Navigating “Mars”: Resisting Structural Barriers in Academia

2022 ◽  
pp. 87-93
Author(s):  
Patricia Arredondo ◽  
Marie L. Miville ◽  
Christina M. Capodilupo ◽  
Tatiana Vera
Keyword(s):  
Structural Barriers

Love and Intimacy as Vulnerability to HIV Infection: A Case Study of MSM

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Archana Kaushik
Keyword(s):  
Hiv Infection ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Sexual Behaviors ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Health Seeking ◽  
Sex With Men

Sexual minorities are among the most marginalized groups in the society. Sero-positivity accentuates social exclusion among the sexual minorities. The paper aims to appraise the factors that make Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) vulnerable to HIV infection and influence their health seeking behaviors. It highlights two major domains socio-cultural and interpersonal variables. Qualitative in nature and based on ten in-depth case studies of HIV infected MSM, the study is located in Delhi, India. Factors such as age, marital status, child sexual abuse, multiple sex partners, are crucial in influencing their vulnerability. Socio-cultural milieu puts structural barriers restricting integration of MSM in the society. Cultural values do not allow talking about sex, which hampers healthy sexual behaviors. Exhibiting aggression, sexual violence, visiting sex-workers etc. are considered as important aspects to prove manhood. At the interpersonal level, possessiveness, betrayal, infidelity, heartbreak, strong emotional whirlpool when love-relations go incongruent, all takes a heavy toll of their mental and physical health. These variables socially exclude the sexual minorities from the mainstream life. Findings show positive (disclosing to family, abstinence, spiritual growth) and negative (suicide-attempts, drug-use) ways of coping among the MSM respondents. Critical areas of concern for service-providers while planning interventions for empowering people with sexual minority are delineated.

Understanding the Abortion Experiences of Young People to Inform Quality Care in Argentina, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110110
Author(s):  
Laura E. Jacobson ◽  
Ana Maria Ramirez ◽  
Chiara Bercu ◽  
Anna Katz ◽  
Caitlin Gerdts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
First Trimester ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Safe Abortion ◽  
Medication Abortion ◽  
Abortion Care ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Reproductive Healthcare

Young people face social and structural barriers when accessing abortions. High-quality, sexual and reproductive healthcare is needed; however, literature on youth-informed abortion services is limited. This study assesses accounts of youth who obtained an abortion in Argentina, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Nigeria and provides recommendations to improve person-centered aspects of abortion quality. We analyzed 48 semi-structured interviews with clients recruited from clinics, safe abortion hotlines, and patent and proprietary medicine vendors. We coded transcripts and conducted a thematic analysis. The mean age was 21 years (range 16–24), and the majority had a first trimester, medication abortion. Prominent themes included access to information; privacy; stigma associated with age or marital status; the decision-making process; and comfort and rapport with providers. Youth-centered abortion care should anticipate the distinct needs of younger clients. Supportive providers have an important role in offering a non-judgmental service that makes young clients feel comfortable and prepared.

scholarly journals Female Candidates, Islamic Women’s Organisations, and Clientelism in the 2019 Indonesian Elections

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Muhammad Mahsun ◽  
Misbah Zulfa Elizabeth ◽  
Solkhah Mufrikhah
Keyword(s):  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Central Java ◽  
Grassroots Support ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Women's Networks

This article analyses the factors leading to the success of women candidates in the 2019 elections in Central Java. Recent scholarship on women’s representation in Indonesia has highlighted the role that dynastic ties and relationships with local political elites play in getting women elected in an environment increasingly dominated by money politics and clientelism. Our case study of women candidates in Central Java belonging to the elite of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)-affiliated women’s religious organisations Muslimat and Fatayat shows that strong women candidates with grassroots support can nonetheless win office. Using the concepts of social capital and gender issue ownership, and clientelism, we argue that women candidates can gain a strategic advantage when they “run as women.” By harnessing women’s networks and focusing on gender issues to target women voters, they are able to overcome cultural, institutional, and structural barriers to achieve electoral success even though they lack resources and political connections.

scholarly journals Fair and equitable subject selection in concurrent COVID-19 clinical trials

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-11
Author(s):  
Maud O. Jansen ◽  
Peter Angelos ◽  
Stephen J. Schrantz ◽  
Jessica S. Donington ◽  
Maria Lucia L. Madariaga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Ethical Guidelines ◽  
Academic Medical Centre ◽  
Subject Selection ◽  
Study Results

Clinical trials emerged in rapid succession as the COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented need for life-saving therapies. Fair and equitable subject selection in clinical trials offering investigational therapies ought to be an urgent moral concern. Subject selection determines the distribution of risks and benefits, and impacts the applicability of the study results for the larger population. While Research Ethics Committees monitor fair subject selection within each trial, no standard oversight exists for subject selection across multiple trials for the same disease. Drawing on the experience of multiple clinical trials at a single academic medical centre in the USA, we posit that concurrent COVID-19 trials are liable to unfair and inequitable subject selection on account of scientific uncertainty, lack of transparency, scarcity and, lastly, structural barriers to equity compounded by implicit bias. To address the critical gap in the current literature and international regulation, we propose new ethical guidelines for research design and conduct that bolsters fair and equitable subject selection. Although the proposed guidelines are tailored to the research design and protocol of concurrent trials in the COVID-19 pandemic, they may have broader relevance to single COVID-19 trials.

scholarly journals Structural Violence of Schooling: A Genealogy of a Critical Family History of Three Generations of African American Women in a Rural Community in Florida

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Evelyn Newman Phillips ◽  
Wangari Gichiru
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family History ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
American Women ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
American Children

Through the lens of structural violence, Black feminism and critical family history, this paper explores how societal structures informed by white supremacy shaped the lives of three generations of rural African American women in a family in Florida during the middle to the late twentieth century. Specifically, this study investigates how disparate funding, segregation, desegregation, poverty and post-desegregation policies shaped and limited the achievement trajectories among these women. Further, an oral historical examination of their lives reveals the strategies they employed despite their under-resourced and sometimes alienating schooling. The paper highlights the experiences of the Newman family, descendants of captive Africans in the United States that produced three college-educated daughters and a granddaughter despite structural barriers that threatened their progress. Using oral history interviews, archival resources and first-person accounts, this family’s story reveals a genealogy of educational achievement, barriers and agency despite racial and gendered limitations in a Southern town. The findings imply that their schooling mirrors many of the barriers that other Blacks face. However, this study shows that community investment in African American children, plus teachers that affirm students, and programs such as Upward Bound, help to advance Black students in marginalized communities. Further, these women’s lives suggest that school curriculums need to be anti-racist and public policies that affirm each person regardless of the color of their skin. A simple solution that requires the structural violence of whiteness be eliminated from the schooling spheres.

scholarly journals Exercise Counseling in Pregnancy: Do Women Perceive Receiving the Information They Need?

2021 ◽  
pp. 155982762199185
Author(s):  
Connor Evins ◽  
Jasmine Dennis ◽  
Karson Mostert ◽  
Shiv Patel ◽  
David Enyart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Exercise Frequency ◽  
Exercise Counseling ◽  
Care Survey ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Disproportionate Number ◽  
Exercise During Pregnancy

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that women exercise throughout pregnancy unless they have a condition-related contraindication. This study’s purpose was to determine if pregnant women perceive receiving exercise counseling by their providers with details of frequency, intensity, type, and time (FITT principle). Women in 2 postpartum care units of a large health care system were invited to complete a voluntary, anonymous survey regarding whether they received exercise counseling during their prenatal care. Survey results were descriptively reported, stratified by demographic variables, and analyzed using Fisher’s exact tests. Of 224 postpartum women surveyed, 130 (58.0%) perceived receiving exercise counseling during pregnancy; 119 (91.5%) did not recall receiving counseling on exercise frequency. Though 165 (73.6%) exercised before becoming pregnant, 64 (38.8%) ceased exercise during pregnancy. Eighty-eight (39.3%) received advice from other sources/non–health care professionals. Privately insured women reported receiving exercise counseling at a higher rate (70.1%) than those on Medicaid (44.8%) or uninsured (40.0%; P = .004). A disproportionate number of pregnant women perceived not receiving adequate prenatal exercise counseling or received incomplete counseling. Women at a socioeconomic disadvantage may be vulnerable. As social determinants of health, structural barriers, and socioeconomic status likely contribute, women may benefit from more targeted inclusive and equitable messaging.

scholarly journals Structural Barriers to Student Disability Disclosure in US-Allopathic Medical Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 238212052110186
Author(s):  
Lisa M Meeks ◽  
Ben Case ◽  
Erene Stergiopoulos ◽  
Brianna K Evans ◽  
Kristina H Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Class Size ◽  
Medical Schools ◽  
Organizational Characteristics ◽  
School Level ◽  
Student Diversity ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Disability Disclosure

Introduction: Leaders in medical education have expressed a commitment to increase medical student diversity, including those with disabilities. Despite this commitment there exists a large gap in the number of medical students self-reporting disability in anonymous demographic surveys and those willing to disclose and request accommodations at a school level. Structural elements for disclosing and requesting disability accommodations have been identified as a main barrier for students with disabilities in medical education, yet school-level practices for student disclosure at US-MD programs have not been studied. Methods: In August 2020, a survey seeking to ascertain institutional disability disclosure structure was sent to student affairs deans at LCME fully accredited medical schools. Survey responses were coded according to their alignment with considerations from the AAMC report on disability and analyzed for any associations with the AAMC Organizational Characteristics Database and class size. Results: Disability disclosure structures were collected for 98 of 141 eligible schools (70% response rate). Structures for disability disclosure varied among the 98 respondent schools. Sixty-four (65%) programs maintained a disability disclosure structure in alignment with AAMC considerations; 34 (35%) did not. No statistically significant relationships were identified between disability disclosure structures and AAMC organizational characteristics or class size. Discussion: Thirty-five percent of LCME fully accredited MD program respondents continue to employ structures of disability disclosure that do not align with the considerations offered in the AAMC report. This structural non-alignment has been identified as a major barrier for medical students to accessing accommodations and may disincentivize disability disclosure. Meeting the stated calls for diversity will require schools to consider structural barriers that marginalize students with disabilities and make appropriate adjustments to their services to improve access.

Mirroring Empowerment: Exploring Structural Barriers to Volunteer Motivation Fulfillment in an All-Female Youth Sport Program

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402110345
Author(s):  
Alaina C. Zanin ◽  
Katrina N. Hanna ◽  
Laura V. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Youth Sport ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Organizational Mission ◽  
Female Youth ◽  
Sport Teams ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Volunteer Coaches

This study utilizes structuration theory to reveal how volunteer coaches in an all-female youth sport program describe barriers and agency to their organizational mission of athlete empowerment. The dataset in this ethnographic case study comes from volunteer coaching experiences within two youth sport teams. Ethnographic data included field notes from four volunteer coaches, collaborative interviews, archival organizational documents, as well as athlete and parent interviews. A qualitative analysis, informed by structuration theory, revealed specific legitimate, dominant, and symbolic structures that enabled and constrained volunteer and youth athlete empowerment within the teams. The analysis also revealed a process of mirroring empowerment, a novel theoretical concept, which describes how athletes reflected back their own empowerment to empower volunteer coaches. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

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