Gender, Family, and Health Behaviors After a Job Loss

• In Event: 4437 - Work, Family, and Inequality in the US and Europe

Abstract

Existing research suggests men’s family responsibilities are more tightly tied to breadwinning and thus losing a job will bring more guilt and shame for men than for women, but, have changing economic times changed the gendered dimensions of job loss? In order to explore this question, I investigate one area in which families experience significant change after a job loss: their health care. Analyzing data from 100 in-depth qualitative interviews, I examined whether and how men and women seek to replace their health insurance, seek medical care, and purchase necessary medications during the initial weeks of unemployment. A gap emerged between men and women, in which women were less likely to purchase health insurance if they had pressing health needs, were less likely to seek medical attention for existing conditions, and were less likely to continue to take prescribed medications. I further found that women were more likely to connect these decisions about health to self-sacrificial language about putting their families’ needs above their own, while men very rarely used such language and even, in some rare instances, made decisions to sacrifice their families’ (both wives’ and children’s health) in order to favor their own.

Author

• Sarah Damaske, Pennsylvania State University