The colour White
Racial and gendered closure in the South African medical profession
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2150202 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L Walker (0000-0002-1652-5800, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 348-375 |
| Publication date | 2005-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01419870420000315889 |
| OpenAlex | W2099628229 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 12 |
This article explores meanings of whiteness through a case study of the South African Society of Medical Women [SASMW]. It unpacks the social meanings attached to being a white woman doctor in South Africa under apartheid, through an analysis of the professional struggles of the SASMW (overwhelmingly dominated by white women) from 1950-1990. 1 demonstrate that being white and female created opportunities for women doctors along with constraints. The SASMW's struggles to challenge gender obstacles in the medical profession were easily fought because they never sought to overturn the gendered hierarchies of the profession and the discourses attached to them. I argue that in the South African context the racial privilege enjoyed by white medical women facilitated their access to the profession. Their whiteness accorded them automatic entry into the medical profession, and a career through a political and economic system concerned with maintaining racial exclusion and privilege
Closure (psychology · Family medicine · Medical profession · Political science · Race (biology · Sociology · White (mutation · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Law · Medicine
Social Work Professionalism During and After Apartheid in South Africa
Male(Volent) Medicine
The utilization of the concept of profession to understand social problems
Making whiteness work in South Africa
Towards a South African Sociology of Professions
Gender, ethnicity and feminism
The future of whiteness
The legacy of apartheid in health and health care
Changes in the religious views and practices of a minority group in South Africa
Divided Sisterhood
White Women, Race Matters
Melissa Steyn, "Whiteness just Isn't What It Used to Be". White Identity in a Changing South Africa
Conservative Pioneers
Epidemics and Disease
Subjectivities of Whiteness
Is White Australia possible?' Race, colonialism and tropical medicine
"They heal in the spirit of the mother" 1
| Citations per year | 0.39 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Highly cited | No |