Doherty, Rosalie (2019) the Broken Triangle: Women's Gender Based Oppression, Community Development and the Promotion of Women
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Doherty, Rosalie (2019) The broken triangle: women’s gender based oppression, community development and the promotion of women’s health and wellbeing in Ireland. Ed.D thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/75192/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The broken triangle: women’s gender based oppression, community development and the promotion of women’s health and wellbeing in Ireland. Rosalie Doherty M.A. Ed. University of Southampton Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education School of Education, College of Social Sciences University of Glasgow August 2018 1 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements ......................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter ........................................................ 11 1.1 Rationale and Research questions ............................................... 11 1.1.1 Research Questions .............................................................. 14 1.2 My experience of women’s health in Health Promotion ...................... 14 1.2.1 The national plan for women’s health ........................................ 15 1.2.2 The move to community development ....................................... 17 1.3 Feminism in Ireland ................................................................ 18 1.4 Nationalism, patriarchy and the Irish Constitution............................ 23 1.4.1 The Irish Constitution ........................................................... 26 1.5 The road ahead ..................................................................... 30 1.6 Exploration of my positionality .................................................. 32 1.6.1 Positionality in Feminism and Feminist research ........................... 33 1.6.2 Using autoethnography to explore my position as an ‘insider/Outsider’ 36 1.6.3 Postcoloniality and crossing borders .......................................... 41 1.7 Brief outline of Chapters .......................................................... 45 Chapter 2: Theory and concepts ....................................................... 47 2.1 Defining feminism .................................................................. 47 2.1.1 First wave and Liberal feminism .............................................. 50 2.1.2 Second wave, Liberal and Radical feminisms ................................ 52 2.1.3 Feminist standpoint theory ..................................................... 56 2.1.4 The social construction of gender ............................................. 60 2.1.5 Patriarchy ......................................................................... 66 2.2 The social construction of health – the medical model ...................... 68 2.2.1 An androcentric medical model of health ................................... 70 2.3 The social construction of health and the social determinants model ..... 74 2.3.1 Inequity v inequality ............................................................ 76 2.4 Women’s health .................................................................... 77 2.4.1 Women’s health: a matter of social justice ................................. 80 Chapter 3: Health Promotion and Community Development: different disciplines, common issues ............................................................... 84 2 3.1 Setting the scene – an introduction to the connections between health promotion and community development ............................................ 84 3.2 Health Promotion as a Discipline: introduction and general issues ......... 86 3.2.1 Ethics and evidence in health promotion .................................... 88 3.2.2 Health promotion and a community development approach .............. 92 3.2.3 Barriers to community engagement ........................................... 95 3.3 Community Development as a discipline: introduction and general issues 97 3.4 Common issues between the disciplines of Health Promotion and Community Development in Ireland ................................................ 100 3.4.1 Neoliberalist ideology .......................................................... 100 3.4.2 New Public Management in health promotion and community development ........................................................................... 103 3.5 The Irish cultural context and gender-blind practice ........................ 110 3.5 Conclusions ......................................................................... 115 Chapter Four: Methodology ............................................................. 117 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 117 4.2 Research paradigm ................................................................ 117 4.2.1 The Radical paradigm .......................................................... 117 4.2.2 Connecting the Radical paradigm and the theoretical framework of social constructionist feminism ............................................................. 120 4.3 Research design ................................................................... 121 4.4 Ethical considerations ............................................................ 123 4.5 Method and recruitment ......................................................... 124 4.5 Data collection – my experience ................................................ 131 4.6 The Research questions .......................................................... 136 4.7 Thematic analysis ................................................................. 142 4.8 Autoethnography .................................................................. 143 4.9 Looking forward ................................................................... 145 Chapter 5: Participants’ Understanding of health and wellbeing ................. 147 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 147 5.2 Accommodating gender as a determinant of women’s health and wellbeing ........................................................................................... 148 5.3 Women, health promotion and a deficit model of health ................... 154 5.4 Traveller women’s health and wellbeing – the intersection of sexism and racism ................................................................................... 157 3 5.4.1 Responses to Research into Traveller health needs ....................... 162 5.5 Reflections on local women’s networks ....................................... 165 5.5 Reflections on adolescent pregnancy .......................................... 168 5.6 Conclusions on health and wellbeing ........................................... 170 Chapter 6: Participants’ understandings of gender ................................. 172 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 172 6.2 Memories of gender ............................................................... 173 6.2.1 Memories of gender - Manifestation ......................................... 173 6.2.2 Memories of gender - Impact and Response ................................ 179 6.3 Gender consciousness, feminist consciousness or feminist identity? ...... 188 6.4 Doing and undoing gender in adult life ........................................ 191 6.4.1 Introduction ..................................................................... 191 6.4.2 Manifestation .................................................................... 192 6.4.3 Impact/Response ............................................................... 196 6.5 Concluding remarks ............................................................... 207 6.5.1 Opportunities and limitations ................................................. 207 Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions ................................................ 213 7.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 213 7.1.1 Key findings ...................................................................... 214 7.2 Discussion: participants’ understanding of gender ........................... 215 7.2.1 Introduction ..................................................................... 215 7.2.2 Gender as a social construct .................................................. 216 7.2.3 Critical reflection ............................................................... 220 7.2.4 Doing and undoing gender ..................................................... 220 7.3 Conclusions regarding gender ................................................... 222 7.4 Discussion: participants’ understanding of health and wellbeing .......... 224 7.4.1 The social model of health and community development ................ 224 7.4.2 Understandings of health and wellbeing .................................... 226 7.4.3 Health and wellbeing and gender and the relationship