The Weight of Societal Stereotypes

Sex refers to a set of biological attributes in humans and animals, associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy.

Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and identities of men, women and gender diverse people. It influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact, and the distribution of power and resources in society.

Sexism is prejudice and/or discrimination based on sex or gender, specifically against females. It’s far more common than one would initially think. Sexism can cause a significant power imbalance between males and females, and the latter is often always the one on the lower end.

Modern-day gender inequality and societal pressures—such as domestic abuse, lack of access to education, lower wages, sexual violence and harassment, constant criticisms, among many others—affect how women perceive themselves in familial, romantic and sexual roles. It impedes their mental health because they are so focused on living up to the unrealistic double standards set on them. Are they supposed to be the devout but unemployed mother, or the heartless money-making career woman, or the dutiful daughter sacrificing her future for her family, or the young woman marrying rich instead of getting the education to earn her own income? It’s a battlefield, and we are fighting every hour of every day just to keep ourselves from becoming the collateral of a vicious society.

Social pressures to adhere to traditional feminine roles may place some women at risk of experiencing gender role discrepancy strain when they behave, think, or feel in ways differing from feminine gender role expectations. The current research examines how person-level tendency to experience feminine gender-role discrepancy strain—feminine gender role stress (FGRS)—and contextual experiences of discrepancy strain—feeling less feminine in daily or weekly life—combine to undermine women's self-esteem. After completing measures of FGRS, undergraduate women reported their feelings of femininity and self-esteem each day for 10 days (Study 1) or each week for 7 weeks (Study 2). This repeated assessment design provided the first tests of whether within-person decreases in felt-femininity were associated with lower self-esteem, particularly for women who were higher in FGRS.

Stress is known to have a significant impact on mental health. While gender differences can be found in stress response and mental disorders, there are limited studies on the neurological mechanisms of gender differences in mental health.

Women spend a disproportionate amount of their time carrying out three-quarters of the world’s unpaid work. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the association between domestic work and mental health more visible, especially among women, due to the increased burden of unpaid domestic work. Since unpaid domestic work is associated with poor mental health, the risk of poor mental health among women engaged in unpaid work rose during the pandemic, due to exposure to greater and more stressful workloads. Although most of the studies that have investigated the association between unpaid domestic work and mental health have been from high-income countries, previous studies have shown that unpaid caregivers are more anxious and depressed than non-caregivers in low- and middle-income countries.

Study:

In a survey questionnaire in Central Sweden in 2017, the answers of 14,184 women and men aged 30–69 years were used to study the association between hours spent in domestic work and depressive symptoms and self-reported diagnosed depression, respectively. The aim of this study was to illuminate the association between time spent in domestic work and mental health in the general population.

Results:

Women reported more hours spent on average in domestic work than men did; 10.5% of the women reported that they spend more than 30 h per week in domestic work compared to 5.6% of the men. In total, 31.2% of the women and 20.9% of the men reported depressive symptoms. The corresponding prevalence of self-reported diagnosed depression was 10.5% in women and 6.5% in men.

The constant exposure to societal expectations and prejudiced attitudes can lead to a range of adverse effects, contributing to increased stress, anxiety, and diminished overall well-being. One significant consequence is the erosion of self-esteem. When women are held to unrealistic standards and judged based on beauty ideals or stereotypical roles, they can often internalize these judgments. The pressure to conform to societal expectations can result in a brutal, never-ending cycle of striving for unattainable perfection.

References

Anu Molarius, & Metsini, A. (2023). The Association between Time Spent in Domestic Work and Mental Health among Women and Men. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(6), 4948–4948. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064948

Canadian Institutes of Health Research. (2023, May 8). What Is Gender? What Is Sex? Canadian Institutes of Health Research. https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/48642.html

Chuin Hau Teo, Wong, H., Rooba Nair Sivakumaran, Parhar, I. S., & Soga, T. (2023). Gender Differences in Cortisol and Cortisol Receptors in Depression: A Narrative Review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(8), 7129–7129. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24087129

Harrington, A. G., Overall, N. C., & Maxwell, J. A. (2022). Feminine Gender Role Discrepancy Strain and Women’s Self-Esteem in Daily and Weekly Life: A Person x Context Perspective. Sex Roles, 87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01305-1

Lane, A. (2024, January 19). The Challenges of Being A Woman: Social Roles and Expectations - Avery Lane. Averylanewomensrehab.com.

Masequesmay, G. (2022). Sexism. In Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/sexism