“The world around me”: The environment and single women

The “environment” has often been taken as a backdrop for feminist research and theory, as a setting within which issues of feminist concern are played out. This environment, however, is not a neutral setting; rather, research over the past 15 years has evidenced the assumptions about “a woman's place” as a man's wife literally built into women's worlds. Space speaks, and the stories it tells center around particular and identifiable assumptions about gender and where a woman “should” be, when, and with whom. Unmarried women are in a unique position in this environment: they are subjected not only to the economic disadvantages and social subjugation of being a woman, but also to the social and economic drawbacks of being single in a couple-oriented society and in an environment they see as not built for them. Although research exists on the sexism in the physical environment, on women's economic and social position, and on singlehood, a need exists to bridge these areas to explore how single women experience their singlehood, their womanhood, and the environment in their everyday lives and decision making. I conducted in-depth interviews with 25 single women, 23 white and 2 African-American women, about their experiences of living single. This article, based on the results of those interviews and a series of focus group discussions, examines how single women negotiate and respond to their necessary environmental decisions about housing, transportation, and leisure activities in an environment not likely to be conducive to their ways of life.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45605/1/11199_2005_Article_BF01544591.pd

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Like a Natural Woman: Negotiating Collective Gender Identity in an Alternative World

This article examines how women visiting an alternative, politicized community interact with the construction of womanhood presented in that context. The concept of collective gender identity is suggested as a tool for considering how ideas about what it means to be a woman (or a man) can be communicated and negotiated in microlevel interactions within social movements. The case examined here, immersion courses on midwifery in an alternative community, illustrates the use of environmental, instrumental, and social technologies to transmit a particular construction of womanhood. Findings point to ways women enrolled in these intensive courses respond to the particular meaning of gender embraced by the community. This research raises questions about the place of shared gender identity in a group context and the possible ties between that identity and larger movement dynamics

Rape narratives in the United States: Feminism, culture and the construction of rape as a social problem.

The meaning of rape in the 20\sp{\rm th} century US has been unstable, shifting dramatically in conjunction with larger changes in the social construction of gender, race and sexual normalcy. The post-1971 changes in rape's definition and social significance are the most dramatic shifts in cultural constructions of sexual assault this century. Largely as a result of the contemporary feminist movement, today we--as a society and often as individuals--no longer think of, respond to or talk about rape as we did prior to the 1970s. Feminism opened the door to rape's meaning and, in doing so, created a narrative space in which the meaning of sexual violence was contested. As a result of dramatic changes in its meaning, rape provides a vivid and sociologically powerful case study in the construction of social problems. This dissertation presents an in-depth analysis of the construction of sexual assault as highly charged social problem. In examining the history of social change in rape's meaning in the United States, this dissertation evidences several key findings. First, the research presented here illustrates the importance of the narrative form to the construction of meaning. Second, this dissertation highlights the centrality of culture to contemporary social change and the particular importance of the mass media to political struggles. Third, this analysis of rape documents to the power of the contemporary anti-rape feminist movement's efforts to redefine rape as a social problem. Moreover, current interpretations of rape in the law, the media and by women in their everyday lives illustrate the extraordinary success of feminist beliefs about rape, rapists and rape victims. Fourth and finally, the research presented in this dissertation gestures to the diversity in women's ideas about rape--although some ideas about rape are embraced by most women, they often define and explain rape in divergent ways. Through exploration of the history of rape's meaning, examination of feminist discourse and politics, narrative analysis of media tales of rape and in-depth original research into women's ideas, this dissertation provides a unique, powerful look at one of the most high-profile social problems in the United States today.Ph.D.American studiesCriminologySocial SciencesSocial researchWomen's studiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/130915/2/9825180.pd

Midwife To Myself : Birth Narratives Among Women Choosing Unassisted Homebirth

Most pregnant women in the United States today choose a normative physician-guided pregnancy followed by a medically managed hospital birth. Some, however, choose the care of a midwife during pregnancy and birth, whether in the hospital or, more rarely, at home. Despite growing research on both these paths, a third option chosen by some women has rarely been studied: a planned birth at home with neither a doctor nor a midwife assisting. In this article, I examine the stories told by women in this under-researched population to consider how they make and explain this highly unusual choice. Analysis of online birth stories and in-depth interviews with women who planned and had an unassisted homebirth reveal ways in which these women rely on competing discourses of midwifery and medicine to craft a unique sense of agency in birth

On the Margins of the Periphery: Unassisted Childbirth and the Management of Layered Stigma

This article examines an unusual practice-unassisted childbirth-and the ways in which advocates and practitioners manage the stigma they are accorded. Given their doubly deviant status as not only women who birth at home but also as women who choose to give birth without professional assistance, these women provide a unique case for our theoretical understanding of stigma management. As members of homebirth social networks, the women must reckon with what I term layered stigma, the broad stigma of homebirth as well as the deeper in-group stigma within their deviant community that results from their rejection of midwives as appropriate care providers. By examining the dynamics of stigma management among practitioners of unassisted childbirth, I highlight the complex, situation-dependent nature of stigma and the impact of its management on women\u27s sense of self

Constructing Rape: Feminism, Change, and Women\u27s Everyday Understandings of Sexual Assault

The cultural and legal meaning of rape has changed dramatically over the past 30 years as the feminist movement has challenged traditional constructions of sexual violence and offered an alternative construction of the meaning of rape. The transformation of rape into a social problem has brought increased attention to the subject in both popular and academic realms. Despite the growing body of research and theory on sexual violence, little inquiry exists into women\u27s everyday constructions of rape and the degree to which such constructions have been influenced by the feminist movement This article uses a constructionist framework to examine the everyday understandings of rape held by a diverse sample of women. Data gathered through an open-ended survey instrument were analyzed to reveal both interesting similarities and significant differences in the ways women of different ages, races, and personal histories define and interpret the phenomenon of rape. By examining these data, the extent to which the feminist reconstruction of rape has influenced women\u27s everyday assumptions is examined, and the role of differences among women in perceptions of rape is explored. The findings presented in this article have implications for theories of social problems, for feminist discourse, and for the application of research on rape in applied settings

If They Don\u27t Care, I Don\u27t Care\u27: Millennial and Generation Z Students and the Impact of Faculty Caring

This article draws on a qualitative study of 31 Millennial and Generation Z students to examine the meaning of teacher caring in a higher education context. Prior research clearly documents the importance of caring to student engagement, although much of that scholarship focuses on secondary schooling. Research also examines the changing demographics of higher education and new expectations brought to college classrooms by Millennials and others. In this article, we connect the existing research on caring and on generational differences to explore how traditional-aged undergraduates define caring and the degree to which that impacts their willingness to learn. Our findings indicate that students value approachability and relatability as traits in a caring professor; we also find that in-class pedagogical practices can dramatically demonstrate care or lack thereof. Our research suggests that the student success agenda in higher education must take in-class teaching practices seriously in order to impact students\u27 engagement and motivation to learn

Women\u27s Childbirth Preferences and Practices in the United States

Over the past two decades, research on childbirth worldwide has documented women\u27s varied perceptions of and decision-making regarding childbirth. Scholars have demonstrated the impact of medical authority, religion, perception of risk, and access to care providers on the decisions women make about where to have their babies and with whom. Virtually all research on how women make these choices, however, has focused outside the United States. To address this gap in the literature, we analyze data collected during 2004-2010 through 135 in-depth interviews with women in the U.S. who have had hospital births, homebirths with midwives, and homebirths without professional assistance to explore the factors that led them to the births they had. We supplement these interview data with archival analysis of birth stories and ethnographic data to offer additional insight into women\u27s birth experiences. In our analysis. we utilize Pierre Bourdieu\u27s concepts of habitus and field to examine the ways women\u27s preferences emerge and how a sense of risk and safety shape their decision-making around pregnancy and parturition. Our findings indicate that while women\u27s birth preferences initially emerge from their habitus, their birth practices are ultimately shaped by broader structural forces, particularly economic position and the availability of birth options. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved