Introduction to Health and Social Care: Gender Stereotyping Essay

This essay critically examines the historical and ongoing impact of gender stereotyping and medicalization on women's health. It begins by defining stereotyping and medicalization, then explores the social construction of women and how it has been shaped by negative stereotypes, particularly within the context of health. The essay details historical examples of medicalization, focusing on puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause, and their influence on women's mental health, including hysteria, anger, and depression. The essay argues that the feminist perspective holds truth, as it highlights the lasting effects of stereotyping and the lack of proper medicalization, which have led to distrust of the medical system and social stigmas. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for continued exploration of these issues and the importance of providing accessible and comprehensive healthcare for women, despite the recent progress in medical attention and facilities.

Running head: GENDER STEREOTYPING AND MEDICALIZATION
Gender Stereotyping and Medicalization
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1GENDER STEREOTYPING AND MEDICALIZATION
Title 2. Feminists argue that gender stereotyping and medicalization have historically had a
negative impact on women’s health. Discuss.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the stereotyping and medicalization of women
through history and the negative impacts it has had on women. In order to do that,
understanding the meanings of stereotyping and medicalization is important. Though women
form almost half the population of the world, they have been treated with negative
stereotyping largely and that has affected their position in the society (Becker 2019). As is
common for any marginalized or discriminated sector of society, their physical and mental
health issues have remained in backseat for years. This essay describes the meanings of
stereotyping and medicalization and its relationship with women’s health. Moreover, it also
explores the history women’s social construction as an effect of stereotyping and the
medicalization of women during the transformative phases of life. Finally, it analyses the
effects of these stereotyping on women’s health and their treatment in society.
Stereotyping is a misplaced belief of notion that people form on other people or thing.
This opinion of the other is based on their general outlook and appearance which are most
likely untrue or only partially true. It is a prejudicial thought about people as in most cases,
the outer appearance is only a minute part of the actual person inside. In social psychological
context there could be both positive and negative stereotyping. Positive stereotyping happens
when people hold a subjectively favorable belief about a group (O'Connell and Zampas
2019). For example, women are often associated with warmth and communal behavior.
Negative stereotyping happens when people hold negative or potentially unfavorable view
about a group. For example, women are considered to be the major caregiver in the family
due to their associated belief of being warm. As it can be seen, positive and negative
stereotyping goes hand in hand and one naturally leads to the other. Medicalization on the
other hand is a process through which existing problems that were thought to be non-medical

2GENDER STEREOTYPING AND MEDICALIZATION
comes to be defined and the need for treatment gets recognized as medical problems
commonly require treatment. Women have had a long drawn and struggling history of
medicalization due to social stereotyping.
Historically, the issue of women health has been colored by the prejudices regarding
women. They have been considered madder, sickly and the weaker sex biologically. This led
to natural behavior, anger, opinion and protests of women being considered as a result of
their madness. As madness, anger and hysteria were considered a possession by birth, they
were not considered to be medical conditions or worth giving proper medical attention and
diagnosis. The social construction of women has been guided by negative stereotyping
related to gender. Stereotyping of women as mad is also related to cultural control of women
as it has been long associated with insanity and irrationality. In numerous writings f Victorian
women writers, there are mentions of a system of rest cure, specially designed for women
suffering from postpartum depression or other forms of clinical psychological issues
(MacDonald 2019). The name suggests that the problems that women suffered were not
considered worth medicalization and rest and isolation can cure them.
The conceptualization of women as sickly and weak is also a social construct as the
biological features of women and societal norms, values and gender roles forces women to
remain indoor, abstain from strenuous work and thus making them weaker than men. The
society also considers men as the protector of women that is built upon the idea of women as
the weaker sex (Flanders, Dobinson and Logie 2017). Moreover, the sickly nature of women,
as society likes to believe is also a result of importance that is given to make children. Men
have been considered as the natural beneficiary of familial property and thus were given
better care, nourishment and importance. Lack of attention, expectations of responsibility and
assumptions of being able to survive with the minimal has led to the sickly nature of women
historically.

3GENDER STEREOTYPING AND MEDICALIZATION
Historically puberty and menstruation was not considered to be a biological
phenomenon that is related to fertility and childbirth. There were motions that menstruation is
a method of women’s body to release the anger and hysteria. In many countries, it was
considered evil and in the developing countries there are still taboos regarding it. There is a
lack of education in many countries related to puberty and menstruation. Current practices of
medicalization on puberty and menstruation seeks to find relation between reproductive
issues and complications that arise due to the advancement in age of first menstruation.
Medicalization during pregnancy is also a recent phenomenon. Though women have
been considered as machineries of childbirth and natural caregiver for children, there were
almost no specialized care for pregnant women both in the east and the west. There were
midwives who would deliver babies and due to their inefficiency and lack of medical training
to deal with emergency situation, many times either the baby or the mother, and sometimes
both would face life risks (Kendig et al. 2017). There are also accounts of several deaths that
happened during delivery. The lack of care stems from the belief that the natural construct of
women support child birth and medicalization is not necessary. There were also no
consideration, understanding and medical support provided post-delivery for the physical and
psychological illnesses that women faced such as anxiety and postpartum depression (Vigod,
Wilson and Howard 2016).
Menopause constructs an important phase of women’s life as this is the time when
they are left to face the apparent loss of womanhood as they stop menstruating. The
association of women as nurturer and child bearer, has given birth to the notion that with
menopause women lose their womanhood and thus all significance in life. In reality, during
menopause, women go through several hormonal and biological change as well as
psychological distress (Turabian et al. 2017). This leads to increased risk of depression,
hysteria and anxiety. The available medicalization provides care and support though this

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development is quite recent and the association between menopause and women mental
health were not realized until recently.
The association of women hysteria, anger and abnormal behavior with mental illness
has also been a recent phenomenon. Women are socially marginalized when it comes to
healthcare. In many cases, the mental illnesses that women faced were termed as insanity in
general, and they were thrown in isolation or asylums in order to be treated (Albaugh et al.,
2018). There, they received inhuman treatment both physically and mentally, which
intensified their ailment. Sometimes, the issues remained untreated and were transferred to
the following generation through pregnancy, as now it has been established that mothers can
transfer their mental illnesses to their babies during pregnancy. Women’s reproductive health
and history could also be the reason for their mental illnesses, a path that has only been
travelled recently. Women were thought to be naturally prone to mental illnesses and no
proper medicalization or diagnosis of mental illness was available (Valeeva and Bracke
2018).
The stereotyping of women and lack of medicalization has affected women for many
centuries. The rest houses of Victorian times enhanced the mental issues of women, often
leading to permanent depression or dementia at the older age. When asylums appeared, the
inhuman conditions that the women went through intensified their plight. Many of the women
developed chronic illnesses, issues related to birth, menstrual diseases and hereditary mental
illnesses. The women suffering from depression or anxiety, transferred the same illness in
their new born and the cycle continued. It wasn’t until the later part of the 20th century that
proper treatment and medicalization was made available for women (Turabian et al. 2017).
Despite available medical attention and facilities, menstruation, issues related to
puberty, pregnancy and menopause and mental illnesses among women are not completely

5GENDER STEREOTYPING AND MEDICALIZATION
explored. There are many parts of the world, where menstruation is still considered a taboo,
pregnancy happens under the hands of inexperienced and uncertified midwives, menstruating
women are isolated, thus continuing the tradition of stereotyping of women. In many times,
women fear social isolation and prejudicial behavior which leads them to refuse consultation
and medication (Chrisler, Barney and Palatino 2016). This increases their vulnerability and
many of the women in United Kingdom and all over the world are still suffering the effects of
century old stereotyping.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the stereotyping that women have
faced for centuries has left a permanent mark on them. The ridicule, ignorance and violence
that they faced in terms of their health, led them to distrust society and conceal the diseases
that affect them. The social construction of women has been to consider them as mad, sickly,
hysteric and prone mental illnesses. These were taken as female traits rather than illnesses
that led to hereditary diseases that transformed from mother to child thus creating a hereditary
cycle of the diseases. The availability of medicalization of the issues related women’s
puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, menopause and mental illness is a recent phenomenon,
which, in many cases women avoid due to social stigma that is attached to it. Thus, the
feminist argument that gender stereotyping and medicalization have historically had a
negative impact on women’s health definitely holds truth.

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References
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