W5 - THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF REPRODUCTION Flashcards
1
Q
Explain menstruation and fertility
A
- Universally considered to be a symbol of women’s health and fertility
- ‘Menstrual regulation’ is a source of tension between a woman and others in the family/culture
- The control of women’s fertility has traditionally been
- Assumed by religious leaders
- Constrained by social norms
- Enacted through legal mandate
- Women’s menstrual cycles and fertility have been bound up in medical care through the ages
- E.g. Hysteria in the late 19th century
- Role of oral contraception pill (OCP) in allowing women to control fertility
- The age of menarche (first cycle of menstruation) has dropped through the years
- Due to changes in nutrition, obesity and social explanations
2
Q
What are some influences on menstrual myths and interpretations?
A
- Every culture has myths regarding menstruation - it has become a socially constructed problem
- Something to be feared as well as a hygienic crisis
- Encouraged guilt, diminished self-esteem and “illness”
- Lack of access to sanitation infrastructure (toilets in schools and communities, laundering, costs)
- Common myths and taboos
- “Menotoxins” - alleged bacterial toxicity of menstrual blood
- Supposed to wither plants, turn wine, spoil pickles and make sex a risk to men
- No scientific evidence for their existence
- Odour of menstrual blood as a reason for taboo
- Menstrual odour affecting animal behaviour is cited, especially among foraging societies
- Empirical evidence is inconclusive
- “Dumb Boyfriend” - women’s bodies are a mystery to men
- Scientific solutions - biological problem that needs science to solve
- Disguised packages - periods should be a mystery and should remain a secret to other people
- “Menotoxins” - alleged bacterial toxicity of menstrual blood
- In some cultures, there is a positive ritual of entering adulthood and a symbol of fertility
- Experiences adapted for modern era - lots of websites led by feminine hygiene product companies
- However, the advertisements of these products still reflect the myths and taboos associated with women’s bodies
- Focussing on the importance of peer support over that of adults
- Experiences adapted for modern era - lots of websites led by feminine hygiene product companies
3
Q
What were the themes particular to each generation regarding menstruation?
A
- 1940s
- Depict menstruation as unclean, odorous and unmentionable in any direct fashion
- Medical approval for use of these products was often intimated through people and symbols
- Older teenagers and women not girls
- 1980s-2000s
- Modified their approach in line with changing views – comfort and protection emerge as themes
- Athletic and active themes appear especially in tampon advertisements
- Aimed at women/teenagers in their 20s
- 2010s+
- Environmental friendliness
- A symbol of womanhood
- Humour – savvy teens
- Aimed at much younger girls
- “Normal” part of life
- Blood appears for the first time – toughness
- No longer to be hidden – gaining agency over bodies
4
Q
Explain the social functions of families
A
- Families involve
- Common identity
- Economic co-operation and ownership
- Reproduction and the next generation
- Care work and domestic labour
- Co-residence
- They thus fill various social roles
- Economic
- Controlled wealth and income, seeking work and the consumption of goods
- Political
- Providing political socialisation, establishing patterns of authority and maintaining principles of inheritance
- Communal
- Integrating tribal or kinship identity and forming local networks of relationships for caring, for allocation of resources and for friendship
- Cultural
- Passing on values and standards, setting norms of acceptable behaviour and establishing leisure activities
- Sexual
- Controlling sexual relationships and human reproduction
- Economic
5
Q
What shifts in family structures have occurred over the last 30 years?
A
- Major social and economic changes in Australia in the last 30 years have led to a significant shift in family structures
- Declining fertility rates
- Increasing preference for smaller families
- Education of women
- Costs
- Social expectations
- Increasing number of de facto relationships
- Increasing divorce rates
- Increasing numbers of one-parent families
- Increasing labour force participation of women of child-bearing age
- Increasing joblessness in families
6
Q
What are the different types of families in today’s society?
A
- Couples without children
- 35% of population
- Couples with dependent children
- 45%
- One-parent families with dependent children
- 16%
- Couples with non-dependent children only
- 8%
- One-parent families with non-dependent children
- 5%
7
Q
What are the different types of diverse families in today’s society?
A
- Single parent families
- Better outcomes than in a relationship with parental conflict
- May be a planned conscious decision
- Stepfamilies and blended families
- Account for less than 6.5% of all families in 2016
- Blended families may show more problems in family relationships, parenting and child adjustment than “simple” stepfamilies
- Stepparents often have feelings of confusion adjusting to new roles
- Conflicts with former and present spouses over legal, financial and childrearing matters
- Extended families
- Consists of several generations living in the same household
- 2016 census
- 8.3% of households contained extended family members
- Aboriginal and culturally linguistically
- Social capital connections
- Same-sex parent families
- 47,000 same-sex couples
- Similar to stepfamilies in terms of family history and their consequences for current family processes
- Children do not show poor adjustment when compared with others
- May encounter additional issues because of stigma
- Couple relationships are thought to be more supportive and egalitarian, with the division of labour more equal
8
Q
Desribe family transitions into the future
A
- Couple families without children are projected to increase most rapidly
- Remain more common family type
- Related to declining fertility rates, having children at later age and to the ageing of the baby boomers as they become empty nesters (children have grown up and left home)
- Couple families with children will decrease
- Step and blended families accounted for less than 6.5% of all families
- Almost 1 in 5 families were headed by a single parent
9
Q
Describe some future trends
A
- Boomerang kids
- Leave home, only to return - due to housing process, employment
- Living apart together
- Committed relationship but not living together, individualised
- Bird nesting
- Separate families, kids stay in a house and parents alternate between there and another residence
- Sandwich generation
- Middle-aged women looking after young children or grandchildren and their older parents
- Changing care giving roles
- Female breadwinner/male at home
- Dad/both parents working
- Family beyond household and blood
- “It takes a village to raise a child” - networks of community and kin
10
Q
How many couples are infertile? Describe views on infertility
A
- Reproduction is an essential human activity, both biologically and socially
- Men want children for inheritance
- Women want to prove themselves as fertile - traditional female role of mothering
- Children traditionally part of “social security” system, providers of food, shelter and care for aged parents
- Infertility generally regarded as a personal tragedy or disgrace
- Infertile women traditionally subject to judgement, rejection and isolation
- 1 in 6 couples are infertile
- 40% due to males, 40% due to females, 10% due to both, 10% unknown
- ART (Artificial reproductive technology) is responsible for approximately 1 in 25 children born in Australia, and 1 in 12 children to women over 35
- Highly regulated practice due to legislation and codes of practice
11
Q
Describe the social aspects of infertility
A
- Perception is that infertility is a serious and growing health problem
- Due largely to the high profile of ART, particularly IVF
- Reinforces traditional view that women are unfulfilled unless they bear children
- Currently
- There is the ability to diagnose individual cases of infertility
- Increased availability of medical/surgical intervention for infertility
- Increased expectation of technologic success
- It has caused the medicalisation of the experience of involuntary childlessness for many couples
- Increased influence of the media, social media and culture of celebrity
- Only hear the “good news” stories, not the “failed” attempts or the expenses
- Access to IVF and other ART’s are not equally available
12
Q
Explain the repercussions of medicalisation of infertility
A
- Infertility was a prime candidate for medicalisation - possibility of technological intervention
- IVF was initially developed to treat a narrow set of indications
- Technologic imperative - availability of IVF created a “need” for its use that extends far beyond the initial indications
- Medical model of infertility
- Offered a scientific theory that relived couples of personal responsibilities for the deviance of childlessness
- Active, practical response to the problem
- As patients, the infertile couple could find not only a possible solution to their problem, but also a social role that made childlessness socially acceptable
- Once on the waiting list, it can take years to be treated
- Many couples cannot be accepted onto the waiting list
- Restrictions based on traditional heterosexual couples
- A matter of current debate and judicial process
- Cost/rurality
- Inequality in access
- IVF does not result in a baby for the majority of patients who undergo it
- Experienced as a personal failure that carries much of the old moral stigma of punishment
- Imposed a new social stigma because the treatment is still widely assumed to be a solution to infertility
- Couples may be blamed - they “fail the treatment” rather than the treatment failing them
- Clinical statistics and outcomes can become skewed
- Many couples cannot be accepted onto the waiting list
13
Q
Explain the impact of modern medicine
A
- Social factors in lower fertility
- Industrialisation required the family to become more mobile
- Compulsory education and the abolition of child labour
- The standard of living improved
- Increased desire by women for career outside home
- Improved and reliable methods of contraception
- Abortion
- Method of controlling unwanted pregnancies
- Lessing of religious influences
- New norms have been established and accepted
- Abortion
- Safe abortion in clinical setting is available
- Controversial issue and different laws in some states
- Rate is comparatively low
- 1192 accessed abortions and the majority were surgical abortions
- Steady decline in 16-21 year old’s accessing termination
- A rise in number of 35-40 year old’s accessing termination services
- Often result of accidental pregnancies after women had finished planning their family
- Difficult for rural and regional women to access
- Only 1% of public system
- Costs can be anywhere from $250 to $4000 depending on a woman’s gestation and location
- Most Australians support abortion
- 87% first trimester
- Abortion in Queensland
- A crime (still)
- Unlawful abortions can face up to 7 years for the woman and 14 years for the person performing the abortion
- Lawful when a woman’s physical and/or mental health is in serious danger
- Rape, incest and foetal abnormality are not grounds for a lawful abortion
- Due to be reviewed and changed
- A crime (still)
14
Q
Explain the difference between sex and gender
A
- Sex is assigned to us at birth (or often now, while in utero)
- Describes genotypic, phenotypic, and anatomic characteristics
- Male, female, “intersex”
- Gender may refer to socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes a given society considers appropriate for the sex assigned at birth
- Perceived or projected component of identity
- In our society, often defined by two polarized roles that correlate with the sex assigned at birth
- I.e. Men and women
- Gender is
- Culture specific
- Time-dependant
- Something individuals do
- Socially constructed
- Gender identity - an individual’s personal and subjective inner sense of self as belonging to a particular gender
- Since gender identity is internal, it is not visible to others
- Individuals assign it to themselves, not to others
- May be fluid as well
- Gender expression and gender presentation refer to how an individual conveys gender to the outside world
- Gender expression - mannerisms, personal traits, clothing choices, etc; that serve to communicate person’s identity as they relate to a particular societal gender role
- Gender role - the role a person plays or is expected to play societally in terms of gender within a specific society, conventionally referred to along a masculine-feminine spectrum
- Gender attribution - another system of classification that describes characteristics and behaviours that individuals ascribe to bodies, which are characteristics and behaviours known as masculine or feminine; depends on cues given by attribute, and perceived by attributor
15
Q
Define transgender
A
- The gender identity of transgender people differs to varying degrees from the sex they were assigned at birth
- Gender identity and/or expression discordant with sex assigned at birth
