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Book part
Publication date: 28 November 2022

Sam George-Allen

The voluntarily childless woman is constructed in Western cultural consciousness as an aberration. Against her will, she is perceived as defective, deviant, unnatural and…

Abstract

The voluntarily childless woman is constructed in Western cultural consciousness as an aberration. Against her will, she is perceived as defective, deviant, unnatural and incomplete. However, online community spaces are providing opportunities for childfree women to connect with one another, take hold of the narrative of their lives and in doing so write into being a new way of doing womanhood that intentionally claims deviance as its defining characteristic. In this chapter, I explore the ways in which women participants in online childfree communities write their identities against hegemonic markers of ‘good’ womanhood, recasting the heroes and villains of Western culture's persistent myth of mandatory motherhood.

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Divergent Women
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-678-1

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Book part
Publication date: 21 August 2015

Jennifer Rothchild

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the ways in which gender is socially constructed through transnational adoption.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the ways in which gender is socially constructed through transnational adoption.

Methodology/approach

Feminist methodologies and reflexivity are put into practice. Life histories of women who participate in transnational adoptions are presented.

Findings

Life history narratives shed light on how these particular women, through the process of transnational adoption, experience gender differently and in more complex ways. Adoptive mothers’ negotiations (and renegotiations) of their own gender contribute to our understandings of how motherhood (and, thereby, womanhood) is constructed in broader society.

Research limitations/implications

Life histories provide rich, thick descriptions of social life. However, they are limited in terms of reliability and making generalizations about larger populations.

Practical implications

This chapter engages the reader, scholars, students, practitioners, and policy-makers in contemplating the processes of motherhood and womanhood.

Social implications

The chapter is a building block for future research on this topic and challenges our understandings of “motherhood” and “womanhood.”

Originality/value

This chapter is unique in that I include my own life narrative and story of becoming a mother through transnational adoption. Through reflexivity, the researcher becomes the subject and vice versa. These life history narratives offer insight through their expressions of “everyday knowledge” (Hill Collins, 2000) and bring new dimensions to the study of gender as these women’s experiences are situated within the intersections of the global economy, specific political systems, and individual identities.

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At the Center: Feminism, Social Science and Knowledge
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-078-4

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Abstract

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Women and the Abuse of Power
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-335-9

Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2017

Megan Nanney

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to examine women’s college alumnae’s gender panics surrounding transgender admittance policies and negotiations on how to define the…

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to examine women’s college alumnae’s gender panics surrounding transgender admittance policies and negotiations on how to define the boundaries of the alumnae community in moments of these panics.

Methodology/Approach: I explore these negotiations by conducting a modified grounded theory approach of online discussion threads of one women’s college alumnae Facebook group from 2013 to 2016. These threads (39 threads; 2,812 comments) discuss transgender admissions policies at women’s colleges and the definition of woman more broadly.

Findings: I outline three strategies that define who belongs to a women’s college community in response to peers’ gender panics. First, I discuss the ways in which alumnae “call out hate” and label exclusionary peers as Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFS). Second, I discuss the negotiated boundaries of who is included within the women’s college community. Finally, I focus on the recommended suggestions and expectations for fellow alumnae to be allies toward their trans peers.

Social Implications: These findings imply that feminist boundary negotiation is not only simply based on external threats, but can also be debated among members within the community.

Originality/Value of Study: This study highlights the nuances and strategies of boundary construction in regards to the social category of woman. I propose that researchers expand theorizations of gendered boundary negotiation to consider the ways in which boundaries are drawn not only as a form of panic and exclusion but also as a response to such panics to promote inclusivity and diversity.

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Gender Panic, Gender Policy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-203-1

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Book part
Publication date: 26 May 2021

Megan Covington and Nadrea R. Njoku

Nearly 45 years ago, the Combahee River Collective, a group of Black feminists, released their statement, which served as a call to action to address gaps in contemporary Black…

Abstract

Nearly 45 years ago, the Combahee River Collective, a group of Black feminists, released their statement, which served as a call to action to address gaps in contemporary Black feminism by engaging in antiracist and antisexist identity politics. In 1983, Jacqueline Fleming explored the making of matriarchs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Since then, there have been few explorations into the construction of Black womanhood at HBCUs (Njoku, 2017). Educational research across contexts that explores the construction of gender among African-American women has also been limited. This demonstrates a need to speak truth to power, challenging existing power structures throughout the academy. The inadequacy of educational narratives from Sistas at HBCUs, and across all institutional contexts, has yielded a single story of resilience that is used to validate the need for research on Black men, yet ignore Black women. As we look upon the survival of HBCUs beyond 2020, we must reconsider the ways that HBCUs contribute to the idea of identity politics and the existing challenges to these identity politics within HBCUs. In this chapter, we argue the importance for HBCU leaders to engage the Combahee River Collective's call by intentionally investing in Black women and amplifying narratives that give depth and debunk the myths and ignorance of Black women's college experiences. Truth-telling in this case harnesses the voices of African-American women at HBCUs “in the specific goal of confronting existing power relations”. We provide an updated response to the Combahee River Collective Statement in which we delve into the ways HBCUs contribute to identity politics and the challenges to identity politics at HBCUs. This chapter challenges power relations not only within the context that the narratives occurred but also within an academy that has failed to excavate them, until now.

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Reimagining Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-664-0

Article
Publication date: 14 December 2021

Peter Nugus, Joanne Travaglia, Maureen MacGinley, Deborah Colliver, Maud Mazaniello-Chezol, Fernanda Claudio and Lerona Dana Lewis

Researchers often debate health service structure. Understanding of the practical implications of this debate is often limited by researchers' neglect to integrate participants'…

Abstract

Purpose

Researchers often debate health service structure. Understanding of the practical implications of this debate is often limited by researchers' neglect to integrate participants' views on structural options with discourses those views represent. As a case study, this paper aims to discern the extent to which and how conceptual underpinnings of stakeholder views on women's health contextualize different positions in the debate over the ideal structure of health services.

Design/methodology/approach

The researchers chose a self-standing, comprehensive women's health service facing the prospect of being dispersed into “mainstream” health services. The researchers gathered perspectives of 53 professional and consumer stakeholders in ten focus groups and seven semi-structured interviews, analyzed through inductive thematic analysis.

Findings

“Women's marginalization” was the core theme of the debate over structure. The authors found clear patterns between views on the function of women's health services, women's health needs, ideal client group, ideal health service structure and particular feminist discourses. The desire to re-organize services into separate mainstream units reflected a liberal feminist discourse, conceiving marginalization as explicit demonstration of its effects, such as domestic abuse. The desire to maintain a comprehensive women's health service variously reflected post-structural feminism's emphasis on plurality of identities, and a radical feminist discourse, holding that womanhood itself constituted a category of marginalization – that is, merely being at risk of unmet health needs.

Originality/value

As a contribution to health organizational theory, the paper shows that the discernment of discursive underpinnings of particular stakeholder views can clarify options for the structure of health services.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 36 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

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Book part
Publication date: 21 November 2022

Jilly Boyce Kay

Within the fields of feminist media and cultural studies, questions around authenticity and gender have become increasingly pronounced in recent years. This chapter outlines the…

Abstract

Within the fields of feminist media and cultural studies, questions around authenticity and gender have become increasingly pronounced in recent years. This chapter outlines the scope of this work by not only examining the extent to which digital media culture increasingly trades in ideas of ‘realness’ and of ‘being yourself’ but also the consequences of this for particular marginal groups, including women, queer and feminised people. Three significant avenues for research around authenticity are also discussed: masculinity, authenticity and victimhood; feminism, trauma and ‘authentic voice’; and feminism, transphobia and ‘authentic womanhood’.

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Cultures of Authenticity
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-937-9

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Book part
Publication date: 6 February 2013

Heather E. Dillaway and Elizabeth R. Paré

Purpose – Within cultural discourse, prescriptions for “good” motherhood exist. To further the analysis of these prescriptions, we examine how media conversations about Republican…

Abstract

Purpose – Within cultural discourse, prescriptions for “good” motherhood exist. To further the analysis of these prescriptions, we examine how media conversations about Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and First Lady Michelle Obama during the 2008 presidential election campaign illustrate existing notions of good motherhood.Methods – Using qualitative content analysis techniques, we review media discourse about Palin, Clinton, and Obama during this campaign. We use existing feminist literature on motherhood and an intersectionality perspective to ground our analysis, comparing and contrasting discourse about these political figures.Findings – The 2008 campaign represented a campaign for good motherhood as much as it represented a campaign for the next president. Discourse on Palin, Clinton, and Obama creates three very different characterizations of mothers: the bad, working mother and failed supermom (Palin), the unfeeling, absent mother (Clinton), and the intensive, stay-at-home mother (Obama). The campaign reified a very narrow, ideological standard for good motherhood and did little to broaden the acceptability of mothers in politics.Value of paper – This article exemplifies the type of intersectional work that can be done in the areas of motherhood and family. Applying an intersectionality perspective in the analysis of media discourse allows us to see exactly how the 2008 campaign became a campaign for good motherhood. Moreover, until we engage in an intersectional analysis of this discourse, we might not see that the reification of good motherhood within campaign discourse is also a reification of hegemonic gender, race, class, age, and family structure locations.

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Notions of Family: Intersectional Perspectives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-535-7

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Book part
Publication date: 23 August 2018

Melissa Graham, Beth Turnbull, Hayley McKenzie and Ann Taket

Women’s reproductive circumstances and choices have consequences for their experiences of social connectedness, inclusion and support across the life-course. Australia is a…

Abstract

Women’s reproductive circumstances and choices have consequences for their experiences of social connectedness, inclusion and support across the life-course. Australia is a pronatalist country and women’s social identity remains strongly linked to motherhood. Yet the number of women foregoing motherhood is increasing. Despite this, women without children are perceived as failing to achieve womanhood as expected by pronatalist ideologies that assume all women are or will be mothers. Defying socially determined norms of motherhood exposes women without children to negative stereotyping and stigma, which has consequences for their social connectedness, inclusion and support. This chapter examines theories of social connectedness, inclusion and support, drawing on Australian empirical data to explore how women without children experience social connectedness, inclusion and support in a pronatalist society within their daily lives.

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Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-362-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 August 2018

Kimiko Tanaka and Deborah Lowry

Japanese women’s life courses have changed dramatically in recent history. Yet, transformation of the meanings and experiences of childlessness did not follow a linear…

Abstract

Japanese women’s life courses have changed dramatically in recent history. Yet, transformation of the meanings and experiences of childlessness did not follow a linear, one-dimensional path. Childlessness in Japan today – strongly influenced by Western, modern education after the World War II – can indeed be interpreted as a form of liberation from a restrictively gendered life-course. However, in Japan’s pre-modern period, there were in fact alternative paths available for women to remain childless. As Japan became nationalised and the meanings of Japanese womanhood shifted, childlessness became increasingly stigmatised and notably, stigmatised across social classes.

This chapter provides concise accounts of the social meanings of marriage and fertility from the Tokugawa period through the Meiji period and continues with analysis of pressures faced by contemporary Japanese women who are childless. Also highlighted are the particular socio-demographic contexts which have brought involuntary childlessness, too, into the realms of public discussion and expected action on the part of the government. Through its account of the Japanese context, this chapter emphasises the larger theoretical, sociological argument that the historically placed social construction of childlessness – and thus, of the experiences and identities of childless women – always occurs through particular intersections of cultural, political-economic and demographic conditions.

Details

Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-362-1

Keywords

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