In this article, the work of Richard Quinney and his peacemaking approach to the study of crime is used to examine the circumstances of women's crime and the effect of incarceration on women and children. Quinney's attention to events prior to the act of crime is applied to women's crime. The common life experience of prior physical or sexual abuse is among the most consistent recurring themes among incarcerated women. For these women, crime is a symptom of other painful life experiences. Quinney's peacemaking approach to crime suggests that nonpunitive response offers more hope for a future without crime, and this approach is suggested as the most appropriate means of responding to women's crime.
This paper explores the relationship between colonial oppression in prefamine Ireland and the development of gender patterns that fostered uncommon social and familial roles for women. In post-famine Ireland women's traditional family roles illustrate cultural empowerment that combined with the pull factors of employment opportunities to spawn higher female than male emigration at the same time that patriarchal oppression restricted women's full social participation in Ireland and limited their authority to specific domains of family life. Cultural changes in post-famine Ireland, including increased power for the Catholic Church, mothers' socialization of children to the moral teachings of the Church, delayed marriage, and permanent celibacy among large segments of the population, intersected to produce unique patterns of migration. For women who immigrated to the United States, the cultural background of colonial oppression instilled values that respected independence and employment. In the case of the Irish, colonial oppression initiated gender patterns that pushed women to greater familial power and occupational independence than was typical of other ethnic groups.
The main focus of the present paper is to place the current occupation of certified nursemidwife (CNM) within the historical context of the decline of lay midwifery and the rise of the medical profession. The development and growth of nurse-midwifery is documented, as well as current problems facing the profession. The most salient contemporary issue is cancellation of malpractice insurance for 1400 CNMs in 1985. The consequences of this, and suggested policy changes, are explored. Midwives in the U.S.: past and presentIn colonial America the midwife's post was one of the most important in the community. Since it was beneath the dignity of male physicians to act as obstetricians, women had a virtual monopoly over the practice (Packard, 1963: 53). Our first midwives were European women who emigrated to the colonies. These women undoubtedly practiced in Europe and transported their skills to the New World (Thoms, 1961: 3). Yet, rigid role expectations for women of the period prevented extension of the practice of midwifery beyond simple deliveries, and if the bii:th was in any way atypical, midwives were blamed for the complications.In spite of the danger of blame and punishment for difficulties, deaths, or birth defects which were encountered at the time of delivery, midwives did deliver the majority of babies born at this time. Midwives were rather well thought of and prominent members of the community. Thorns (1960: 10) reports how the Widow Bradley in 1655 was furnished with a house and lot rent-free in New Haven as long as she continued her services as a midwife. Other midwives received houses, money in the form of a yearly stipend, tobacco, or other gifts as support and in exchange for their services. In general, midwives were greatly respected and had strong relationships with their patients. They frequently participated in baptisms or the burial of infants, and women with gynecological problems would tell midwives things they would be reluctant to tell a doctor. In addition, midwives testified in court cases involving bastardy, verified birth dates, and examined female prisoners who had pleaded pregnancy to escape punishment (Scholter, 1977: 440).
This paper uses Sara Ruddick's theory of maternal thinking to explain patterns of Irish mothering that developed in Ireland following the Great Famine of 1845-1852. Ruddick's central thesis, that maternal thinking develops strategies for preserving the life of the child, fostering the child's growth, and shaping an acceptable child, is applied to the intersecting influences of famine memory, religion, education, and emigration in post-famine Ireland. The strict, moralistic, and highly inhibiting features of Irish culture that dominated the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are traceable to patterns of mothering that developed after the famine. While Irish mothers are often blamed for instilling values that stressed sexual repression and guilt, other cultural factors influenced maternal thinking. Mothers did foster highly repressive moral values that encouraged permanent celibacy and delayed marriage. This paper examines the larger cultural features that derived from political oppression and the famine as they imprinted these values.
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