| This thesis examines interpretations of the health and wellbeing of single working women without children (SWWWC) in two types of discourse: that of published research in periodicals (scientific) and that of qualitative interviews with members of this group (lay). Demographically, this group's numbers are significant (28% of employed Canadian women), however, its health and wellbeing is little visible in research. Within the social sciences, research is burgeoning on the challenging experience of being a single adult in couples-oriented cultures, emphasizing the stigma of this status and also how it may be unwittingly perpetuated through research practices. By defying normative expectations pertaining to coupled and family life, SWWWC appear a useful group from which to assess this claim. Drawing on both scientific and lay accounts allows an exploration of the tensions and convergences between them. Samples of 32 scientific articles and 22 interview transcripts were drawn on in the discourse analysis, guided by the concepts of interpretative repertoire (coherent ways of writing about a topic) and subject positions (identities). This research gave rise to three articles. The first analyzes common themes in the explanation of the health/wellbeing of this group in scientific research and identifies an interpretative repertoire termed the family as reference . This repertoire accounts for the frequent explanation of their health by referring to the states and characteristics of holding parental or partner roles. This could obscure their lives or cast them as relatively impoverished, reinforcing single woman stereotypes. Article 2 examines how members of this population construct their own wellbeing. It identifies notions of balance between various life spheres and a positioning as dynamic as central. These challenge understandings of singles/the childless as having lives lacking in breadth or fulfillment, or as untouched by issues of work-life balance. Article 3 brings the scientific and lay materials together over the topics of singleness and paid work in relation to health and wellbeing, highlighting their many similarities and differences. The possible functions of the various interpretations are theorized. I conclude that a more critical perspective on coupled/family status can offer public health research a point of added reflexivity.;Keywords: marital status, childlessness, employment, stigma, social roles, identity, qualitative methods, reflexivity and work-life. |
