The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is altering dynamics in academia, and people juggling remote work and domestic demands – including childcare – have felt impacts on their ...productivity. Female authors have faced a decrease in paper submission rates since the beginning of the pandemic period. The reasons for this decline in women’s productivity need to be further investigated. Here, we analyzed the influence of gender, parenthood and race on academic productivity during the pandemic period based on a survey answered by 3,345 Brazilian academics from various knowledge areas and research institutions. Productivity was assessed by the ability to submit papers as planned and to meet deadlines during the initial period of social isolation in Brazil. The findings revealed that male academics – especially those without children – are the least affected group, whereas Black women and mothers are the most impacted groups. These impacts are likely a consequence of the well-known unequal division of domestic labor between men and women, which has been exacerbated during the pandemic. Additionally, our results highlight that racism strongly persists in academia, especially against Black women. The pandemic will have long-term effects on the career progression of the most affected groups. The results presented here are crucial for the development of actions and policies that aim to avoid further deepening the gender gap in academia.
Motherhood is a cultural process that has traditionally anchored women's identities in their ability to nurture infants and children (Ross, 2018). As a cultural and dynamic construct, it not only ...shapes women's social identity but also plays a pivotal role in influencing gender roles. The aim of the present study is to analyze the psychometric properties of the Motherhood Belief Scale, which explore Sense of Life and Social Duty as two dimensions of motherhood in a general sample (n = 6207) with different sex, age, education, and parenthood status. The reliability of the Motherhood Belief Scale in our sample showed low fitted scores, low variability, and a floor-like effect, which was more eminent for the Social Duty dimension. These findings showed differences in motherhood beliefs across sex, age, education, and parenthood. Additionally, we explored answers for two open questions about motherhood with a sentiment analysis which showed a more significant bias to positive emotional valence in people without professional studies out professional studies. These findings suggest a more stereotypical view of motherhood in populations with low education, very young or elderly, men, and with parenthood status.
The monster within Almond, Barbara
2010., 20100904, 2010, 2010-10-04, 20100101
eBook
Mixed feelings about motherhood--uncertainty over having a child, fears of pregnancy and childbirth, or negative thoughts about one's own children--are not just hard to discuss, they are a powerful ...social taboo. In this beautifully written book, Barbara Almond brings this troubling issue to light. She uncovers the roots of ambivalence, tells how it manifests in lives of women and their children, and describes a spectrum of maternal behavior--from normal feelings to highly disturbed mothering. In a society where perfection in parenting is the unattainable ideal, this compassionate book also shows how women can affect positive change in their lives.
Brown Bodies, White Babiesfocuses on the practice of cross-racial gestational surrogacy, in which a woman - through in-vitro fertilization using the sperm and egg of intended parents or donors - ...carries a pregnancy for intended parents of a different race. Focusing on the racial differences between parents and surrogates, this book is interested in how reproductive technologies intersect with race, particularly when brown bodies produce white babies. While the potential of reproductive technologies is far from pre-determined, the ways in which these technologies are currently deployed often serve the interests of dominant groups, through the creation of white, middle-class, heteronormative families.Laura Harrison, providing an important understanding of the work of women of color as surrogates, connects this labor to the history of racialized reproduction in the United States. Cross-racial surrogacy is one end of a continuum in which dominant groups rely on the reproductive potential of nonwhite women, whose own reproductive desires have been historically thwarted and even demonized.Brown Bodies, White Babiesprovides am interdisciplinary analysis that includes legal cases of contested surrogacy, historical examples of surrogacy as a form of racialized reproductive labor, the role of genetics in the assisted reproduction industry, and the recent turn toward reproductive tourism. Joining the ongoing feminist debates surrounding reproduction, motherhood, race, and the body,Brown Bodies, White Babiesultimately critiques the new potentials for parenthood that put the very contours of kinship into question.
Allopregnanolone (ALLO) is a metabolite of progesterone and a neuroactive steroid hormone. As a positive allosteric modulator of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors, ALLO seems to have ...antidepressant and anxiolytic effects, and was therefore approved as a specific medication for the treatment of postpartum depression in 2019. Despite the growing number of publications investigating ALLO levels, results on the biological and psychological correlates in the peripartum period remain inconsistent, possibly due to methodological challenges regarding measurement. To date, however, there is no systematic review examining the correlates, concentrations, and challenges in measuring ALLO in peripartum women.
A systematic literature search of PubMed and PsycINFO was conducted in August 2023. Original research articles that measured ALLO concentrations in peripartum women were included. Reports were excluded if they were not original research, included non-human subjects, did not include peripartum women, did not include ALLO measurement as an outcome, included (pharmacological) interventions, constituted method validations, or used the same cohort as another study.
The literature search yielded 234 articles, and two articles were identified from other sources. After full-text screening, 19 articles (N = 1401) met the inclusion criteria, of which seven focused on biological correlates of ALLO and 12 on mood correlates. Of the latter, six found no association between ALLO and mood, four found a negative association, and two found a positive association. Overall, the results show an increase in ALLO levels during pregnancy and a decrease after birth, with levels then remaining low until six months postpartum. ALLO was most commonly measured in blood plasma and by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A significant matrix effect was found for blood serum and a significant method effect for radioimmunoassays (RIAs). A significant effect of time of measurement was found.
ALLO measurement shows method and matrix effects. ALLO levels are higher when measured in serum compared to in plasma, and when measured using RIA compared to other methods. Time of measurement, study design, and standardization of measurement also influence the reliability of measurement and the interpretation of results.
•ALLO levels increase during pregnancy, decline after birth, and remain low up to six months postpartum.•ALLO measurement needs method and matrix specific standardization due to higher levels in RIA and in serum than in plasma.•Method factors influence mood outcomes due to within-person time effects and between-person sensitivity differences.•Frequent standardized measurement may establish ALLO as a reliable predictive biomarker for reproductive mood disorders.
In the mid-1980s, after the Indochina Wars, a shortage of men
meant that many single women in Vietnam found themselves without
suitable marital prospects. A number of these women chose to pursue
...single motherhood by "asking for a child" (xin con)-asking men to
get them pregnant out of wedlock. Xin con appeared to be a radical
departure from traditional Vietnamese kinship values and practices,
which were based in Confucian patriarchal and patrilineal
reproductive interests. However, this innovative solution was
rooted in both pre- and postwar values, practices, and notions of
gender, kinship, love, and sexuality.
This ethnography explores the practice of xin con among single
mothers in the postwar era and today, and considers the ways their
reproductive agency was embraced rather than rejected by the
Vietnamese state as it entered the global market economy. Rather
than condemning or trying to restrict older single women's
reproductive agency, government officials enacted policies that
would accommodate both the women and the state-a strategy that
represents an intriguing alignment of Confucian heritage, Communist
ideology, and governing tactics and demonstrates the social power
of women.
While the birth rate in Europe remains low, the role of motherhood is hotly debated in Germanyparticularly in conjunction with the revival of feminism in that country. In the context of these ...debates, this article analyzes the representation of mothers in three contemporary novels by German authors: Himmelskörper (2003) by Tanja Dückers, Die Gunnar-Lennefsen-Expedition (1998) by Kathrin Schmidt, and Die Mittagsfrau (2007) by Julia Franck. All three books are informed by a feminist perspective, but only Die Mittagsfrau offers a new way of thinking about motherhood; while Dückers and Schmidt ultimately do not depart from the connection between motherhood and the female body, Franck represents motherhood as a performative identity, in the sense of Judith Butlers theory of performative gender. Maternal drag, as articulated in this article, theorizes the identity mother as a performative one, illuminating expectations of that role and thereby opening it up to possible reconfiguration.
For 49 years, the right to abortion was taken for granted-inhaled by every girl, every woman-by all people assigned female at birth in the United States. This right no longer exists. In 2022, with ...the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, the Supreme Court removed federal protection for the legal right to abortion and therefore women's agency over their bodies. This paper will contextualize abortion as part of a continuum that encompasses gender, motherhood and the meaning of reproduction and reproductive rights as sociocultural and intrapsychic phenomena. The expectation that mature female-bodied people are child-desiring women persists and is not conceptualized as optional. It is the original choice women do not have. The next choice women no longer have, if they become pregnant, is whether or not to continue a pregnancy. The Dobbs decision means the cultural reinstatement of female de-sexualization, along with the suffocating and silencing of agency-a negation of women's voices, desire, power and subjectivity-a recipe for psychological destabilization. Personal and clinical material will illustrate these points.
Many women in countries in the global North access digital media information sources during pregnancy and the early years of motherhood. These include websites, blogs, online discussion forums, apps ...and social media platforms. Little previous research has sought to investigate in detail how women use the diverse range of digital media now available to them and what types of information they value. A qualitative study using focus groups was conducted to address these issues.
Four focus groups were held in Sydney, Australia, including a total of 36 women who were either pregnant or had given birth in the previous three years. The participants were asked to talk about the types of digital media they used for pregnancy and parenting purposes, why they used them and in what ways they found them useful or helpful (or not). Group discussions were transcribed and thematically analysed, identifying the dominant information characteristics identified by women as valuable and useful.
Nine characteristics emerged from the focus group discussions as most important to women: information that was: 1) immediate; 2) regular; 3) detailed; 4) entertaining; 5) customised; 6) practical; 7) professional; 8) reassuring; and 9) unbiased. These characteristics were valued for different purposes and needs. Digital media provided women with details when they most needed them or at times when they had opportunities to access them. The study showed that women value apps or digital platforms that are multi-functional. The findings revealed the importance of using digital information for establishing and maintaining social connections and intimate relationships with other mothers. However, participants also highly valued expert advice and expressed the desire for greater and more ready access to information and support offered by healthcare professionals.
Pregnant women and those with young children place a high value on the information and support they receive from and sharing using online sources and apps. They are accustomed to ready and immediate access to information using digital technologies and want better access to that offered by professionals. Recognising and finding ways to meet these needs should be included in planning healthcare provision and support for this group. Further research with women from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and non-urban locations is required to identify whether they have different information needs and values from the women who were included in the study reported here.
A survey was conducted with nine Brazilian cisgender, non-heterosexual women who are mothers, with the aim of understanding the challenges faced by double-motherhood in Brazil. Nine interviews and ...one focus group were conducted online and asynchronously through WhatsApp. The data was transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. The findings revealed four categories: IC as a form of resistance; violence and LGBTphobia against queer motherhood; the invisibility of queer motherhood in relation to the state; and queer subjectivity. This research concludes that double-motherhood can be seen as a form of resistance, as the mothers use technologies, such as home insemination.
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