Female Genital Cutting and African Women's Migration to Canada: Toward a Postcolonial Feminist Decolonizing Methodology

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dc.contributor.advisorEwashen, Carol J.
dc.contributor.authorWerunga, Jane Nasipwondi
dc.contributor.committeememberReimer-Kirkham, Sheryl
dc.contributor.committeememberEstefan, Andrew
dc.date2021-02
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-25T17:45:32Z
dc.date.available2020-11-25T17:45:32Z
dc.date.issued2020-11-23
dc.description.abstractThe discourse on the cultural practice of FGC has captured a lot of attention over the last several decades, and with international migration propelling what was once a private cultural practice onto the global stage, FGC has become a fixture in the international human rights and global health arenas. FGC is a sensitive topic and the debates around it remain politically and culturally contentious. A lot of resources have been poured into eradication endeavors with multiple multinational organizations including the WHO spearheading the effort, the non-negotiable endpoint being the wellbeing, safety, and security of young girls and women. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive description study informed by decolonizing perspectives was to critically examine how immigrant and refugee women who have experienced FGC make sense of and explain the practice for themselves and for younger generations; and to explore the sociopolitical contexts sustaining and perpetuating FGC in the lives of affected younger and older women including their perceptions of as well as interactions with health services in diasporic locations. Participants’ understandings and agency-in-practice were analyzed through the themes of Experiencing, Explaining, Migrating, and Mitigating FGC. A decolonizing interpretation of research findings surfaced the intersections of social, political, economic, and cultural barriers manifesting through racialized and gendered axes of exclusion and marginalization to affect the health and wellbeing of FGC-affected immigrant and refugee women in a globalized milieu. This study highlights the importance of historical and cultural contexts in understanding and researching FGC-affected women as well as the relevance of decolonizing universal norms including in research, in order to effectively do this. This study offers an alternative way of conceptualizing FGC in a transnational setting and has implications for nursing research, health services, nursing education, as well as leadership and policy. Immigrant and refugee women affected by FGC deserve equitable, socially just, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed health services. This is in keeping with the nursing mandate of fostering health equity and social justice for all individuals. This study opens avenues for considering alternative ways of conceptualizing FGC and in doing so lives up to the interpretive description design logic.en_US
dc.identifier.citationWerunga, J. N. (2020). Female Genital Cutting and African Women's Migration to Canada: Toward a Postcolonial Feminist Decolonizing Methodology (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/38406
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/112782
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyNursingen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectfemale genital mutilation/cuttingen_US
dc.subjectmigrationen_US
dc.subjectAfricanen_US
dc.subjectimmigranten_US
dc.subjectrefugeesen_US
dc.subjectwomenen_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Healthen_US
dc.subject.classificationLiterature--Africanen_US
dc.subject.classificationEthnic and Racial Studiesen_US
dc.subject.classificationSociology--Theory and Methodsen_US
dc.subject.classificationWomen's Studiesen_US
dc.subject.classificationMental Healthen_US
dc.subject.classificationNursingen_US
dc.subject.classificationPublic Healthen_US
dc.subject.classificationChemistryen_US
dc.subject.classificationPsychology--Socialen_US
dc.titleFemale Genital Cutting and African Women's Migration to Canada: Toward a Postcolonial Feminist Decolonizing Methodologyen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineNursingen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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