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"Part and parcel of being a woman": female urinary incontinence and constructions of control
S Peake1, L Manderson, H Potts
1Key Centre for Women's Health in Society, University of Melbourne.
This article draws on extensive interviews with middle-aged Australian women experiencing urinary incontinence. Our discussion derives from the difficulties women face in seeking advice on the management of incontinence, as a consequence of their perception that the condition is an inevitability, a "normal" part of being female. Women do not, on the whole, support a single cause for incontinence but, rather, explain its incidence in terms of personal history, which may include childbearing and parturition, menopause and aging, and early socialization. In addition, women link their own continence problems with perceived personal failings (e.g., lack of exercise, being overweight) and, hence, see the condition as a symbol of their lack of moral worth. Following this, women's understandings of the relationship of incontinence to their social membership extend far beyond the difficulties of disguising their physical problems.
This article draws on extensive interviews with middle-aged Australian women experiencing urinary incontinence. Our discussion derives from the difficulties women face in seeking advice on the management of incontinence, as a consequence of their perception that the condition is an inevitability, a "normal" part of being female. Women do not, on the whole, support a single cause for incontinence but, rather, explain its incidence in terms of personal history, which may include childbearing and parturition, menopause and aging, and early socialization. In addition, women link their own continence problems with perceived personal failings (e.g., lack of exercise, being overweight) and, hence, see the condition as a symbol of their lack of moral worth. Following this, women's understandings of the relationship of incontinence to their social membership extend far beyond the difficulties of disguising their physical problems.
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