The journey of Central American women migrants: engendering the mobile commons

ABSTRACT

This article delves into the concept of the ‘mobile commons’ which is articulated within the Autonomy of Migration (AoM) approach. The AoM literature focuses on migrant agency by advocating that migrants practice ‘escape’ and ‘invisibility’. However, drawing on the stories of women migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central American (NTCA) (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) travelling through Mexico, this article aims to engender and thereby trouble the concept of the mobile commons by questioning several taken-for-granted assumptions that are based on gender-neutral knowledge and dichotomous ways of thinking. Using women’s experiences to question the assumptions made with respect to ‘migrant knowledge’, I show that the knowledge among women migrants from the NTCA is influenced by gendered power imbalances that place women in subordinate positions. The analysis will first focus on explaining the mobile commons as a theoretical concept. Following this, I discuss how conceptualizing the mobile commons through a feminist perspective challenges the ideas of invisible knowledge and trust often integral to the ways in which the concept of the mobile commons is used. Finally, I outline the survival strategies that migrant women may use given their own knowledge of the migration context in Mexico, and reflect on what this means for the scholarly understanding of the ‘mobile commons’.     

“A Cruel Medium for a Woman”

The developing Melbourne television service featured a number of female personalities who successfully transcended the circumscribed boundaries of their on-camera roles to become household names. Personalities like Corinne Kerby, Panda Lisner, and Toni Lamond were pivotal to the affective connection that many viewers forged with live, locally produced shows. Yet, these women have all but disappeared from the official histories of Australian television, as well as from the shared recollections of the past that form the “public archive” of Australian television. This article not only seeks to recuperate these early performances, but to examine the public discourses that circulated around these personalities, their TV personas, and their private lives.     

Foreign Women and Toilets

This article considers representations of migrant women who work as domestic help and probes the abjecting logic of cleaning practices vis-à-vis current issues of legality, illegality, immigration, transcultural difference, and rage. I survey diverse media depictions of foreign women and cleaning scenes in transnational settings: Fear and Trembling (2003), Maid in America (2004), The Ukrainian Cleaning Lady (2002 The Ukrainian Cleaning Lady (Pani Z Ukrainy) (documentary) (2002) Pawe? ?oziński (dir.), Poland [Google Scholar]), Dirt (2003 Dirt (film) (2003) Nancy Savoca (dir.), USA [Google Scholar]), and Friends with Money (2006). I examine the formation and apprehension of female “foreign” subjectivity in relation to cleaning for others, in relation to dirt. The visual analysis discusses ways in which removing other people's dirt by an immigrant, migrant, or a guest worker intertwines with gendered and racialized processes of social abjection. Privileging images of toilets and expressions of rage, my analysis inquires into a conceptual correspondence between garbage and the cultural renditions of foreign others; into ways in which the concept of “dirt” gets transposed onto the cleaners suggesting that those who clean dirt are themselves disposable bodies, only useful and tolerable as long as they cohere the messy lives of “legitimate” and properly “clean” natives.     

Sarcopenia and Decreased Muscle Strength in the Elderly Woman: Resistance Training as a Safe and Effective Intervention

ABSTRACT

A principle component of age-related weakness and frailty in women is sarcopenia. This decrease in skeletal muscle mass is a progressive syndrome that will affect the quality of life for elderly women by decreasing the ability to perform many activities of daily living. Strength training is known to be an effective means of increasing muscular strength and size in many populations, and can be utilized successfully to significantly improve muscle strength, muscle mass and functional mobility in elderly women up to the age of 96 years. Such exercise can minimize the syndrome of physical frailty due to decreased muscle mass and strength. Any rehabilitation or exercise program for the elderly woman would benefit from the inclusion of such a training regime.     

Alzheimer's Disease and Older Women

The graying of America suggests that dementia will become "the epidemic of the 21st century." First described in 1907, Alzheimer's Disease (AD) accounts for an estimated two-thirds of all dementia. AD currently has no cure, thus causing a major drain on health care and family resources. Compared to men, women are uniquely affected by AD due to their gender-associated increased risk, longer life span, and roles as caregivers within families and institutions. Living successfully with dementia requires medical and behavioral interventions to manage disruptive symptoms, knowledge to optimize environmental conditions, and caregiver support and savvy to avoid burnout. Strategies for maximizing functioning in older women living with AD are provided.     

Experiencing menopause in the UK: The interrelated narratives of normality,distress, and transformation

ABSTRACT

We investigated the experience and perspectives of menopause among 48 UK mothers through qualitative in-depth interviews. Interviews were analyzed thematically then explored using social science theories. Three interdependent narratives emerged: menopause as a normal, biological process, distinct from self and social transitions; menopause as struggle, an “idiom of distress” expressing upset, identity loss, shame, and social upheaval; and menopause as transformative and liberating, arising from biopsychic and relational changes. Some women followed a predictable “rite of passage” trajectory with transformation emerging from distress, but not all: Menopause arises from a complex interplay of personal predicament, somatic change, and sociocultural context.     

Gender and geographic differences in Medicare service utilization during the last six months of life

ABSTRACT

End-of-life issues are important for senior women, particularly rural women, who are more likely than their urban counterparts to live alone. The role of residence as a factor for health-care utilization among Medicare beneficiaries during the last six months of life has yet to be investigated. The purpose of this study is to examine whether service utilization in the last six months of life differs across gender and rurality. The sample was restricted to fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries who died between July 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013 (n = 39,508). The odds of rural beneficiaries using home health (aOR 0.87; 95% CI 0.81–0.93) and/or hospice (aOR 0.82; 95% CI 0.77–0.87) in the last six months of life were lower than urban beneficiaries. Female beneficiaries were more likely to use support services such as hospice (aOR 1.24; 95% CI 1.18–1.29) and/or home health services (aOR 1.07; 95% CI 1.02–1.13) than male beneficiaries. The odds of female beneficiaries using inpatient (aOR 1.14; 95% CI 1.08–1.20) and/or outpatient (aOR 1.06; 95% CI 1.01–1.12) were higher than male beneficiaries. This research is important as we examine the range of health services used during the last six months of life, by gender and rurality. Future research is needed to understand how access to health services, residential isolation, and age- and disease-related factors relate to women’s observed greater use of inpatient, outpatient, hospice, and home health services in the last six months of life.     

Predictors of stress and depressive mood in Portuguese middle-aged women

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional study investigates the predictors of psychological symptoms—stress and depressive mood—in a sample of middle-aged women. A community sample of 1,003 women filled in the questionnaires and instruments, which included the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales and the Life Events Survey; sociodemographic, health, and menopause-related and lifestyle information was also collected. Structural equation modeling was used to build the model that had stress and depressive mood as dependent variables. Health status (both physical and psychological), recent life events, income and menopausal phase were significantly associated with the frequency of stress and depressive symptoms. Additionally, educational level and parity were also significant predictors of depressive mood. This study emphasizes that psychological symptoms occurrence in midlife depends not only on personal variables (such as health and menopausal status) but also on contextual ones (including recent stressful events) that can be a strong influence on how middle-aged women feel.