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    Women's experiences of medical miss-diagnosis : how does gender matter? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Thompson, Jessica
    Misdiagnosis is increasingly becoming a significant health risk. Women experience higher rates of misdiagnosed illnesses and health conditions compared to men. An androcentric, patriarchal medical system has historically under-researched female bodies and therefore has limited knowledge about recognising symptoms in women. This also extends to tests and treatments that have been developed on male bodies, making them inefficient and inappropriate for female bodies. Additionally, women have historically been positioned as ‘emotional’, ‘weak’, ‘hysterical’ and ‘hypochondrial’, meaning they are not taken seriously as legitimate patients and are considered unreliable symptom reporters. Collectively, the lack of knowledge, and negative prejudices against women, produce healthcare that ignores and silences them, and fails to diagnose and treat them appropriately. This thesis engages a qualitative feminist standpoint, using a narrative framework to explore women’s experiences of misdiagnosis and how they make sense of it. The research draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with eight women aged between 26 and 57 years old, who had experienced a misdiagnosis of an illness that is equally likely to affect women and men. A descriptive inductive analysis approach was used to look for similar experiences in the narratives to inform categories and themes. This research found that a misdiagnosis is highly distressing and often leads to disparate health outcomes. The women described doctors lacking knowledge to make a correct diagnosis, or knowledge to treat their conditions. They needed to advocate for themselves when symptoms continued or worsened. The women experienced rude and sceptic treatment, adding to the burden of being unwell. It is recommended that future research continue to privilege women’s voices in healthcare settings, and explore the misdiagnosis experience from the perspective of healthcare professionals to enable more transparent and collaborative healthcare for women.
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    The impossible feast of the uncanny technowoman : a plural feminist cyborg writes of the possibilities for science fiction and potent body politics : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū Campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Connor, Geneva
    This research embodies Donna Haraway’s (1991) feminist cyborg as a potent political figure for women and their bodies in the 21st century West. The violences done to women all too often define them (Malabou, 2011), confining them to the heterosexual matrix characterised by their objectification and ‘excesses.’ The multiplicities and pluralities of ‘woman’ disrupt traditional psychological science that counts and categorises. Re-routing psychology through the hybridity and non-fixity of the science fiction genre, new possibilities for psychological knowledge production emerge, including figures (such as cyborgs), art installations and hyperdimensional arachnids through which to think new thoughts (Haraway, 2016). Through the figure of a feminist cyborg, ‘woman’ can be understood as politically potent through her multiplicities, partialities, simultaneities and contradictions. After rendering Haraway’s feminist cyborg through the science fiction genre, the thesis takes on a creative form to re-think the notion of apocalypse, re-theorise the uncanny, then explore a potently networked series of figures, internet users and movements (such as Human Barbies, internet folklore, pro-rape forums) that structure women’s bodies in ways that re-assert the heterosexual matrix, as well as in ways that re- build women outside of the heterosexual matrix. Re-figuring ‘woman’ outside of the heterosexual matrix could perhaps open new spaces in which to think women’s body politics differently in perpetually networked, ever-expanding technoworlds.
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    Challenging readers' perceptions of older women and the cultural narrative of ageism : a critical and creative thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Allom, Marianne Barbara Jane
    This Master of Creative Writing research project consists of a collection of short stories and an accompanying exegesis, “Challenging Readers’ Perceptions of Older Women and the Western Cultural Narrative of Ageism”. These works were written to explore how fiction narratives, short stories in particular, are able to portray women in Western society, past the age of fifty, in a way that reflects both the positive and negative aspects of her reality. One intention of my research is to challenge the negative cultural discourses which currently dominate the stereotypical way that younger people especially regard the older woman and her societal role. However, another intention is to challenge the older person’s internalised ageism which they have developed throughout their lives in a society that has perpetuated negative and destructive beliefs of and attitudes towards the older woman. The exegesis investigates contemporary research conducted by gerontologists, psychologists and cultural activists who expose the damaging effects on the older person and society as a whole, of the cultural narratives that exist around old age. In particular, the research indicates that current narratives have emanated from medical research which defines older age as a time of physical, mental and often emotional decline. The global conversation which began in the last fifty years after Robert Butler first used the term “ageism” in a public forum, identifies the need for change if people are to live through all the life stages with a healthier view of the culminating phases of life. At present, people’s health is compromised because they have been conditioned by society to believe that old age equals frailty, impairment and social isolation. The research reveals one of the most powerful ways of altering negative cultural narratives, is through fiction narratives in which writers imaginatively engage the reader in considering the reality of living to older age. The creative component further investigates the research in the narrative form of short stories which focus on the older woman or women as the protagonist. By championing the vitalities, complexities and intelligence of the older woman, I aim to join the global conversation which has begun and is exploring ways to challenge and adapt the societal view of older and old women.
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    Women’s everyday resistance to intimate partner violence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Science in Health Psychology at Massey University, Aotearoa
    (Massey University, 2018) Black, Alice
    Aotearoa’s rate of reported intimate partner violence (IPV) is among the highest in the OECD. Surviving IPV requires considerable strength and resilience. There is a large body of work exploring women’s resistance to violence. However, this is often framed within a victim and agent dichotomy, which can obscure the variability of women’s everyday experiences. In addition to understanding the more overt forms of resistance women enact against IPV, there is a need to focus on the everyday ways in which violence manifests and the subtle, imperfect ways in which women respond as they carry out their daily routines and practices. This thesis draws on both feminist research and literature on the conduct of everyday life from social psychology to explore how women navigate their daily lives and reproduce gendered relations within the constraints of IPV. Particular attention is paid to moments of adaptation, agency and resistance. Working with the support of Te Whakakruruhau (Māori Women’s Refuge), I conducted semi-structured interviews with eight women, four staff members and four former clients, to explore their experiences of day-to-day IPV. My participants’ experiences revealed how deeply enmeshed IPV can become within everyday practices, from making breakfast to going to the toilet. While my participants' lives were characterised by chronic anxiety and constraint, they adopted novel tactics to get through dangerous everyday situations such as going to bed or doing the dishes. They drew on simple routines such as making coffee or working in the garden in order to create a sense of routine that aided them in ‘getting by’. Further, they demonstrated remarkable creativity, flexibility and agency in creating novel enclaves of care within otherwise inhospitable settings. These findings have implications for how IPV is characterised and how agencies can identify and support women within the constraints of violent relationships.
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    Gender, power and practices in tension : mixed-sex rooming in hospital : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Women's Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Burrell, Beverley Ann
    Using a feminist poststructural framework this study analyses interview reports and the complex contextual elements existing in the uncommon event of sharing one's bedroom space with a stranger of the opposite sex whilst in hospital. Dilemmas of gender sensibility, patients' rights and privacy are evident for the eight women interviewed for this study who experienced mixed-sex rooming (MSR) in New Zealand hospitals. Sex differentiation and gender difference significantly influence the conditions upon which social relationships evolve. This research examines the significance of the category 'woman' and the impact of gender and patient norms, including the foundations on which any objection to MSR might rest. Deconstruction revealed tensions around spatial confines and the operation of institutional power and authority at macro and micro levels. Conflicts between, the rhetoric of health reform, and the practices affecting patients' right to choose, and privacy, are discussed in the wake of the New Zealand health services restructuring of the 1990s and the re-organisation of patient accommodation, marked by mixing the sexes, thereby raising the question of whether gender is rendered somehow irrelevant. It is concluded that particular interests are served by MSR and that patient concerns risk being neglected where choice is withheld. The exertion of institutional power was found to override some patients' choice. Patient acceptance of the practice is conditional in respect to preservation of their privacy, especially in regard to toileting and washing. Assumptions about gender persist even though mixing the sexes would appear to relegate gender to a neutral state. Recourse to blanket policies is found to be inappropriate when it is individual patients' rights that health professionals are bound to respect.
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    Living large : the experiences of large-bodied women when accessing general practice services : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy (Nursing) at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Russell, Nicola
    The ‘obesity epidemic’ of the past two decades has resulted in numerous studies reporting higher levels of stigma and discrimination experienced by obese/overweight women, both within the health care system and society in the main. Despite general practice being the most utilised point of access for health care services, there has been very little international or national exploration of the experiences of large-bodied women accessing these services. Utilising a qualitative, descriptive research design, this post-structuralist feminist study has enabled a group of large-bodied women to express their stories of accessing general practice services. Eight self identified large-bodied women volunteered to participate in semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Thematic analysis identified seven themes: Early experiences of body perception, Confronting social stereotypes, Contending with feminine beauty ideals, Perceptions of health, Pursuing health, Respecting the whole person and Feeling safe to access care. The women in this study articulated broader interpretations of health and well-being than those teachings reproduced within dominant bio-medical and social discourses of obesity. When these women’s personal context, beliefs and values are silenced by the health care provider, the rhetoric of health care professional claims of patient-centred care has given way to these women experiencing stigmatisation and a sense of ambiguity about general practice services. However, when space is given for multiple interpretations of obesity to exist within the patient-health care provider relationship, these women feel respected, their health needs are satisfied and they are more comfortable to engage in health screening services. Resisting the powerful socio-cultural milieu which supports the superiority of a slim female body as a signifier of both health and beauty presents a challenge for health care professionals to negotiate. I contend however, that giving consideration to the perspectives of large-bodied women and critically reflecting upon one’s own personal beliefs and attitudes about the overweight/obese, presents an opportunity to ensure clinical practice for this population is truly patient-centred.
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    What am I-- for her? : feminism and disability with/in the postmodern : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Policy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1997) Lunn, Michelle
    A feminist postmodern analysis of the lives of women with physical disabilities is presented in this thesis. Postmodern feminism provides a framework through which the lives of the six women who took part in this study can be understood. Political strategies and interventions are conceptualised and interwoven with these understandings of the participants' lives. The discursive practices operating to produce the subject position 'woman with a physical disability' are described and analysed. It is argued that a postmodern feminist analytical framework is appropriate in this analysis as it is sensitive to the ways in which power works to constitute particular subjects, and alive to the multiplicity and diversity of everyday life. The production of non-disabledness as the norm and disability as the Other to, or opposite of, this norm is called into question in this thesis. The ways in which this research project, as undertaken by a non-disabled researcher, impacts upon the production of disability as Other, or the question of, 'what am I... for her?' is central in this analysis. This thesis examines the question of, 'what am I... for her?', in relation to 'identity', 'the body' and the construction of 'the self'. A participatory research method, designed to mediate relations of power between 'the researcher' and 'the researched' provides a foundation for this study. This participatory method is designed to insure against appropriation of the voices of the research participants. This thesis aims to contribute towards the realisation of the aims of disability politics and feminism by making links between the two bodies of knowledge that foster political interventions at all levels of the social network.