprecation well. Her knowledge of today's market is limitless, but she falls a bit short for this reader. This is a story we have heard so many times. We are all tempted to see what the grass is like on the other side. We question our self-worth as we age. This is a good fluff piece, but there are no new insights. Toward the end of the novel, we do get the feeling that Agathe has begun to understand that chasing the rainbow does not bring us any closer to the pot of gold. She learns that, to truly survive in her couple, she will have to help reinvent it: "Je pleure sur cette vie sauvage que je dompte derrière mes cils et que j'étouffe dans des rêves d'ailleurs" (283). La vie sauvage des femmes is definitely a novel for today's women trying to balance home, work, and their own sense of value, but it is not original. [End Page 226] Davida Brautman Santa Rosa Alliance Française (CA) Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French

Tales of suffering and strength: women's experiences of working in Nepal's informal entertainment industry

This article gives a deep insight into the experiences of women working in Nepal's growing informal entertainment industry. It documents past experiences of extreme violence as a result of the Maoist insurgency and at home in the form of child abuse, IPV and other forms of domestic violence. It records how these past traumas drove the women to seek new violent-free lives in Kathmandu where the informal entertainment industry offered the best source of income. Despite horrific tales of ongoing harassment from clients, the women talk of the relief they feel at being able to earn an income that can support their children. They talk about increased self-confidence that they link to their ability to earn a good income. The women also shared their coping strategies, the support they gained through peer networks and through a vital local organisation clearly represents critical dimensions in strengthening their resilience to violence.

Obedience and Authority among Muslim Couples: Negotiating Gendered Religious Scripts in Contemporary Indonesia

AbstractThis study of Muslim married couples in Indonesia shows that religiously justified scripts about wives’ obedience and husbands’ household authority are ways of accomplishing gender as well as achieving status as good Muslims. Such scripts are amplified by a context in which a version of Islamic family law that envisions women as primarily domestic and men as household authorities and breadwinners has been institutionalized. However, this vision is also being challenged by women’s increasing educational attainment as well as competing egalitarian discourses of gender in Islam. The gendered religious scripts used by Muslim couples compensate for social changes that threaten to reshape both domestic and public life. I propose that how Muslim men and women talk about their marriages and households has become a key mechanism for accomplishing modern Muslim gender identities in a context where men’s authority is at risk. These dynamics may be especially prevalent in Muslim contexts where Islamic law is becoming more institutionalized in state bureaucracies and everyday life.

Inducing gender/professional identity compatibility promotes women's compensation requests.

In this paper, I examine whether inducing gender/professional identity compatibility prior to a self-advocacy negotiation, may enhance women’s assertiveness in a compensation negotiation and mitigate potential social backlash concerns for assertiveness. In two experimental lab studies where women negotiated with a male counterpart as sellers and job candidates, I found evidence supporting the causal link between state gender/profession identity integration and higher levels of assertiveness in women’s self-advocacy compensation negotiations.

A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War. By Patricia Fara

It has perhaps become cliché to talk of women being hidden from history, but as Patricia Fara’s timely and engrossing history of women scientists in the First World War demonstrates, there are still women whose lives and work are largely forgotten. In A Lab of One’s Own, Fara seeks to reveal the impact of this conflict on women scientists, with particular emphasis on how this history influences women scientists today. Along the way, she rescues from obscurity early women scientists, such as May Leslie, a coalminer’s daughter who won a scholarship to the University of Leeds and worked with Marie Curie, before being hired during the war for secret government research into explosives (p. 152) or Martha Whiteley, who headed a team of women investigating gases used as weapons, often by testing samples on themselves (p. 177). Fara’s meticulously researched book uncovers hundreds more similar stories of women working in labs at universities across the British Isles, before, during and after the First World War. But it does more than just tell the tale of these forgotten women’s experiences: A Lab of One’s Own ‘offers new ways of thinking about the early twentieth century by looking simultaneously at the involvement of science and of women’ (p. 13), and, by exploring these women scientists’ links to the suffrage movement, adds a new dimension to the history of women’s enfranchisement.