Exploring Gender in Cancer Support Spaces: Learning as an Ethnographic Self

• In Event: 390 - Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Race, Gender, Class and Health Part II

Abstract

That racial disparities in breast cancer mortality exist and the largely absent literature describing black women’s accounts with this disease initially drove me to the scope of this project: ethnographically exploring cancer support spaces for racial variations. However, as I began analyzing the data while still in the field, the more interesting story that emerged was the way in which gender shaped the composition of groups, interpersonal interactions, and personal dispositions within this space. In this paper, I explore the ways in which hegemonic gender norms shapes activity and discourse within several different settings within a cancer support center using participant observation and semi structured interviews. I use ethnographic and qualitative techniques to understand processes of coping and also recognize how my own milieu shapes the field in which I research.

Author

• Kanetha Brynn Wilson, Vanderbilt University