ABSTRACT

Women's Lifeworlds explores the diversity and complexity of women's perceptions and reactions to their own 'lifeworlds' in their own words. Examining the changing meaning of 'place' in women's lives over time and across space, this book questions how women face, negotiate and shape the social space of their environment. Engaging personal narratives are presented by fifteen women of various age groups, from different cultural, religious, social and geographical backgrounds, from Mexican politician, Muslim psychiatrist, Finnish housewife to Indian guru and African rural woman. Writing about the lives of their grandmothers, mothers, themselves, their daughters or other close female relatives, the authors of these life narratives cross generational and cultural divides and share perceptions with each other. This unique inter-generational approach provides an engaging challenge to the generalised assumptions of how women in various historical and cultural contexts feel about womanhood, life, society, culture and religion.

part |1 pages

Part I INTRODUCTION

chapter 1|16 pages

A POLYLOGUE

part |1 pages

Part II THE LIFE NARRATIVES

chapter 2|17 pages

ETCHINGS ON A GRAIN OF RICE

chapter 6|15 pages

BELONGING

chapter 7|10 pages

NO ISOLATION ANY MORE

chapter 9|16 pages

BREAKING CULTURE’S CHAINS

chapter 10|9 pages

DEFENDING THE SAMAY

chapter 13|14 pages

AN IRISH MATRILINEAL STORY

chapter 14|12 pages

SUBTLETY IN PERCEPTION

chapter 15|18 pages

THE SWEET AND SOUR FRUITS OF WOMEN’S LIB

chapter 16|12 pages

GIVING AND TAKING SPACE

part |1 pages

Part III THE FINDINGS