Gender-based prejudices carry disturbing echoes of historical patriarchal assumptions and myths about the mysteries of female bodies. They lead to women being perceived as anxious, hysterical or irrational, and can result in their symptoms being dismissed as psychological rather than physical, if they are taken account of at all.
And that’s not all…
This gender bias is compounded for Black and other ethnically non-white women by racial stereotypes. One of these, the belief that women from particular ethnic groups have higher or lower levels of pain tolerance, has the same outcome – inaccurate, mistimed or missing pain relief in labour.
People who have recently used maternity services, or visited an NHS hospital, may find this surprising, because the make-up of staff is invariably nearly 100% ethnic minorities. As well as usually overwhelmingly female!
It is vital now to implement ways to regulate for safer care in a learning healthcare system which recognises the valuable contribution to safe and compassionate care that women’s voices can make.
Better start recognising some home truths instead!
3 comments:
"...the make-up of staff is invariably nearly 100% ethnic minorities. As well as usually overwhelmingly female!"
Ah yes but those assumptions and myths about the mysteries of female bodies are historical you see, so still the fault of the patriarchy.
As a man it's hard for me to see how I can escape from being blamed here. The women are in charge, sorting any problems out is entirely in their hands and entirely their responsibility, but their inability to do so is still my fault because of historical echos.
Stonyground.
Well not your fault directly but certainly our fault as a group and it isn't just women. Our forefathers gave them the right to vote and told them they were equal until they believed it, destroyed the nuclear family and started demanding things because of equality.
Nobody is interested in looking at the facts when a good liberal viewpoint that sounds fair and balanced is put forward.
These people wouldn’t recognise a home truth if you served it up to them on a platter with tasting notes,
A Google search revealed that, according to multiple studies, black women have a maternal mortality rate three times that of white women and a higher rate of complications in childbirth. Asian women also have a higher rate than that of white women.
Google AI then asked whether I would - and I quote - ‘like to know more about the reasons for this inequality: systemic bias, micro agressions and socioeconomic inequalities?’
Meanwhile, back in the real world…
Incidence of obesity among pregnant women by ethnicity:
White Women: ~16.3%
Black Women: ~36.3%
Asian Women: ~19.4%
Not to mention…
Recent figures suggest that between 1.2% and 1.6% of mothers giving birth in the UK have previously undergone FGM, with the incidence largely concentrated in urban areas (up to 20% in Southwark).
“Don't you sometimes wish that you had been born into the Age of Reason, instead of into the Age of the Ostensible Reason?" (‘the Kraken Wakes’: John Wyndham)
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