To return to the abstract index press the back button on your browser
Kay Aranda
University of Brighton, UK
'Postmodern Feminist Analyses and Talk of Inequality and Equality in Health Care'
In England, one response to the increasing evidence of inequality and disadvantaged in health has been to demand that practitioners promote equality in health care. This has led nurses to develop an equal opportunities approach to their work and/or 'anti-discriminatory/oppressive practices'. However, continuing inequalities are now argued to be indicative not only of an individual, or a more systemic, inertia but also of flaws that are more inherent. Both feminist and postmodern critiques have challenged the grounds of modern equality upon which these practices are premised, revealed serious limitations, and inferred its demise.
In this paper, I explore the contribution and the tensions that postmodern feminist analyses posed for my research. I argue that such analyses offer both the possibilities for re-thinking equality in health care, and also reveal the limits and challenges involved. Drawing upon my doctoral research I examine the discursive constitution of 'equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practices' evident in the talk of twenty-eight community nurse students and practice teachers from two Universities. I show that employing these analyses revealed complex and diverse narratives and a range of discursively constituted selves. I argue that these analyses pose inherent tensions as they reveal both an ambiguity and ambivalence in the narratives and selves and yet offer little prescription for a politics or practice of change. I therefore conclude that whilst complexity and diversity are revealed and are critical to the possibilities for re-visioning equality within community nursing, these analyses also suggest continuing challenges and limits to those goals.
Bio: Dr Kay Aranda is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, England, where she teaches sociology, social policy and research to community nurses. Her background is in women's community health and primary care and having, recently completed her doctorate, her academic interests are feminism and inequality in health care.
<k.f.aranda@brighton.ac.uk>