Gender roles and women’s mental health: their influence on the demand for psychological care

The prevalence of certain diagnoses, such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder, is higher among women than among men. When it comes to women’s mental health, focusing on social aspects influencing the way women fall ill becomes crucial. Using a sample of 368 women, we studied the classification ability of a number of clinical variables and sociocultural factors (conformity to gender norms) in order to ascertain whether or not women were receiving psychological care and determine the importance of each of the variables when predicting which women were receiving therapy. Our results showed that women were more likely to be receiving psychological treatment when scoring high on certain clinical variables (such as Suicidal Ideation and Borderline Features) and on a number of variables related to conforming to gender norms (Care for Children, Nice in Relationships, and Sexual Fidelity). Therefore, we believe that integrating the gender perspective into educational, health-related, and psychological care programmes is essential so that gender roles can become more diverse and less constricting of people’s potential, resulting in improved health. La prevalencia de determinados diagnósticos –trastorno de la conducta alimentaria, depresión, ansiedad y trastorno límite– es superior en mujeres que en hombres. Considerando la salud mental en mujeres, resulta imprescindible poner el foco en los aspectos sociales que influyen en la forma de enfermar. Se estudia en una muestra de 368 mujeres la capacidad de clasificación de algunas variables clínicas y factores socioculturales (conformidad con las normas de género) para determinar si una mujer está recibiendo asistencia psicológica o no, así como la importancia de cada una de esas variables a la hora de pronosticar qué mujeres estarían recibiendo terapia. Los resultados mostraron que cuando las mujeres puntúan alto en algunas variables clínicas (como Ideaciones Suicidas y Rasgos Límites) y en algunas relacionadas con conformidad con las normas de género (Cuidadora de Niños/as, Agradable en las relaciones y la Fidelidad Sexual) era más probable que estén recibiendo tratamiento psicológico. Por lo tanto, se considera que la inclusión de la perspectiva de género en programas de educativos, de salud y atención psicológica es fundamental para que los roles de género puedan ser más diversos y constriñan menos las potencialidades de las personas, lo que influirá en que tengan una mejor salud.

Gendering the EU's Western Balkan Enlargement

The EU's extra-territorial, value-driven practices are often conceptualized as normative power. However, the diffusion of norms is strongly contested in terms of human rights. This is particularly true of gender equality, which the EU uses as a conditionality tool to promote human rights, consolidate democracy, and develop a well-functioning fair market economy in other countries. Using a feminist lens and drawing on the literature and official documents, this chapter questions the balance between these three aims and the extent that Europe's normative power can mainstream gender norms in Western Balkan countries. Backsliding of equality patterns and the EU's exclusive concern on producing instruments to encourage women's labour market participation indicate that it promotes more market-engaged gender equality norms instead of creating normative change in socially constructed roles in Western Balkan countries.

The Effects Pornography has on Dating and Gender Norms

In this paper, I plan to review the research and findings on how pornography influences gender norms within society and how this has a positive and/or negative impact on relationships and intimacy. During my review, I will explore the different aspects of how pornography influences dating and intimacy, and gender norms within our society. I hypothesize that due to the overwhelming rates of aggression, violence, and objectification of women in mainstream pornographic videos and the surging rates of users viewing these videos on a consistent basis, pornography has a negative influence on dating and gender norms.

Shifting gender norms to improve HIV service uptake: Qualitative findings from a large-scale community mobilization intervention in rural South Africa

Background Interventions to improve HIV service uptake are increasingly addressing inequitable and restrictive gender norms. Yet comparatively little is known about which gender norms are most salient for HIV testing and treatment and how changing these specific norms translates into HIV service uptake. To explore these questions, we implemented a qualitative study during a community mobilization trial targeting social barriers to HIV service uptake in South Africa. Methods We conducted 55 in-depth interviews in 2018, during the final months of a three-year intervention in rural Mpumalanga province. Participants included 25 intervention community members (48% women) and 30 intervention staff/community-opinion-leaders (70% women). Data were analyzed using an inductive-deductive approach. Results We identified three avenues for gender norms change which, when coupled with other strategies, were described to support HIV service uptake: (1) Challenging norms around male toughness/avoidance of help-seeking, combined with information on the health and preventive benefits of early antiretroviral therapy (ART), eased men’s fears of a positive diagnosis and facilitated HIV service uptake. (2) Challenging norms about men’s expected control over women, combined with communication and conflict resolution skill-building, encouraged couple support around HIV service uptake. (3) Challenging norms around women being solely responsible for the family’s health, combined with information about sero-discordance and why both members of the couple should be tested, encouraged men to test for HIV rather than relying on their partner’s results. Facility-level barriers such as long wait times continued to prevent some men from accessing care. Conclusions Despite continued facility-level barriers, we found that promoting critical reflection around several specific gender norms, coupled with information (e.g., benefits of ART) and skill-building (e.g., communication), were perceived to support men’s and women’s engagement in HIV services. There is a need to identify and tailor programming around specific gender norms that hinder HIV service uptake.

Unexpected Destinations

This chapter argues that an upbringing of religious restraint constrains college choices, especially for professional-class kids. It does so by recalibrating their academic ambitions after graduation, leading them to rarely consider a selective college despite their excellent grades in high school. As a result, religiously restrained teens—and especially those from the professional class who have the resources to make it to college—tend to undermatch in the college selection process. This is evident among men and is especially prevalent among women. Girls who grow up with religious restraint have a self-concept centered around family, service, and God. They do not aspire toward prestigious careers, which makes a degree from a selective college less valuable. Unlike less affluent teens who want to improve their class position by gaining a college degree, religiously restrained teens are content maintaining their class position by attending college close to home and reproducing traditional gender norms.

Good Boy Gone Bad

This chapter details Zayn’s construction of “post boy band masculinity.” His departure from One Direction instigated an extensive reconfiguration of his public identity, and the bulk of the chapter concerns the creation of discursive distance between his solo persona and his boy band past. The chapter opens with a thorough assessment of the prevailing prejudices that characterize boy bands as innocent, immature, and inauthentic. It is in response to such prejudices, it is argued, that Zayn’s transformation was undertaken in a bid to authenticate his solo persona in both musical and masculine terms. This is achieved in the music video, Pillowtalk (2016), wherein a sonic alignment with rock idioms and the audiovisual construction of a seductive dreamscape largely maintains gender norms and affirm his heterosexual virility. At the same time, Zayn’s openness about mental health issues and his devotion to fashion have spurred descriptions of him as ushering in new ways of being masculine. These contradictory facets of his persona indicate that even seemingly heteronormative expressions of identity may contain potentially subversive aspects, and vice versa.

From Boy Band to Man Band

The chapter begins by considering descriptions of aging boy bands as “man bands.” Taking an interest in the discouraging rhetoric that describes aging masculinities as in a state of decline, the author focuses on the post-reunion career of Take That. Two distinct events in the band’s history serve as the chapter’s focal points: 1) the 2010 release of Progress, the only album to see the whole group reunited since Robbie Williams’ first departure from the band in 1995; and 2) the 2017 release of Wonderland, which was the second album offered by the group as a trio following the departure of Jason Orange and Williams (for the second time). In promoting Progress, the group pursued contemporary trends in pop production and musical style while simultaneously aligning themselves to “rockist” ideas of authenticity and musicianship (even if certain boy band conventions were upheld). Following the release of Wonderland, and in the music video New Day (2017), Take That demonstrated how boy band clichés can be mobilized to signal dissent from gender norms. During this period, the group appeared to embrace banality and self-irony as a means for resisting stagnation and assimilation. By comparing these two moments in the band’s history, the chapter accounts for Take That’s contrasting approaches to navigating the multiplicity of meanings attached to the concepts of age and aging, thus providing new insights into the relationship between masculinity and maturation in pop music.

Bargaining over Remittances in Tajik Extended Families

This study investigates the impact of male labor migration upon wives living among their husbands’ extended families in Tajikistan. It studies the risks and choices available to such wives in bargaining for remittances, with a particular focus on the risks that daughters-in-law (kelin in Tajik) undertake when negotiating remittances with their mothers-in-law. This paper explores age and gender-specific norms in Tajik transnational families and their minimal opportunities for kelins to bargain and negotiate the risks associated with making “claims” on remittances by using Deniz Kandiyoti’s “patriarchal bargain” and Bina Agarwal’s household bargain framework, as well as extensive fieldwork conducted in Tajikistan. The study concludes that international migration and remittances have had a complex impact on gender norms in Tajikistan, with emerging new forms of passive negotiation by kelins unlikely to undermine patriarchal gender norms in their favor.

Creating Gaps in Understanding: How Gen Z Disrupts Gender Norms on TikTok

Since its inception, social media has been an important method of constructing and performing identity, including gender identity. Identity work on social media is perhaps especially relevant to Gen Z (those born after 1996; Parker & Igielnik, 2020), who are the first generation with access to it in early childhood. In this article, we explore how Gen Z constructs and performs gender identity and other facets of intersectional identity on popular video platform TikTok by analyzing selected content from three TikTokers through the lenses of performativity, intersectionality, and automediality.

“I may be essential but someone has to look after my kids”: women physicians and COVID-19

Objectives This paper analyzes results from focus groups held with women physicians in British Columbia which explored questions around how gender norms and roles influenced their experiences during COVID-19. Methods Four virtual focus groups were organized between July and September 2020. Participants (n = 27) were voluntarily recruited. Data were analyzed using applied thematic analysis. Results In addition to the COVID-19-related changes experienced across the profession, women physicians faced distinct challenges related to an increase in unpaid care responsibilities, and often felt excluded from, and occasionally dismissed by, leadership. Women leaders often felt their contributions were unrecognized and undervalued. Participants drew strength from other women leaders, peer networks, and professional support, but these strategies were limited by unpaid care and emotional labour demands, which were identified as increasing risk of burnout. Discussion Even though women physicians hold a degree of relative privilege, unpaid care work and gender norms contribute to distinct secondary effects of COVID-19. Women physicians link these to pre-pandemic assumptions (within families and communities) that women would absorb care deficits at their own cost. Health system leadership continues to reflect a masculine normative experience wherein the personal and professional are separated, and which devalues the emotional labour often associated with feminine leadership. The strategies participants employed to address negative impacts, while demonstrating resourcefulness and peer support, reflect individualistic responses to social-structural challenges. There is a need for greater recognition of women’s contributions at home and work, increased representation in decision-making, and practical supports such as childcare and counselling.