The workplace as a site of abortion surveillance

Bloomer, Fiona, Mackle, Danielle ORCID: 0000-0001-7638-6200, MacNamara, Nóirín ORCID: 0000-0002-6220-571X, Pierson, Claire ORCID: 0000-0003-0961-7157 and Bloomer, Stephen ORCID: 0000-0003-0501-7568 (2023) The workplace as a site of abortion surveillance. Gender, Work & Organization.

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Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Analysis of the experiences and resulting inequalities in reproductive health in the workplace has generated studies of pregnancy, miscarriage, menstruation, fertility and menopause. One issue that has remained outside of this literature is abortion. How abortion is talked about (or not talked about), experienced and perceived as a workplace issue were the central questions in our research undertaken in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 2017. Our study comprised a survey (3180 respondents) followed by a series of online focus groups (61 participants) with trade union members from a broad range of workplaces, with the aim of investigating how abortion was positioned in workplaces within legally restrictive regimes. We conceptualize how self‐disciplining, silence and abortion stigma are reproduced in workplaces, drawing on a feminist Foucauldian framework to examine disciplinary power. We examine evidence of how, in conservative societies, abortion talk is suppressed, and we generate new theoretical knowledge on how disciplinary power undermines resistance to anti‐abortion norms and demonstrate the function of the normalizing gaze in the workplace. We conclude by offering avenues for future research on abortion stigma and disciplinary power, to extend further knowledge and conceptual framing of abortion as a workplace issue.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Contraception/Reproduction, Reproductive health and childbirth, 3 Good Health and Well Being
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	29 Nov 2023 16:15
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2024 13:48
DOI:	10.1111/gwao.13100
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3177054