Conclusion

Abstract

In concluding this study, it is clear that relations between women and state forces, between ideologies and their consequences for women’s situation, changes in family structures and state transformations, and between women’s domestic and public work are fundamental. Included within the ideological framework have been the psychological elements of strain, stress and illness which women suffer as a resuit of conlficting ideas and ideals concerning what women should be, as ideal mother, worker, wife, daughter and the varying and conflicting aspects of social policy provision. In terms of transition, given the slow pace of cultural change, it is the case that there will be legacies from the former ways of thinking. For women such legacies can include not only assumptions about ‘natural women’s rôles’ but also internalized beliefs about what women can or perhaps more importandy, what women cannot achieve. That some women are not confident in their own abilities nor in those of other women is understandable in this context.