The Science Question in Feminism

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

Earlier treatments of moderatum generalization (e.g. Williams, 2000a) explicitly addressed interpretivist sociology. This article extends that earlier argument by examining some of its implications for a wider range of qualitative research methods. It first adopts an empirical approach, providing concrete illustrations from the most recent volume of Sociology of what sociologists actually do when describing the meaning of their findings. In the light of this, we reconsider the significance of moderatum generalization for research practice and the status of sociological knowledge, in particular making the case that research design should plan for anticipated generalizations, and that generalization should be more explicitly formulated within a context of supporting evidence.

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Generalization in Qualitative Research

The Cambridge Handbook of Age and Ageing, first published in 2005, is a guide to the body of knowledge, theory, policy and practice relevant to age researchers and gerontologists around the world. It contains almost 80 original chapters, commissioned and written by the world's leading gerontologists from 16 countries and 5 continents. The broad focus of the book is on the behavioural and social sciences but it also includes important contributions from the biological and medical sciences. It provides comprehensive, accessible and authoritative accounts of all the key topics in the field ranging from theories of ageing, to demography, physical aspects of ageing, mental processes and ageing, nursing and health care for older people, the social context of ageing, cross cultural perspectives, relationships, quality of life, gender, and financial and policy provision. This handbook will be a must-have resource for all researchers, students and professionals with an interest in age and ageing.

The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing

http://www.cicred.org/Eng/Seminars/Details/Seminars/santefemmes/ACTES/Com_Fuhrer.PDF

How gender affects patterns of social relations and their impact on health: a comparison of one or multiple sources of support from "close persons".

This article considers the extent to which gerontological theories, that highlight the problems associated with later life, reflect the experiences of older women across ethnic and cultural difference It is based on an ESRC research study examining women’s experiences of growing old across ethnicity and culture Concepts that are often used to measure these experiences include ‘quality of life’ and ‘successful ageing’These are linked to other culturally related concepts such as agency, self-autonomy, independence and dis/empowermentYet, while it is the case that the meanings attached to these concepts change according to locality and context, they are often applied in a way that reifies dominant values and perceptions
Central to this article is the contention that gerontological approaches have often made ethnic and cultural experiences of later life invisible Further, such approaches have assumed that agency is something that is either present or absent and that this is linked almost exclusively to income, housing, and other structures A key argument is that this has led to an overstatement of the effects of structural disadvantage and a neglect of the diverse individual and collective strategies women use to maintain agency and control in later life Empirical evidence presented in the article suggests there are significant cultural differences in the meanings older women attach to self-fulfilment and ‘successful ageing’

Women Growing Older: Agency, ethnicity and culture

Ageing ‘successfully’ in western society has often been associated with material issues relating to declining health, social care and welfare. Indeed, it has been suggested that these topics have d...

What Constitutes Agency and Empowerment for Women in Later Life

In this article we explore the issue of what it means to be "fat" for women in Western (British/North American) society. Contemporary gendered biomedical discourse currently dominates attitudes toward body shapes and sizes (Bordo, 1995). Further, under the rhetoric of "health," a large body size has come to be symbolic of self-indulgence and moral failure. In this article we argue this may lead women to question both their sense of self and their rights to adequate health care. Our aims are threefold: first, to challenge rigid hegemonic biomedical perspectives on "fatness" and the oppressive unequal power relations they may create; second, to examine the process by which such perspectives come to be the only legitimate discourse; third, to consider the impact of pathological medicalised definitions of "obesity" on women's perceptions of their bodies and experiences of health services.

The Medicalization of Body Size and Women's Healthcare

http://www.yorku.ca/mandell/courses/4680/pdf/Wray%202007%20PDF%20file.pdf

Women making sense of midlife: Ethnic and cultural diversity

This paper examines midlife women's experiences of exercise and health promotion initiatives and the extent to which these contribute to health and well-being. Many attempts have been made to conceptualise well-being and construct ways of measuring it. An argument of this paper is that these conceptualizations have tended to be overly dominated by psychological and physiological concerns, leading to a neglect of well-being as a socially located phenomenon. Further, understandings of well-being have come to be associated with individualistic notions of agency that emphasize the self as the primary agent of personal well-being. This is evident in recent initiatives that seek to promote participation in exercise regimes as key ingredients of health and well-being. Drawing on qualitative research with Pakistani, British Muslim, white English, British, African Caribbean, black, and West Indian women, the aims of this paper are three-fold. First, to examine current perspectives on well-being and their relationship to individualized notions of responsibility for health. Second, to consider the extent to which health promotion advice empowers midlife women and contributes toward their health and well-being. Third, to question how these initiatives are perceived and experienced by women across ethnic diversity.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.sth.8700100.pdf

Sharon Wray

Papers

Women Growing Older: Agency, ethnicity and culture

What Constitutes Agency and Empowerment for Women in Later Life

The Medicalization of Body Size and Women's Healthcare

Women making sense of midlife: Ethnic and cultural diversity

Health, Exercise, and Well-Being: The Experiences of Midlife Women from Diverse Ethnic Backgrounds