Gender Ideology and Depressive Symptoms among Older Black and White Women

• In Event: 402 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Paper Session. Intersectionality and Health: The Embodiment and Expression of Multi-dimensional Inequality

Abstract

Using the 1967-1995 data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, we examine the association between gender ideology and depressive symptoms among older black and white women. This study uses a theoretical framework integrating the gender relations theory, the life-course perspective, and the intersectionality approach to explore how gender beliefs become embodied as psychological distress. The findings reveal that black and white women with traditional gender ideology exhibit more depressive symptoms than their peers with egalitarian gender beliefs. Moreover, traditional gender ideology has a stronger effect on black women’s than white women’s depression. Consistent with the life-course perspective, results indicate that gender ideology earlier in life has enduring implications for later depression. We argue that gender ideology can be viewed as a pathway through which social and cultural dimensions of gender and race influence depressive symptoms at the individual level and generate within-gender heterogeneity in mental health.

Authors

• Tetyana Pudrovska, Pennsylvania State University

• Kyler Sherman-Wilkins, Pennsylvania State University