Labor as work: The discursive construction of midwifery
Abstract
This study explicates the role of paradox in creating and sustaining what counts as work and addresses the general research question, "What paradoxes operate in the field of midwifery?" Drawing upon extant literature, this study argues that essentialist definitions of what counts as work provide an overly limiting conceptualization and that what counts as work is not a fixed concept but is always in a state of flux. Moreover, efforts to fix discursive constructions of work serve an ideological function. This project approaches the research question and its corollaries from a critical-feminist and post-structural feminist perspective. The analysis of observations and tape-recordings of two different midwifery practices suggests that paradoxes can form a discursive cycle. It specifically claims that (1) at any given moment multi-paradoxes may be in play and/or the paradox in play can rapidly shift across time, (2) a paradox may invoke a response that leads to another paradox, and (3) a paradox may be avoided through the creation of an alternative paradox effecting another individual or group. For example, midwives face paradoxes dealing with technology, licensing, and definitions of normal birth. Each of these paradoxes, however, exists in relation to the others creating a web of meaning about what counts as work for midwives. Specifically, the discourse of the women in this study suggests that they perceive that what counts as work consists of a specific set of characteristics (e.g., location, pay, skill, intensity), yet their discourse also demonstrates that work is not fixed. This paradox--the meaning of work paradox--serves to obscure the idea that work is a socially constructed concept which is open to reconstruction in ways that are more inclusive of the types of activities that midwives specifically, and women in general, enact as work. This dissertation encourages future study of the role paradox plays in the creation of everyday lived experiences. Future studies might explore other marginalized and dominant groups and individuals to assess the role of paradox as it relates to the social construction of otherness in relation to work.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Clair, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication|Womens studies|Social research
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