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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Globalization and the Disruption of Mothercare
Author:Oppong, ChristineISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:Research Review (ISSN 0855-4412)
Volume:17
Issue:1
Pages:25-47
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Ghana
Africa
Subjects:infants
mothers
gender relations
child care
child nutrition
Cultural Roles
Health, Nutrition, and Medicine
Women and Their Children
Development and Technology
Sex Roles
Medicine, Nutrition, Public Health
malnutrition
Child survival
globalization
Women's role
Abstract:Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where the rates of infant malnutrition are increasing. Furthermore, infant hunger is found in nations and households which are not the most food insecure or deprived. This paper looks at the issue of women's declining relative status vis-à-vis males in the region, as indicated by the lowering of relative life expectancy, and examines likely causes and correlates and potential impacts on maternal care and infant feeding, which have led to the escalation of infant hunger and malnutrition. Anthropological work on gender roles and population issues, carried out in the 1960s and 1970s in Ghana, provides the basis for examining changing gender roles in production and reproduction, infant nutrition outcomes, and in particular, how changes in occupational, conjugal, domestic and kin roles have been increasing women's strain as nursing mothers of babies, resulting in negative impacts on both the mothers' own well-being and the care of their babies. Sources of role strain include diminishing help from kin, now often living a considerable distance away, and from school-going children, and role conflicts engendered by simultaneous and conflicting tasks in contexts of diminished opportunities for delegation or support. The library research on which the paper is based was carried out in 2000-2001. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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