Exploring Latina and Queer Women’s Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors
According to the American Cancer Society, (2009), about 1.3 million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer annually worldwide and about 465,000 will die from the disease. More recently, the National Cancer Institute, (2009), estimates that in 2009, there will be 192,370 new cases of breast cancer for American women and an estimated 40,170 deaths. Historically, the Latina and queer population has been underserved and underrepresented in research and health services. Past trends in research have only focused on categories pertaining to either women, race/ethnicity, or queer identity- never all three components combined. Greater attention must be paid to the specific needs of queer Latina women in understanding their complex identities of gender, race, and sexual orientation. Limited research is available examining the breast cancer screening behaviors of queer Latina women. Therefore, this research project will analyze two categories of journal literature from an 8 year time span, 2001- 2009, on Latina and queer women’s breast cancer screening behaviors. Ultimately exploring how problems of racism, sexism, and heterosexism influence their breast cancer screening behaviors. Through queer methodology, I will observe the concepts, themes, and communicative language of current literature in the area of breast cancer screening behavior for Latina women and queer women, respectively. Expected findings of combined literature and analysis will identify gaps of breast cancer screening behaviors among queer Latina women and make future recommendations to researchers and the health community to improve access to, and quality of breast cancer screening among queer Latina women.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Department:
Gender & Women’s Studies
Research Advisor:
Kirstie Dorr
Department of Research Advisor:
Gender & Women’s Studies
Year of Publication:
2009