DEFINING WOMEN - NOTES TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF STRUCTURE AND AGENCY IN THE NEGOTIATION OF SEX

A preliminary analysis of undergraduate women's accounts of early sexu al experience examines structural factors and interpretations of these frameworks to explain decision making. The author articulates coerciv e historical, cultural, and hierarchical contexts; processes of interp retation; and interactional strategies. An examination of tactics wome n employ in their quest for valued identities shifts attention from vi ctimization and agency to the negotiation of these identities and link s individual actors to larger social structures. The author argues tha t a woman is neither simply the product of her circumstances (a victim ) nor the producer of her world (a powerful female) but, rather, she i s both.