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LaMalinche -> RE: Society thoughts on Gender and accidents (2/6/2006 10:20:48 AM)
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Likely for the same reasons that men are waaayyyy more likely to be refered to a specialist for heart disease than women. There is a belief that women will not die from heart disease, even when they have then SAME symptoms as men.
Another factor is the way men and women's explanations are viewed. If a person goes into an emergancy room - say to have a finger splinted (why they did not go to their PCP I don't know - this is just an exampe), and they are male, and bruises are noticed on his arm, likely nothing will be said - it will be assumed that it was some "manly" thing he was doing. If the individual is a woman, it will be assumed that the hurt finger is an extension of what/who was causing the bruises. In both cases, the same activities had been happening - each was moving - in lifting boxes/furniture/whatever - bruises were gotten on the arms the first day - on the second day, the finger was slammed in something and broke. Both are asked what happened - both tell the same story - it is then assumed the woman might be "hiding" something, because surely SHE wouldn't have been moving such heavy items. On the other hand, his is accepted because it is another story of "manly" men, doing "manly" things, in "manly" ways. (Think "Tim the Toolman")
Also, I think that there are some cultural upbringing issues. Men are taught to shurg off pain, and are less likely to go to their Doctors for preventative medicine, while women are expected to need immediate assistance.
There are a lot of social, cultural, economic, and spiritual reasons.
For example, the famous figure that 1 in 3 women will in there lifetime be a victim of rape or attempted rape. The actual figure is more like 1 in 8, but women's advocates know that very few are callous enough to publically dispute the 1 in 3 claim. So why do they fudge the figures? Because a little creative lying can draw attention, indignation, and perhaps more important, money and political capital to address the problem. (Freakonomics, Levitt, 92)
So in essence, we have been trained to believe that women coming into an emergancy room have been abused - through cultural conditioning that men are abusive and that women are victims, and through advocacy hype of the number of cases of abuse along with the figures of "hidden abuse" (if it is hidden - how do we know it is there).
Hope that made some sense, I know that it was very disjointed).
Any reason that this question came to mind?
Best
LaMalinche
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