The Gender of Wellness

• In Event: 4124 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (100 min): Table 7. Mental Health and Wellness

Abstract

This paper investigates the gender dynamics of women’s disproportionate responsibility for bodily wellness, both before and after becoming parents. In the contemporary U.S., attending to and avoiding health risks has become a moral imperative. Yet, responsibility for this pursuit is not equally shared. Women, more than men, take responsibility for the care of their own bodies and the bodies of others. Learning to notice and respond to everyday bodily needs and health risks is a major feature of feminine socialization that affects mothers and non-mothers alike. This dynamic held true for the majority of my interviewees, who spoke at length about their (hyper-) consciousness of their own bodies, their process of learning to extend that consciousness to their children, and their relationships with male partners who typically deferred to women’s judgments about family health matters. As the household decision makers about health and wellness issues, women confronted a dominant U.S. health ideology—what I call the “risk avoidant” approach to health—which held that no cost was too great when it came to promoting a child’s wellbeing. Yet, many mothers were unwilling—or unable—to bear all of the material and physical costs associated with the risk avoidant approach, and made calculated decisions about where and when their resources could be best spent (the “risk assessing” approach); in such cases, middle-class mothers were much more likely than poor and working-class mothers to retain their status as “good mothers” in the eyes of friends and health professionals.

Author

• Katherine Mason, Wheaton College