Sexism In Women's Healthcare

Statistically, African American women in the United States suffer from complications or death 243 percent more than white women during maternity. This is a common occurrence that many women and children face, but shouldn’t have too. Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is an example of the inequality shown to African-American women in the medical world. Specifically, the unequal medical care Henrietta Lacks received, which many other black women experienced. In her book, Skloot suggests that African-American women suffer from psychological effects after receiving unequal medical care, do not receive equal medical treatment during maternity, and are more likely to die from maternal complications.

Although birth control has been defined as a violation of natural law, it still brought comfort to many women. This is why Sanger wanted to give so many women the opportunities to be educated on reproduction. If women felt that they were not ready to go into motherhood they would now be able to have that choice thanks to Sanger. Concepts like Planned Parenthood which although seem very controversial for some people is crucial for many woman. It allows them the comfort of knowing that they do not have to deal with their situations

Nursing mothers could use the option to find a more secluded place like a nursing room to breastfeed in. Public places that allow breastfeeding in their environment should be required to provide nursing rooms for mothers breastfeeding in public because not only is it embarrassing to the public, it is also sometimes embarrassing to a mother. If a mother becomes embarrassed from the public for breastfeeding, she may be discouraged to breastfeed her baby at

AACN Baccalaureate Essentials The AACN Baccalaureate has nine essentials, essential number two “Basic organizational and systems leadership for quality care and patient safety” applies to baby boomer nurses retiring and leaving a big gap in the workforce. With baby boomers leaving the workforce, there will be a demand for nurses and the supply of nurses available will be short, young, and inexperienced. This will affect the quality of care and safety of the patient, which is why this issue needs more attention. Working towards preventing this issue needs to start now as nurses can’t wait till it happens.

“These accounts range from reports that women are regularly punched in the stomach, such that they are unable to sustain pregnancies, to reports of managers monitoring menstrual cycles to ensure that workers are not pregnant.” (Navarro, Pg.2) Another serious issue according to Navarro is sexual harassment. Many of the women reported being sexually harassed by their male managers or one of the foremen. “Examples of sexual harassment that researchers have found include managers offering workers a lighter workload in exchange for dates or sex with the female workers.” (Navarro, Pg. 2) These experiences are horrible, but they also don’t prove anything about normative personality traits.

As a result of a lack proper education, women are misinformed about the changes their body is going through, adapting a negative self-image. In parts of India, the onset of menses is referred to as “menstrual pollution,” which is a concept that further encourages a sense of embarrassment in women (Dube, 1988). The negative mindset is only perpetuated and historical views persist throughout modern day when such ideas are not terminated. Research discussed in “Menstruation and Body Awareness” elaborates that a lack of education coupled with a prevalent taboo has made it nearly impossible for adolescent girls to become aware of the biological processes taking place in their bodies, allowing many myths to be spread. In a case study done in Pune, India, women were encouraged to ask questions that they had about the process of menstruation.

To conclude, health inequality is negatively affected by gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes affect human behavior, and the difference in workplace become barriers to men and women. Women seem to be sicker because they are please to report the health problem, women will take risky behavior under beauty culture, and their work experience is inequality. Men seem to be death quicker due to their less- healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, although medical technology and government funding are improved, the patterns of health have not changed notably.

A long-standing concern is the chronic shortage of well-prepared nurses at a proper academic/university level, a problem that is most obviously exacerbated by the difficulties in recruiting qualified women into nursing due to social and cultural barriers. This is coupled with the perceived low status of the profession and further exacerbated by the troubled professional relationship of female nurses and male doctors due to cultural and religious reasoning’s. (Da’mi & Boyle, 2011) In as study conducted by Da’mi and Boyle in 2011 it was founded that 81% of female nurses were worried about entering the nursing profession due to Iraqi society and their perception of men and women working together with members outside of their family. Whilst gender inequality and perceived troubles with the undermining of the value of nurses is most prevalent in countries with a heavily male dominated superiority in their culture it is not just localized in disadvantaged and war torn countries like Iraq.

In long-term relationships, it is hard for a couple to separate, even when the male in the relationship is being abusive towards his partner being the female because the female is simply scared of the consequences, also, in the journal ‘Female domestic violence victims ' experiences of hospital care’ it states that “Several women chose not to disclose the domestic violence because their partner was present whilst being questioned by the health care professional” Gasser, H. I. (2008). Female domestic violence victims ' experiences of hospital care--a literature review. P295. , In my opinion, I don’t think any partner should be in the same room as the abused individual because there could be a lot of missing information if the suspect is present during the questioning about the assault. While the victim being, the female is being questioned about the assault she could possibly be scared mentally while the health care professional is asking her questions because the person who abused her is watching her at the same time, I believe that when the abused individual is in the room as the health care professional and the abuser is not, the victim of the domestic violence can tell the truth about what really happened and justice could be served, there were a lot of cases where the spouse simply didn’t say anything because they were scared of the consequences because for one if the abuser finds out most likely they will abuse the victim even

Example: women are socially perceived as weak and inferior to men, allowing women to be undermined and deemed socially and economically powerless. It also portrays an unequal status among men and women; women are portrayed as easy targets for diseases and viruses such as HIV, owing to social constructions and the vulnerability associated with women in a gender and sex perspective. Women are easy targets, thus gang rape, sexual abuse and violence is more common among women and has enormous effects and consequences on physical and mental health (Arber, S and Thomas, 2001:14,15). In addition to HIV, more women are prone to develop illnesses such as osteoporosis, depression, and anxiety. Etc.