Images of old women in literature and myth are almost universally negative. The terms crone and hag continue to evoke powerful images when reading English literature. Fairy tales from a variety of cultures convey the idea of evil and dangerous old women (e. g., Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White). Indeed, witches in […]

A basic tenet of social constructionist theory is that the distinction between the knower and the known is never as sharp as supposed by logical positivism. Culture infuses science and science infuses culture. The ques­tions researchers think to ask in their scientific endeavors are influenced by an understanding of the basic nature of the phenomenon […]

SHARON S. ROSTOSKY AND CHERYL BROWN TRAVIS Images and stereotypes of women over 40 are overwhelmingly nega­tive. The popular literature conveys a message, based on a medical model, that older women are sicker and more frail than younger women, and less optimal than the male norm. We discuss the implicit and not-so-implicit messages about women’s […]

The data from the WMLH Project indicate that sexual patterns are remarkably similar at the fifth month of pregnancy, 4 months postpartum, and 12 months postpartum, but that sexual expression is considerably re­duced at 1 month postpartum, when the majority of couples have not resumed intercourse. On average, couples resumed intercourse at about 7 weeks […]

At Time 2, 1 month postpartum, we compared women who were currently breast-feeding (BF, n = 361, 68% of the sample) with those who were not (NBF, n = 169, 32% of the sample). Several differences were revealed (Table 2). NBF women were significantly more likely to have resumed intercourse (29%) than BF women (15%). […]

Descriptive data on sexual behaviors in the last month, as reported at Times 1, 2, 3, and 4, are shown in Table 1. The percentage of couples who engage in intercourse in any given month is about 90%, except at Time 2, 1 month postpartum, when the majority have not yet resumed intercourse. The frequency […]

A total of 570 pregnant women and 550 of their husbands or partners (all partners were men) were recruited for participation in the WMLH Project (for a more detailed description of recruiting procedures and char­acteristics of the sample, see Hyde et al., 1995). Attempts were made to recruit as diverse a sample as possible. Approximately […]

The Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health (WMLH) Project is a large-scale, longitudinal study of women and their families from pregnancy through one year postpartum (Hyde, Klein, Essex, &. Clark, 1995). The focus of the WMLH Project is on women, work, maternity leave, and health (defined to include physical health, mental health, and the health of […]

Most studies on pregnancy, childbirth, and sexuality suffer from meth­odological problems. The studies are based on nonrandom convenience samples. The samples often are small. Some rely on retrospective reports about sexual behavior during pregnancy or about resumption of sexual ac­tivity after childbirth, introducing possible inaccuracies in memory. There has been little consistency across studies in […]

There is less agreement in the findings of research on the resumption of sexual activity following childbirth (Reamy &. White, 1987). The in consistency across studies is likely due to both variations in sampling meth ods, and variations in the number of weeks postpartum when respondents are interviewed. Kenny (1973), in a study of 33 […]