Single Pregnant Women\u27s Encounters in Public: Changing Norms or Performing Roles

This paper presents data on single pregnant women\u27s encounters in public in an Irish context. Data were collected using in-depth interviews, which were analysed using a grounded theory strategy. The study was conducted in Dublin City and 51 unmarried women whose ages ranged from 16-36 participated. Findings suggested that while dominant public discourses on non-marital childbearing within the culture were negative (albeit challenged) at the time data were being collected, responses from others whom participants interacted with in verbal face-to-face encounters in public were generally (though certainly not exclusively) experienced as positive in tone. An attempt is made to explain the discrepancy between the mainly negative macro messages and mainly positive micro messages by drawing on Erving Goffman\u27s theory of dramaturgy; it would seem that at the micro-level of interaction, a \u27performance\u27 was being acted out that may be at variance with definitions of non-marital pregnancy expressed by those beyond the encounter

Nurses', physicians' and radiographers' perceptions of the safety of a nurse prescribing of ionising radiation initiative: A cross-sectional survey

Background: A new initiative was introduced in Ireland following legislative changes that allowed nurses with special training to prescribe ionising radiation (X-ray) for the first time. A small number of studies on nurse prescribing of ionising radiation in other contexts have found it to be broadly as safe as ionising radiation prescribing by physicians. Sociological literature on perceptions of safety indicates that these tend to be shaped by the ideological position of the professional rather than based on objective evidence. Objectives: To describe, compare and analyse perceptions of the safety of a nurse prescribing of ionising radiation initiative across three occupational groups: nursing, radiography and medicine. Design: A cross-sectional survey design. Settings: Participants were drawn from a range of clinical settings in Ireland. Participants: Respondents were 167 health professionals comprised of 49 nurses, 91 radiographers, and 27 physicians out of a total of 300 who were invited to participate. Non-probability sampling was employed and the survey was targeted specifically at health professionals with a specific interest in, or involvement with, the development of the nurse prescribing of ionising radiation initiative in Ireland. Methods: Comparisons of perspectives on the safety of nurse prescribing of ionising radiation across the three occupational groups captured by questionnaire were analysed using the Kruskal–Wallis H test. Pairwise post hoc tests were conducted using the Mann–Whitney U test. Results: While the majority of respondents from all three groups perceived nurse prescribing of ionising radiation to be safe, the extent to which this view was held varied. A higher proportion of nurses was found to display confidence in the safety of nurse prescribing of ionising radiation compared to physicians and radiographers with differences between nurses’ perceptions and those of the other two groups being statistically significant. Conclusion: That an occupational patterning emerged suggests that perceptions about safety and risk of nurse prescribing of ionising radiation are socially constructed according to the vantage point of the professional and may not reflect objective measures of safety. These findings need to be considered more broadly in the context of ideological barriers to expanding the role of nurses

Matrilocality and female power: single mothers in extended households

Based on a qualitative study of non-marital pregnancy and childbearing in the Republic of Ireland, this article reports on the gendered power position of unmarried women who return to their parental homes following their babies' births. It is argued that in matrilocal households, centralised male power associated with the traditional nuclear family is diffused to some extent. Empirical evidence to support this notion is to be found in analysing the position of the putative father as ‘guest’ in the home of his partner and child (the martrilocal household) and also in exploring the relationship between the participant and her own father within that household. In relation to her own father, it was found that reproducing an offspring provided the women with some bargaining leverage vis-à-vis her own father within the family home. These reshaped relationships represent, to some extent at least, the undercutting of centralised male authority within the household. Non-marital childbearing in Ireland has increased sharply in the past 20 years (Central Statistics Office, 1974–1994, 1995, 1996), and there is evidence that many unmarried women who have children return to their parental home after the birth Flanagan & Richardson 1992 and Richardson 1992.1 This article reports on the experiences of a subsample of non-marital mothers who returned to their parental home after the babies' births, and focuses specifically on their gendered power position within the parental home since becoming mothers. The matrilocal2 extended family involved a complex network of relations and, it is argued, was the location where traditional patriarchal structures were found to be undermined. Where relations with the putative father were sustained, the power status of the male partner vis-à-vis the participant and child within the matrilocal extended family was eroded to a considerable extent, compared with the power position traditionally held by the male as presumed head of household3 in the nuclear family. Even in those situations where participants were no longer in relationships with the putative fathers, their power position in the home vis-à-vis their own fathers was frequently altered in their favour with the birth of the baby. The article will begin by outlining the methodological stance adopted in the study. This will be followed by an analysis of data on both participants' and putative fathers' positions within the matrilocal home. Participants' relationships with their own fathers since the babies' births will also be theorised. Since the focus of this article is on gendered power experiences within the home, the actual mothering experiences of the women will not be analysed other than where they mediate power relationships and are relevant to the central issue of the article. In conducting the study, there was no a priori assumption that non-marital childbearing was problematic; however, the stigmatisation of this style of mothering in the past Arensberg & Kimball 1968, Darling 1984, Kilkenny Social Services 1972, O'Hare, Dromey, O'Connor, Clarke, & Kirwan 1987, Smyth 1992 and Viney 1964, women's continued disadvantaged position within marriage (see Delphy 1992, Smart 1984 and Walby 1990), and the sharp increase in non-marital motherhood in Ireland (Central Statistics Office, 1974–1994, 1995, 1996) prompted an exploration of the topic.AMS No Keywords given

Gender differences in the responses of parents to their daughter's non-marital pregnancy

Author has checked copyrightSB. 21/03/201

Marriage and motherhood: the contradictory position of single mothers

Author has checked copyrightSB. 21/03/201

The medicalisation of childbearing norms: encounters between unmarried pregnant women and medical personnel in an Irish context

Author has checked copyrightSB. 21/03/201

Single pregnant women's encounters in public: changing norms or performing roles?

This paper presents data on single pregnant women's encounters in public in an Irish context. Data were collected using in-depth interviews, which were analysed using a grounded theory strategy. The study was conducted in Dublin City and 51 unmarried women whose ages ranged from 16-36 participated. Findings suggested that while dominant public discourses on non-marital childbearing within the culture were negative (albeit challenged) at the time data were being collected, responses from others whom participants interacted with in verbal face-toface encounters in public were generally (though certainly not exclusively) experienced as positive in tone. An attempt is made to explain the discrepancy between the mainly negative macro messages and mainly positive micro messages by drawing on Erving Goffman's theory of dramaturgy; it would seem that at the micro-level of interaction, a 'performance' was being acted out that may be at variance with definitions of non-marital pregnancy expressed by those beyond the encounter.Author has checked copyrightRB 20/03/1