In a perfectly instructive example of how women are abetted and constrained by their ecological and environmental circumstances, the assertive and confident Annika was hobbled nearly beyond recognition by her adopted country’s lack of support for families with young children and new mothers in particular, and by patrilocal patterns of residence that had her far from her parents and other kin support. Annika’s girlfriends played a vital role in filling the gaps, but they had stresses and challenges of their own, with most of them as isolated and financially dependent on their husbands as Annika
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