Cultural Dynamics of Women's Lives (Hc)

This book explores the diverse landscapes wherein women struggle for their personal and social identities and lives between biology and culture destinyand choice shared and individual worlds tradition and modernity. Their peripheral lives have central meaning (Chaudhary this volume) inany society - and as such are approached as a primary subject in this book as the chapters traverse ten different countries on three continents: NorthAmerica (United States); Latin America (Brazil Chile Colombia); Asia (India); and Europe (United Kingdom Ireland Portugal Finland Estonia).Throughout these different places women's lives are an interesting stage for observing the interaction between biology and culture (e.g. sex vs. gender;pregnancy and childbirth vs. transition to motherhood). The focus on the cultural variability of human experience opens the door for the search of commonalitiesso needed in psychological theorizing. Here this search is directed by how cultural models of womanhood (and motherhood) constrain personalexperiences especially through developmental transitions.This book is ultimately an opportunity to approach women's lives from the perspective of the women themselves particularly making audible andexplicit their voices and the axis of logic that structures their world. Undoubtedly it is a valuable opportunity for women and men interested in understandingand constructing human experience inside better worlds.