HLTH200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Dementia, Motherhood Penalty, Health System
28 May 2018
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HLTH200 – Week 6 Lectures: Gender Health & Postnatal Depression
Sex vs. Gender
• Sex
o Biological characteristics of male and female humans
o Invariant across cultures
• Gender
o Socially constructed aspects of masculinity and femininity
o Culturally determined and variable
• In any gender-dichotomised society, the fact that we are born biologically
female or male means that our environments will be different: we will live
different lives (Hubbard, 1990)
Patriarchy
• The socially constructed assumption that men’s interests and concerns are
intrinsically more important and more central
• Concentration of political, economic and social power in the hands of men
o E.g. parliament – male dominant
• The acceptance of gender inequity as natural, normal and desirable
Feminism
• The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes
Gender differences in Australia
• Education
• Employment
• Income
• Political power and influence
• Girls are doing better than boys in education
• Year 12 cert completion
o Boys = 75%
o Girls = 83%
• Women are better educated than men these days
o men slightly more likely to get a postgrad degree
o women more likely to receive a bachelor degree
• But men and women still train in different fields
o women = high in society and culture, management and commerce
o men = high in engineering, architecture, agriculture (jobs that have
more money)
o management and commerce – starting salary = 52000
o engineering – starting salary = 57000
• And the adult workforce is strongly gendered
o management = women less represented significantly
o labourers, machinery operators = significantly dominated by men
• With women less likely to be CEOs/Board directors
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Why do we see such discrepancies which are inconsistent with educational
achievement in high school?
• Women take time off for their kids
• Gender role socialisation
Things remain gendered – why?
• Traditional gender roles
o Meta-analytic review (Raley & Bianchi, 2006)
▪ Fathers spend more time with sons
▪ Encouragement of sex-typed activities (trains for boys, dishes
and house for girls in play activities)
▪ Mothers more verbal and use more supportive speech with girls
(more time talking, language expressing praise, approval,
agreement, acknowledgement, collaboration)
Gender roles
• Despite reports that chores assigned equally
o Time diary studies suggest girls do more household chores
o Girls do more feminine chores e.g. cooking and cleaning
o Boys do more masculine chores e.g. household repairs, outdoor work
• Gender differences persist even when
o Parents are highly educated
o Parents hold egalitarian beliefs
Gender and employment
• Labour force participation rate
o Younger age years have closest proportion of genders
o Big dip with females from middle to late age
o Women employment rates (lower) big dip compared to Sweden,
Norway, Canada
• Employment and parenthood, Australiw 2006 by no. of children they have
o Labour force participation rate = equal when 0 children
o 1 child = employment rates drop for women
o ¾ children = employment rates drop dramatically for women
• Paid work among men and women
o labour force participation rate = very low in Australia compared to the
US and Europe
• % of employed Australians who are in part-time work by gender
o women overall age group much higher than men
Female labour force participation
• education keeps women in the workforce
o greater investment in careers
o engaged in more satisfying work
o greater financial resources to cope
• but many women in Australia shift to part-time employment (2nd highest rate
of part-time employment in the world), with very few men in part-time work
o less income
o fewer opportunities for training and promotion
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o often doing a full-time job in part-time hours
• single mothers even less likely to be in the paid workforce
o employment rates varying by country
Total work time
• what happens if you include unpaid work?
o Housework → food = shopping, preparation, cleaning up; clothes =
shopping, washing, ironing; cleaning, sweeping
o Childcare → feeding, washing, clothing children, supervision
o Other domestic labour → renovations and repairs, gardening and
external maintenance, household management
Marital transitions and change in housework
• Evidence suggests that overall women spend more hours in housework
• When women get married to men, their hours in housework increase but
declines if they separate
• Mens hours in housework stays relatively low regardless of relationship status,
unless they separate and it then increases
• After having a baby, hours in housework increases for women – stays constant
for men
Time use by Australian Adults
• Children 5 years or less → men spending more time in paid employment, less
housework, less parenting/playing with children
o Women spending most of their time parenting/playing with children
and housework, very low paid employment
Men are paid more than women
• Equal Pay Act (Australia) 1969 – implemented by 1972
• Starting salaries
o Median starting salary of bachelor degree graduates in first full-time
employment
▪ Men start on higher salary after uni than women
• Starting salary by field
o On average, with every field, men are starting on a higher salary
except for a few sciences
• Improvement of women’s salaries nonetheless, still well below the line
Motherhood makes it worse
• Mothers earn less than other women
• E.g. Budig and England (2001)
o Differences in work patterns between mothers and non-mothers
o Interruptions from work, working part-time and decreased
seniority/experience
o Explain no more than about 1/3 of the motherhood penalty
• Shelley Correll, Stephen Benard and in Paik (2007)
o Participants evaluated application materials for a pair of same‐gender
equally qualified job candidates who differed on parental status.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Hlth200 week 6 lectures: gender health & postnatal depression. Gender: sex, biological characteristics of male and female humans, invariant across cultures, gender, socially constructed aspects of masculinity and femininity, culturally determined and variable. In any gender-dichotomised society, the fact that we are born biologically female or male means that our environments will be different: we will live different lives (hubbard, 1990) Feminism: the advocacy of women"s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Gender differences in australia: education, employment, political power and influence. Why do we see such discrepancies which are inconsistent with educational achievement in high school: women take time off for their kids, gender role socialisation. Gender and employment: labour force participation rate, younger age years have closest proportion of genders, big dip with females from middle to late age, women employment rates (lower) big dip compared to sweden,
