Gendering Women : Identity and Mental Wellbeing Through the Lifecourse

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence Gendering Women is an engaging and accessible account of how constructions of femininity fundamentally affect women's mental wellbeing through the life course. Led by women’s life history accounts of growing up and growing older in the north of England, this book shows how experiences of becoming and being a woman – in family life, education, employment, motherhood and situations of violence – both enable and erode self confidence and esteem. The challenges to women’s mental wellbeing cut across age and class differences and have profound impacts on the material conditions of women’s lives throughout the life course. This is in turn a driver of inequality that is often under-recognised in mainstream policy. Based on feminist and ethnographically informed research with over five hundred women Gendering women provides a critical link between gender theory and the lived realities of women’s daily lives and will appeal to students and academics in sociology and social sciences. GENDERING WOMEN Contents About the authors Acknowledgements 1. Gendering, inequalities, and the limits of policy Introduction Conceptualising the embodiment of infrastructure Framing the study: which women’s voices? Why women’s voices? Methods and methodologies Gender analysis and the persistence of patriarchy in contemporary British society Conclusion: from the Equal Pay Act to the Equality Act: why policy-led approaches alone cannot work 2. Gendering women’s minds: identity, confidence and mental wellbeing Gender and mental wellbeing The global and local contexts of gender and mental health Gendering and engendering selves: how being a ‘man’ and being a ‘woman’ can make you sick 3. Gendering girls, gendering boys: identities in process Introduction Gender, power and women’s mental health Gendering women: constructions of women’s identities 4. Gendering and engendering violence in women’s everyday lives Introduction 5. Gendering education: the paradox of success versus status Introduction Where does girls’ confidence go? The transformation of girls in schooling The interplay of structural and symbolic violence: gendering the academic curriculum The structural and symbolic gendered violence of the behavioural curriculum Visceral violence: the impact of sexism, sexualisation and sexual violence for girls in school Conclusion 6. Gendering reproduction: women’s experiences of motherhood and mental wellbeing Introduction: women and mothering Gender regimes, womanhood and motherhood: unpicking the Gordian knot Mothering in the public realm: understanding messages of good and bad mothering Mothers and public sanction: good and bad bodies Pregnant and mothering bodies: public possessions? Family, domesticity and the ‘good’ mother: how to be a proper woman (and have a clean, tidy house) Understanding the impact of motherhood choices in the public arena: thinking through work and play 7. Gendering women’s labour: status, esteem and inequality in paid and unpaid work Introduction The role of advice and guidance for women The importance of embodied infrastructure: role models and mentors Exploring the gendered nature of women’s work The impact of motherhood on women’s professional lives The role of women’s employment in building confidence Conclusion 8. Conclusions: the embodied infrastructure of women’s spaces, gender awareness, and the capacity for change Women’s spaces: women transforming/transforming women Women-only services: meeting needs, raising aspirations Women-only safe spaces Why women-only? A safe learning environment Focus on confidence building, empowerment and independence Service user involvement and volunteer training Integrated, holistic and needs-based services First-rung provision Women’s centres as a ‘one-stop shop’ Reaching ‘hard to reach’ women: the importance of long-term provision Filling gaps, transforming lives: the wider impacts of women’s centres Engendering aspirations: women as role models for their children Barriers to service provision Conclusion: challenging the triad of violence through women’s spaces and recognising the power of women as situated knowers Notes References Index Engaging And Accessible, Gendering Women Explores The Constructions Of Femininity And How They Fundamentally Affect Women's Mental Well Being Through The Lifecourse. Drawing On Accounts From Women Of Growing Up And Growing Older In The North Of England, The Book Shows How Experiences Of Becoming And Being A Woman--in Family Life, Education, Employment, Motherhood, And In The Presence Of Violence--both Enable And Erode Self-confidence And Self-esteem. The Volume Draws A Critical Link Between Contemporary Gender Theory And The Lived Experiences Of Women Today And Will Appeal To Students And Scholars In Sociology And The Broader Social Sciences. Engaging and accessible, 'Gendering Women' explores the constructions of femininity and how they fundamentally affect women's mental well-being through the life course. Drawing on accounts from women of growing up and growing older in the north of England, it shows how experiences of becoming and being a woman - in family life, education, employment, motherhood, and in the presence of violence - both enable and erode self-confidence and self-esteem Led by women's life history accounts, this is an engaging and accessible account of how constructions of femininity fundamentally affect women''s mental wellbeing through the life course.