Care-Stories: Using storytelling to address the mystification of women’s health experiences

Women’s health has continued to be a source of mystification and misinformation throughout history and into the modern day. Up until the end of the 20th century, women could not even be included in medical research due to the potential of pregnancy. Even though this policy has now been changed, medical research for diseases whose patients are primarily women continues to be underfunded. This lack of focus on women in medical research has created gaps in knowledge about women’s health, which has perpetuated the spread of misinformation. I wanted to research how women can use storytelling in a design intervention to better support them in their health journeys. In this research study, I employed a participatory feminist action research methodology. Within this methodology, I studied how storytelling could be used in a design intervention to address the mystification of women’s health and improve health outcomes. In this methodology, I employed several methods that were utilized cyclically, in that each method’s findings informed the next. These methods included a content analysis of the StoryCorps podcast, a Consciousness-Raising Group (CRG) activity, and a story contribution form. The design intervention created in response to what I learned from the CRG is a web platform called Care•Stories. Care•Stories is a digital story index that works to disperse credible and relatable health knowledge to women from varied backgrounds. To address intersectionality within the study’s population, identity factors such as ethnicity, age, religion, and region were utilized as a foundation within my digital storytelling platform. Care•Stories’ effectiveness comes from the finding that reading others’ stories can encourage women to seek care, gain insight into how they may overcome the health event mentally and physically, and learn from what others wish they had known about it earlier in their own journeys.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.F.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art and Design

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Strickland, Holly

Contributors dc:contributor

• Briggs, Molly
• Hetrick, Laura
• Marble, Jena

• Design Research
• User Research
• Graphic Design
• Women's Health
• Web Design
• Feminist Research
• Prototyping

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Holly Strickland

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124718

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124718