PMID: 9428091Jan 15, 1998Paper

"I just cope from day to day": unpredictability and anxiety in the lives of women

Social Science & Medicine
V Walters, N Charles

Abstract

Data are presented from in-depth interviews with 35 women in an industrial town in South Wales, U.K., many of whom were from low income households. The research aimed to explore women's own concerns about their health and the ways in which health problems affected their lives. This paper focuses on one prominent theme in these interviews: unpredictability. In particular, women described how their lives had become less predictable and amenable to control as a result of health problems--epilepsy, asthma, ME, anxiety, nerves and panic attacks, for example. Women's accounts are used to show how they experienced these problems, how they influenced women's self-identity and the ways in which women struggled to cope with the dreadful uncertainty that characterized their days. They often hid these problems, and the privacy of this aspect of their lives is striking. The data are set within the context of class and gender relations which diminish women's control over their lives and erode their self-esteem and sense of autonomy. Class and gender combine with ill health to create the conditions for women's sense of unpredictability and powerlessness. They can aggravate and provoke the health problems women described: women spoke of the ch...Continue Reading

References

Jan 1, 1992·International Journal of Health Services : Planning, Administration, Evaluation·E M Hall
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Feb 1, 1993·Social Science & Medicine·V Walters
Jun 10, 1983·Sociology of Health & Illness·K Charmaz

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Citations

Feb 2, 2002·Health Care for Women International·Marcia Hills, Jennifer Mullett
Jan 22, 2011·International Journal of Nursing Practice·Jenny Brown, Peter Wimpenny
Feb 18, 1999·Women & Health·A Whittaker, L Connor
Apr 1, 2004·American Journal of Public Health·Rosalind J WrightDiane R Gold
Oct 18, 2016·The Journal of Psychology·Lisa Thomson RossMarina Garofano
Jul 1, 2001·Journal of Health Psychology·H L Radtke, J Van Mens-Verhulst
Jan 13, 2010·Qualitative Health Research·Rachael Hinton, Jaya Earnest
Nov 16, 2005·Psycho-oncology·Christina SindingAnn Hampson

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