LEIPERT, B.
University of Western Ontario
MAIR, H., MEAGHER-STEWART, D., SCRUBY, L., WAMSLEY, K.
SRG 2009
Français
Social support is key to the health of rural women in Canada, who comprise over 20% of the population. Sport and recreation play important social support roles in rural life. Yet, due to depopulation of rural communities in Canada, increased and gendered work of rural women, under-supported, deteriorating and/or lost sport and recreation facilities in rural communities, and women’s continuing struggles for equal status in many areas of social life, Thompson suggests that women have fewer opportunities to experience these social and health benefits. The objectives of this collaborative research are to determine the nature of rural women’s involvement in organized sport and recreation activities in selected rural sites in Canada, and to assess rural women’s perceptions of the influence of these activities on their individual and social health. In particular, the study seeks to:
- examine the social lives and health of rural women within the contexts of curling and curing clubs;
- explore the roles that sport and recreation clubs play as community places for rural women;
- utilize photovoice, an innovative, participatory qualitative research method, to work with rural women in photographing, documenting, and expressing their perspectives about their health and social lives within the context of and as influenced by rural curling and curling clubs;
- understand how these sport and recreation activities and meanings differ for women across selected diverse rural communities in Canada; and;
- determine how health, sport, and recreation are to be understood within the broader contexts of gender and community change in rural areas.
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