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Consciousness raised
Descriptive
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Text
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Title
Consciousness raised
SubTitle
women increasing health literacy from Our bodies, ourselves to Breastcancer.org
TitleInfo
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Title
Women increasing health literacy from Our bodies, ourselves to Breastcancer.org
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ETD_2034
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http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.000051981
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eng
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theses
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Topic
Women's and Gender Studies
Subject
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(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Women--Psychology
Subject
(ID = SBJ-3);
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Women--Health and hygiene
Abstract
The personal is political: this revelation sent ripples through the women’s liberation movement in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and inspired a feminist practice to discuss personal experience openly and collectively in a safe and supportive context. This practice came to be known as consciousness raising (CR). CR helped women recognize that individual struggles were, by and large, fueled by gender politics. A historical practice with a precipitous rise and fall, CR has been revitalized and improved through medical support and education websites. By grounding access to valid health information in the trusted and proven feminist practice of CR, these web based resources add credibility and familiarity to a complex subject. The contemporary American expectation that information be available on demand makes web based resources extremely important. Medical support and education websites that incorporate computer- mediated communication create avenues to medical information – both professional and experiential – that can result in an increased level of health literacy.
This project examines the feminist practice of consciousness raising through a comparative case study of face-to-face and web-based health literacy projects. In both contexts group discussions of personal realities establish links between subjective experience and larger political themes. This evaluation of the evolution of CR focuses on the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, an early, long-lasting and effective CR group, and Breastcancer.org, a more recent but rapidly expanding web-based tool for raising women’s consciousness. Both sites focus on health literacy through education, support and collective discussion. They provide the basis for an in-depth examination of successful CR communication strategies. This study will explore the methods of information distribution utilized by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and frame those against a web-based breast cancer support and education website, Breastcancer.org. This comparison will establish a connection in the modes of information distribution, communication strategies and support offered via face-to-face and text based CR.
I highlight the effectiveness of breast cancer support and education sites that use a new form of CR to advocate for health literacy. Health literacy does not make an individual a medical expert; rather it provides the necessary information and perspective for women to play an active role in their health care plan. Themes that will be present throughout this project include: consciousness raising as a feminist practice, the role of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective within the women’s health movement, breast cancer support and education websites that foster health literacy, and the exchange of ideas, experience and medical knowledge – that is CR – that ties them together.
This project examines the feminist practice of consciousness raising through a comparative case study of face-to-face and web-based health literacy projects. In both contexts group discussions of personal realities establish links between subjective experience and larger political themes. This evaluation of the evolution of CR focuses on the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, an early, long-lasting and effective CR group, and Breastcancer.org, a more recent but rapidly expanding web-based tool for raising women’s consciousness. Both sites focus on health literacy through education, support and collective discussion. They provide the basis for an in-depth examination of successful CR communication strategies. This study will explore the methods of information distribution utilized by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and frame those against a web-based breast cancer support and education website, Breastcancer.org. This comparison will establish a connection in the modes of information distribution, communication strategies and support offered via face-to-face and text based CR.
I highlight the effectiveness of breast cancer support and education sites that use a new form of CR to advocate for health literacy. Health literacy does not make an individual a medical expert; rather it provides the necessary information and perspective for women to play an active role in their health care plan. Themes that will be present throughout this project include: consciousness raising as a feminist practice, the role of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective within the women’s health movement, breast cancer support and education websites that foster health literacy, and the exchange of ideas, experience and medical knowledge – that is CR – that ties them together.
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electronic resource
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vii, 86 p.
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M.A.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-86)
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by Lindsay M. Currie
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Currie
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Lindsay M.
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1983-
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Lindsay M. Currie
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Nancy
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Nancy A Hewitt
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Rodgers
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Yana
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Yana Rodgers
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Kempner
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Joanna
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Joanna Kempner
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Rutgers University
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Graduate School - New Brunswick
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2009
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2009-10
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xx
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Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD
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Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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Identifier
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doi:10.7282/T3V12501
Genre
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ETD graduate
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Rights
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
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Copyright protected
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Open
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Currie
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Lindsay
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Lindsay Currie
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Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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Author Agreement License
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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