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- Abdulcadir, Jasmine, et al.
(författare)
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Seven Things to Know about Female Genital Surgeries in Africa
- 2012
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Ingår i: The Hastings center report. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0093-0334 .- 1552-146X. ; 42:6, s. 19-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Starting in the early 1980s, media coverage of customary African genital surgeries for females has been problematic and overly reliant on sources from within a global activist and advocacy movement opposed to the practice, variously described as female genital mutilation, female genital cutting, or female circumcision. Here, we use the more neutral expression female genital surgery. In their passion to end the practice, anti-mutilation advocacy organizations often make claims about female genital surgeries in Africa that are inaccurate or overgeneralized or that don't apply to most cases. The aim of this article—which we offer as a public policy advisory statement from a group of concerned research scholars, physicians, and policy experts—is not to take a collective stance on the practice of genital surgeries for either females or males. Our main aim is to express our concern about the media coverage of female genital surgeries in Africa, to call for greater accuracy in cultural representations of little-known others, and to strive for evenhandedness and high standards of reason and evidence in any future public policy debates. In effect, the statement is an invitation to actually have that debate, with all sides of the story fairly represented.
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| 4. |
- Arousell, Jonna, et al.
(författare)
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Are 'Low Socioeconomic Status' and 'Religiousness' barriers to minority women's contraceptive use in Sweden and Denmark? : A qualitative interrogation of a common argument in health research
- 2018
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Ingår i: European Journal of Public Health. - : Oxford University Press. - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 28:Suppl 1, s. 121-121
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: ‘Low socioeconomic status’ and ‘religious barriers’ have been presented as nearly universal explanatory reasons for why minority women are less likely than majority women in Scandinavian countries to use contraception. Recent studies have warned against giving such statistically ‘objective’ theories undue importance in the formulation of clinical recommendations. Drawing on this recent critique, the aim of this study was to qualitatively explore how ‘low socioeconomic status’ and ‘religiousness’ intersect with Muslim minority women’s contraceptive decisions. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Denmark and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. Data analysis was inspired by naturalistic inquiry. Findings: We found that a low level of education and low income were not necessarily obstacles for women’s use of contraception, but strong imperatives for women to wait having children until their life circumstances were more stable. Arguments grounded in Islamic dictates on contraception became powerful reasons for women to decide it was religiously correct to postpone having children, in case the financial and emotional resources were not yet at hand. Conclusions: We have shown that the dominant theory about that ‘low socioeconomic status’ and ‘religiousness’ are paramount barriers to minority women’s use of contraception must be challenged. When formulating suggestions for how to provide contraceptive counselling to minority women in Denmark and Sweden, one must also take into account factors such as low financial security as well as religious convictions which can be strong imperatives for women to use contraception. Main messages: The use of broad group-categorisations for understanding individuals’ contraceptive behaviours should be challenged The validity of initiating ‘targeted interventions’ towards large heterogeneous minority groups in Scandinavian contraceptive counselling should be critically discussed
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| 5. |
- Arousell, Jonna, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Are 'low socioeconomic status' and 'religiousness' barriers to minority women's use of contraception? : A qualitative exploration and critique of a common argument in reproductive health research
- 2019
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Ingår i: Midwifery. - : Elsevier. - 0266-6138 .- 1532-3099. ; 75, s. 59-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: 'Low socioeconomic status' and 'religiousness' appear to have gained status as nearly universal explanatory models for why women in minority groups are less likely to use contraception than other women in the Scandinavian countries. Through interviews with pious Muslim women with immigrant background, living in Denmark and Sweden, we wanted to gain empirical insights that could inform a discussion about what 'low socioeconomic status' and 'religiousness' might mean with regard to women's reproductive decisions. Design: Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Denmark and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. Findings: We found that a low level of education and a low income were not necessarily obstacles for women's use of contraception; rather, these were strong imperatives for women to wait to have children until their life circumstances become more stable. Arguments grounded in Islamic dictates on contraception became powerful tools for women to substantiate how it is religiously appropriate to postpone having children, particularly when their financial and emotional resources were not yet established. Conclusion: We have shown that the dominant theory that 'low socioeconomic status' and 'religiousness' are paramount barriers to women's use of contraception must be problematized. When formulating suggestions for how to provide contraceptive counseling to women in ethnic and religious minority groups in Denmark and Sweden, one must also take into account that factors such as low financial security as well as religious convictions can be strong imperatives for women to use contraception. Implications for practice: This study can help inform a critical discussion about the difficulties of using broad group-categorizations for understanding individuals' health-related behavior, as well as the validity of targeted interventions towards large heterogeneous minority groups in Scandinavian contraceptive counseling. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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| 6. |
- Arousell, Jonna, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Does Religious Counselling on Abortion Comply with Sweden's 'Women-Friendly' Abortion Policies? : A Qualitative Exploration Among Religious Counsellors
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sexuality & Culture. - : Springer. - 1095-5143 .- 1936-4822. ; 23:4, s. 1230-1249
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The abortion discourse in Sweden is marked by historically liberal ideals about women's inviolable right to make autonomous reproductive decisions. However, to respond to the increase in cultural and religious pluralism building up over several decades, religious organizations have been given opportunities to provide so-called spiritual care in affiliation with Swedish hospitals since the 1980s. In this study we asked: in what ways do religious counsellors, affiliated with Swedish hospitals, construct their ideas on abortion, and how well do their ideas comply with Sweden's 'women-friendly' abortion policies? Through interviews with Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and Buddhist religious counsellors, we wanted to empirically test the presumption underlying the decisions to grant space to religious actors in Swedish healthcare, i.e., that religious counselling serves to complement existing services. We found that it cannot be expected that religious advice on abortion will always comply with Swedish abortion law and with the women-friendly abortion policy that the Swedish state seeks to impose. When policy-makers open up possibilities for diverse norms on abortion to manifest in close affiliation with healthcare institutions, they must be aware that some religious counsellors argue that only God-and not the woman herself-can decide whether a woman can terminate a pregnancy. We argue that the findings in this study speaks to what researchers have referred to as the "diversity-equality paradox", which highlights the tension between the promotion of religious ideas on abortion on the one hand and the promotion of liberal ideas about women's reproductive freedom on the other.
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| 7. |
- Arousell, Jonna, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Modes of Governing : A Foucaultian Perspective on Encounters between Healthcare Providers and Muslim Women in Swedish Reproductive Healthcare
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There are probably few groups of patients in Sweden today that arouse as much associations and thoughts as do Muslims from the Middle East. The core dilemma in much of these discussions is whether healthcare providers should adjust the provision of care to Muslims’ divergent religious preferences, or if they would be better off to treat Muslims in the same way as other patients. These debates are often entangled with both a concern about politics of equality (i.e. ambitions to treat everyone the same) and politics of diversity (i.e. to treatpeople from ethnic and religious minority groups differently). Inspired by Foucault’s concept of governmentality, we in this study intended to explore the principles of ‘equality’ and 'diversity’ as governing tools for the shaping of healthcare providers and patients’ conduct. We found that although these governing tools are presented as non-conflicting in health policies, there seems to be an often-present trade-off between diversity and equality ideals in their practical implementation. When these policies are assigned meaning and implemented inpractice, they appear to generate unforeseeable consequences, both for healthcare providers and for the patients. It thus appears that the policies that were introduced with the intention of improving the structure of multicultural care encounters, in some cases, had an opposite effect.
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| 8. |
- Arousell, Jonna, 1985-
(författare)
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Sacred Ideals : Diversity and Equality in Swedish Reproductive Healthcare
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- To promote diversity (mångfald) and equality (jämlikhet) is a key task for a wide range of welfare institutions in Sweden. The two terms appeal to several aspects simultaneously: inclusiveness, moral goodness, awareness and willingness to facilitate a positive social change. Diversity and equality have become, as I suggest in this thesis, two sacred ideals in Swedish society today. In the context of reproductive healthcare, various forms of diversity and equality measures are thought of as solutions to, for instance, inequalities between immigrant groups and others, structural discrimination of minority groups, and difficulties faced by the Swedish healthcare system in caring for patients’ diverse needs and preferences in clinical encounters. In this thesis, diversity and equality are analysed as two important governing mechanisms in the organisation of healthcare in multicultural Sweden. The aim was to explore how these ideals contribute to shape the provision of reproductive healthcare, and its consequences.Paper I shows that targeted interventions towards immigrant women in contraceptive counselling risk singling out some women from standard routes of care because they are categorised as “immigrants” or “Muslims”. Paper II shows that demands upon healthcare providers to accommodate Muslim patients’ presumed needs have the potential of also creating needs that were not there from the start. Paper III shows that many religious counsellors who are affiliated with Swedish healthcare as spiritual advisers present ideas on abortion that are less progressive than what is stipulated in Swedish abortion law. Paper IV shows that imperatives to promote gender equality in contraceptive counselling were taken seriously by providers in their encounters with non-Western women, at the possible expense of respect for relationship structures that do not conform to the ideals of gender equality.The findings presented in this thesis show that the interventions and initiatives that sought to presumably help disadvantaged groups of people (i.e. Muslims, immigrant women) could, in fact, be obstacles to solving the problems they were meant to address. I argue that the governance of Swedish reproductive healthcare through diversity and equality ideals must be problematised and balanced with regard to their plausible consequences.
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| 9. |
- Arousell, J., 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Unintended consequences of gender equality promotion in Swedish contraceptive counselling
- 2018
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Ingår i: European Journal of Public Health. - : Oxford University Press. - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 28:Suppl 1, s. 105-105
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Sweden stands out as an interesting example of potential cross-cultural tensions in reproductive healthcare. On the one hand, most people agree that gender equality between men and women should apply to everyone. On the other hand, people in Sweden report a high level of respect for cultural diversity, emphasising people’s ‘right to be different’. The aim of this study was to explore how midwives communicate gender equality perspectives in encounters with non-Western patients, many of whom have migrated from countries expressing less support for gender equality. Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews as well as focus group interviews were conducted in Denmark and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ approach guided the analysis. Findings: We found that it is difficult for health care providers who are ideologically motivated to promote gender equality in clinical encounters, to simultaneously value and tolerate traditions that are considered to uphold gender-unequal structures. The gender equality standard is thus one example of a liberal, egalitarian value that health care providers appeared to give priority to at the expense of others. Conclusions: That the gender equality ideology is given priority is not necessarily undesirable but nevertheless appears to generate unintended consequences. We argue that a high level of ideological persuasion upon female patients may negatively influence their experience of the encounter, and negatively influence women’s possibilities to obtain adequate support in relation to their individual needs. Main messages: Healthcare providers are also part of cultural systems of norms — such as pertinence to gender equality — although these are seldom problematized ‘Reflexivity’ as a working tool can assist healthcare providers to reflect upon how gender equality norms influence clinical encounters.
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| 10. |
- Arousell, Jonna, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Unintended consequences of gender equality promotion in Swedish multicultural contraceptive counseling : a discourse analysis
- 2017
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Ingår i: Qualitative Health Research. - : Sage Publications. - 1049-7323 .- 1552-7557. ; 27:10, s. 1518-1528
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, we explore how reproductive health care providers in Sweden, a country often described as one of the most gender-equal countries in the world, incorporate gender equality ideals in multicultural contraceptive counseling. In the tension between gender equality promotion on one hand and respect for cultural diversity and individualized care on the other, we will demonstrate that values of gender equality were often given priority. This is not necessarily undesirable. Nevertheless, our proposal is that the gender equality ideology may inhibit providers’ ability to think differently about issues at stake in contraceptive counseling, which may negatively influence women’s possibilities to obtain adequate support. At the end of the article, we suggest how health care providers’ reflexivity might be used as a working tool for increased awareness about the taken-for-granted cultural norms that exist in their clinical milieu.
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