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Psychology of Women, Reflection 6

The article written by Joe Fassler titled “How Doctors Take Women’s Pain Less Seriously” identifies a new scary reality of gender bias in hospital emergency rooms. As a female I found this to be very concerning. Having a human beings pain dismissed and then misdiagnosed is a stain on our medical institution. It was chilling to read the authors documentation of his wife Rachel’s visit to their local emergency room where she had to endure hours of pain because of “a phenomenon referred to as yentl syndrome.” This means that it is perceived “women are more likely to be treated less aggressively in their initial encounters with the healthcare system until they prove that they are as sick as male patients.”

It is difficult enough that women have to deal with being referred to as “the weaker sex” and many women worry about “coming across as melodramatic.” It is ludicrous that we have to accept this double standard. It seems to me that there was gross negligence when the male attending physician quickly jumped to diagnose Rachel as a person suffering with kidney stones to explain away her abdominal pain. Her husband, the author “felt certain that there was a denial of the specifically female nature of Rachel’s pain.” It turns out that unfortunately for Rachel, the E.R. that she was taken to had no attending OBGYN who would have looked at her ovaries and correctly concluded that she had “ovarian torsion.” We are told that not only was Rachel misdiagnosed but also she had to wait “between 90 minutes and 2 hours to get some kind of pain medication, whereas nationwide, men wait an average of 49 minutes before receiving an analgesic for acute abdominal pain.”

While it is a sad truth that every sick person that needs to go to a hospital should go with an advocate, it is scary to think women need to be more vigilant about their care during an emergency because of gender bias. Rachel was lucky that her husband was there to help her, although in her case it fell on deaf ears when it came to the male attending. Finally the original attending was relived by a female doctor who realized the mistake in Rachel’s diagnoses. It seems amazing to me how long it took for Rachel to get the urgent care that she so desperately needed. I found that I got angrier and angrier as I read the article; I felt Rachel’s helplessness. So much time was wasted. Luckily after Rachel got her ultrasound and they finally understood the cause of her excruciating pain due to her twisted Fallopian tube, which cut off her blood supply to the area. The team that performed Rachel’s surgery finally gave her the sympathy that she should have had from the very beginning. What a shame! I would consider it malpractice because it took “14 and a half hours from when her pain started” to get the care that she needed. No person should have to go through what Rachel calls “the trauma of not being seen.”

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Psychology of Women, Reflection 5

After reading Angela Davis’s piece titled “Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex,” I felt her frustration and anger as I reflected on her article. It would seem like a no brainer for government, private corporations and individuals to look for ways to keep criminals out of prison as opposed to just building new prisons around the United States. As the author writes, we need to look beyond the crime to understand why there are “almost 2 million people locked up with more than 70% of the imprisoned population that are people of color.” Angela Davis argues very persuasively, that locking these people away except in the cases of violent offenders doesn’t deal with the roots of the problem but rather perpetuates the cycle of poverty and crime. The best ideas are ones that see the problem in this case the embedded racism in the penal system, and try to be proactive rather than reactive. Ms. Davis writes that the public has been tricked into believing that putting black people in jail for crimes will “solve social problems.” All that really happens is that we put people suffering from “homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness and illiteracy,” out of sight and most easily ignored.

Ms. Davis brings up another point, which I had not thought about prior to reading her piece, and that is how “political economy of prisons relies on radicalized assumptions of criminality.” She writes in detail how prisoners are “profit” for our capitalistic economy and therefore capitalists push the narrative that “mass punishment” is the only way to stop criminality. This is how the “prison industrial complex” continues to thrive and grow because it gives big business an endless supply of “free or cheap labor.” It allows for the “employment of non union labor.” The companies who profit from the use of prisoners have no incentive to highlight the “structural racism of the U.S. economy.”

The problem as Davis notes is that “historical record clearly demonstrates that prisons do not work.” We must work to help all those who find themselves struggling through life with many of the handicaps that I quoted above and therefore resort to a life of crime and imprisonment. As Davis writes it cant be about “crime control” but rather about “social welfare.” Now that we know the cold hard facts about our penal system we must continue the fight against mass incarceration and rather put our resources towards better education, healthcare and jobs for this population. This is the right way to move forward in our democracy.

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Psychology Of Women, Reflection 4

In reflecting on chapter 6 titled “Gender comparisons in social and personality characteristics,” I find myself agreeing with the author who cautions the reader to be mindful that most research studies on this topic are biased especially when comparing gender differences. Researchers using the “meta-analysis technique, which provides a systematic statistical method for integrating studies on a single topic,” (page 147) have shown that there are small gender differences when comparing social and personality characteristics. (Page 148) Why is it that we still fall into stereotyping when we compare genders in relation to most life experiences? For instance, it boggles my mind that even after reading this chapter on the extensive psychology research on social and personality characteristics that “rejects the claim that men and women have little in common…and that they are actually more similar than they are different,” (page 204) yet I still react in “gender stereotypical fashion.” (Page 175) I would answer on a quiz about social and personality characteristics saying that women are more talkative, emotional, caring and helpful whereas I would answer that men are more aggressive and more powerful. I would be wrong because research clearly shows that context is key to understanding gendered displays of social and personality characteristics. The studies show a big overlap between men and women. The problem is that our culture and our language fosters the difference in genders rather than the similarities. It is more socially acceptable to interpret certain characteristics as either feminine or masculine. “We all wear cultural lenses that restrict our vision.” (page 196) An example of this would be under the heading of “helping and caring” where men are stereotypically seen as helping in “heroic situations” dealing with strangers where as women are more nurturing and helpful towards family and friends. However it doesn’t mean that both genders aren’t helpful and caring they are just defined by their social roles.  

Over the last 20 years, as evidence by the detailed analysis in chapter 6, changing social patterns starts with changing our behaviors. The author notes that women must fight against social constraints that dictate to them that certain occupations are not for women. Women must break free of their “socially constructed world.” (Page 147) In turn, men must fight for women and help them gain equal status and they must not feel threatened. I would agree that a gender-neutral society where each individual is judged by his or her own abilities regardless of sex is what we should be working towards.

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Psychology of Women, Reflection 3

            Miss. Crenshaw has written a compelling article, which at its core highlights once again the “sexual hierarchy.” (Page 1269) In the United States although there has been a lot of progress when it comes to equality for women the patriarchy is still the stubborn standard. White men are at the top followed by white women and black men leaving black women, women of color, at the bottom. This continues to leave black women in the most vulnerable position especially as this article highlights, when it comes to violence. The author did a thorough study on how racism and sexism intersect when it comes to documenting the high rates of violence against women of color. (Page 1245) Crenshaw talks about the unique and difficult position that these women hold which leaves them on the “margins” (Page 1250) although white women have benefited over the years from the feminist movement and black men have benefited from the anti racist movement. This is because as she notes what seems a simple fact, that no two people are exactly alike, the movements ended up lumping all women together in their fight for women’s rights and all black men together in the fight against racism. However black women are different than white women in that they have to deal with racism too. Crenshaw writes, “that the violence that many women experience is often shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class.” (Page 1252) When violence against women was highlighted and videos made in order to push for anti violence against women legislation, Crenshaw writes that the stories highlighted were mostly about white women’s experiences and when a black women’s story was told it did not “humanize” her it rather isolated her and so in the end women of color didn’t end up getting access to the help that would meet their particular needs. (Page 1264)

What I found interesting about Crenshaw’s article is that she is not scared to write that the “marginalization” of black women was not only done by white people but also by other black people for political reasons. She writes truthfully, that in order for black people to get rid of the historical stereotype that all black men are violent many black people sacrificed black women for this purpose. Crenshaw is a bold writer, she has shown her readers that one must be “nuanced” (Page 1297) in identifying the problem in this case violence against women of color. In order to make her point she repeats this over and over again in different ways throughout her article. She is particularly forceful when she writes about the 1990 obscenity prosecution of a black rap group called 2 live crew. People were outraged over the “objectification of black women in pop culture and the misogynistic imagery” (Page 1285) that their songs portrayed. Crenshaw struggled with this example because while it raised serious questions of racism due to the fact that a black band was singled out over lyrics when many white artists also had such lyrics in their songs. She felt that prosecuting the group reinforced the idea that black men are violent and it did not help further the cause of black women who are violently attacked. I feel that Crenshaw is helping us to look deeply into ourselves and acknowledge that many of us don’t realize that we have internalized racist language. Sometimes she writes that when white people think their helping to advance black women’s causes they are actually hindering the process and “reinforcing patterns of social power.” (Page 1293)

            She concludes that the most important way for change to occur and to advance the plight of black women in particular when it comes to violence is for black men to realize that continuing to allow the subordination “of black women” (Page 1291) does not advance them in society. Black people as a whole group regardless of gender or class must work together to gain equality in all areas of life simultaneously. Crenshaw is hopeful hat her article will bring this awareness for black people to “coalesce” (Page 1299) in order that women of color will no longer sit on the sidelines of progress.

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Psychology of Women, Reflection 2

After reading the essay titled “ I Don’t Belong Here,” I can’t help but feel deflated as a female. I am resigned to repeating the old but still relevant clique…”its still a mans world.” While the author recounts stories about some extremely bright and capable women from the 1960’s and 70’s, who fought gender stereotyping and sexism successfully most women had a hard time. The women he writes about were celebrated because they managed despite all odds to rise to the top of their fields while dealing with open hostility and discrimination based on their gender. I would agree with the author who argues that this kind of open discrimination has receded however the author points out that what’s still lingers is “subtle gender stereotyping,” that must be exposed. It is damaging to women because it psychologically affects a women’s “self perception” of her ability to compete in the job market. I found it enlightening to read that the field of computer science was initially thought to be “well suited for feminine talents,” because I only became aware of the field, as the author continues when men like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs became prominent names associated with that field. All of a sudden, technology was no longer an area of interest for women because the author notes that women no longer felt “ a sense of belonging.” It’s only been in recent years, the early 2000s that women reentered the computer science field in large part because the “geek image” was played down and the consistent “message that women are naturally less talented than men,” was vigorously challenged. Studies were done by psychologists and sociologists proving this falsehood. I couldn’t help but nod my head when the author pointed out another clique: “boys are better at math than girls.” I would agree that this kind of stereotyping is very damaging because many young girls don’t even try to take on math assuming they wont succeed in that subject. I agree with the author that a way information is delivered to individuals, especially young vulnerable students, is super important because it can greatly affect their “self assessments.”

The author suggests that on of the ways that women succeed in male dominated areas is by submerging any stereotypical feminine traits. I feel that while it would be easy to criticize such women it is not really our place to do so because they are just reacting to our reality which is that if you act more “manly” you will be considered more for certain jobs. We have been socialized on how to “do gender” to the point where it is instinctive and natural for us to use gendered language without thinking about the consequences. Women, as the author points out correctly must go through great lengths to work around the culturally accepted norms. For example that of “boys innate superiority.” Although I was frustrated to read this essay I was also happy that the author highlights such an important issue that of gender inequality. It is important that we continue to understand the many challenges that women face on a daily basis in having to fight feelings of inadequacy especially when competing in the marketplace. I found the author to be very methodical in laying out and building supportive evidence on the subject matter. The authors essay is a necessary piece for all of us to read and internalize because before real change can be made one has to understand the deep-rooted problem. I agree with the author that instilling confidence in kids when they are young and encouraging each individual child from an early age that they are equally competent and capable to choose whatever path in life they would like to follow that we will have a greater chance of changing the ever continuing gender stereotyping.

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Psychology of Women, Reflection 1

In the textbook titled The Psychology of Women, Margret Matlin uses a format that is easy for her students and readers to follow. I was impressed with the scope of the research and how she divided up her chapters, which are all full of a lot of information. In order not to overwhelm us she reviews each section of each chapter within the chapter. When I started reading chapter one which she titles “introduction” I found it to be very organized in the way she gives an account of the history of the psychology of women and an overview of what each of the subsequent chapters in the book will cover. I find this to be very helpful because we are immediately acquainted with the specific language that we will need to be familiar with on the subject.

I grew up in an area and within a home where I never really thought about what it means to be a feminist. After reading chapter one I realized that there are a lot of gaps in the knowledge that I have on the psychology of women. It is important to my overall understanding of the major issues that women face in society for me to pay close attention to what Ms. Matlin tell us in her textbook. For example, the idea of separating the specific meaning between the word sex and the word gender is important because like many I sometimes use them interchangeably. I now understand that this is wrong and shortsighted because using the correct language and specific words correctly is super important and that allows for forward progress and breaking old stereotypes. In chapter one she explains that feminism is not a rigid category. People have many options in which they can identify as feminists. It is the realization that the psychology of women is complex and has many moving parts, was something that was confirmed for me after I read the chapter. In order to combat gender bias and stereotyping I understand that it’s important for each person to learn all aspects of the concept. It was interesting when she went back to the early time in history when men used biological differences between the sexes to create social norms and psychological terminology based on these differences. This kind of thinking and language has reinforced over hundreds of years in western societies so that a person doesn’t even realize they have a cultural bias when it comes to gender roles. Ms. Matlin is methodical and clear in building her case and in explaining how the topic of psychology of women reemerged after the women’s movement of the 1960’s. She does her research very thoroughly in giving us examples and section summaries and little exercises for us to do in order to see where we stand on the topic of sexism.

Chapter one lays the foundation for future chapters, which allows the author to layer information about the complexity of the psychology of women. Women are not a homogeneous group and we have to understand that each group of women also identifies through their ethnicity and their socioeconomic status. Therefore one cannot generalize on the topic of women! After reading this chapter I am reminded to be careful in the use of my own nouns and pronouns. It is easy to make assumptions that lead to the wrong conclusions. I now understand that every human being is unique and while it is important and interesting to find patterns among groups of people we have to be careful not to fall into the usual biases and it is okay not to have all of the answers all the time. Matlin allows us to realize the importance of being open to new concepts and breaking free of old constraints especially when it comes to understanding the psychology of women. I am excited to continue reading on in this book and learning more about the topic.