In Her Own Right The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues (1997) / Chapter Skim
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3 Roots of Difference
3 Roots of Difference
Pages 35-50
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From page 35... ...
As those harsh recollections faded, though; as new generations of thinkers began to question their elders' assumptions; and as unprecedented progress in genetics and molecular biology laid bare basic mechanics of human life, the pendulum traveled far back to the nature side. Demonstrated or surmised links be 35
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From page 36... ...
Males' and females' distinctive physiological properties can each produce characteristic vulnerabilities. Their divergent life courses exert differing stressors.
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From page 37... ...
. Since brain cells are not regenerated during adult life, this can lead to the actual wearing of brain structures and contribute to the rate of the aging process."1 Huda Akil, Ph.D., of the Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan, whose research has explored the ties between females' reproductive and stress hormone responses, notes that scientists' assumption that these systems are separate has helped obscure the link.2 Adds Maureen Henderson, "the interplay of reproductive and other hormones has to be a central theme and top priority for allocation of research resources."3 Another connection deserving further investigation, experts agree, links gender differences in brain structure or function with vulnerability to a variety of psychological and cognitive conditions.
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From page 38... ...
. There's a great need for further investigation."6 Just how great is that need becomes obvious when we consider the tremendous power of those "underlying mechanisms." "Complex differences between the two sexes ultimately stem from very minor or simple differences" during embryonic development, says Jean Wilson, M.D., professor of medical sciences at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center and a leader in hormone research.
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From page 39... ...
standards, therefore, "over 1 million Egyptian women are missing, victims of higher than biologically expected mortality throughout the life span."10 In addition to the Egyptian women prematurely dead -- at least by North American standards -- large numbers of their living female fellow citizens suffer disabilities that relate to pregnancy but are relatively rare in the United States. For every Egyptian woman who dies in pregnancy or childbirth, an estimated 10 to 15 others "survive severe, life-threatening morbidity," Scrimshaw states.
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From page 40... ...
emerged with surprising consistency and intensity" from the scientific literature on women's health worldwide: "the inequalities."14 In nearly every culture known, she notes, the genders have unequal access to social and economic resources; unequal family responsibilities and work roles; unequal abilities to control expenditures, fertility, and time; unequal power to exercise their own choices. Nor, in evaluating how life experience affects health, can we regard any given society's female populations as uniform.
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From page 41... ...
Where forming dung into fuel cakes or washing and cooking in contaminated water are normal housewifely tasks, parasites are normal housewifely ailments. Where married men customarily visit prostitutes, their wives routinely contract venereal diseases.
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From page 42... ...
The scientific evidence then available did not permit an IOM committee studying the outbreak to identify either the exact mechanism connecting these sanitary products to the disease or the reasons that the condition preferentially targeted young whites. It did conclude, however, that "a marked reduction in the number of cases would be expected in the absence of tampon use."17 Put in other words, this finding meant that the dictates of fashion, combined with advances in fiber technology, had placed American women at risk for a potentially deadly disease.
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From page 43... ...
How an individual responds to them helps establish physical, psychological, and behavioral patterns that can significantly affect later health. Each new life stage also imposes particular developmental demands, as an individual adjusts to new roles, responsibilities, opportunities, and limits.
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From page 44... ...
Or does their source, as Maccoby's research suggests, lie much earlier in the life span? "I want to argue," she asserts, "that the behavior patterns that so importantly affect adolescent health have their roots in childhood, and that the relevant developmental history differs for boys and girls."24 As far back as the preschool years, she believes, males and females inhabit gradually diverging subcultures.
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From page 45... ...
"Speech serves a more egoistic function among boys and a more socially binding one among girls," Maccoby notes.29 As puberty approaches, girls begin to spend more and more time speculating about romance. Boys, meanwhile, expand their repertoire of tough talk to the subject of sex, recounting purported exploits, sharing pornography, and telling dirty jokes.
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From page 46... ...
The ideal of the muscular, athletic man may be "difficult enough for boys to reach," Conger says, but today's archetype of slender feminine beauty is "an impossible one for girls." Growing into their adult bodies, boys put on weight mainly as lean muscle tissue, but girls gain mostly fat. "Thus, whereas physical maturation brings boys closer to the masculine ideal, for most 46
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From page 47... ...
As the pounds fall away from an increasingly emaciated body, victims develop a satisfying feeling of control, although, "in reality, they have lost all control. Even if they want to, they cannot start eating normally."36 "Three major neurotransmitters, serotonin, norepinephine and dopamine, are heavily involved in the hypothalamus in regulating eating behavior," Halmi explains.
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From page 48... ...
Clayton, M.D., of the Department of Psychiatry at University Hospital in Minneapolis, such outlets do not exist; "alcoholism and drugs are culturally prohibited and acts of violence and crime are infrequent." The sect's boys and girls suffer mood disorders at similar rates. Adding together the delinquency and depression rates for America's mainstream adolescents also produces similar incidence levels for both genders.42 With the passage to adulthood, though, as the demanding male role begins to close in on young men, the tables may turn.
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From page 49... ...
NOTES 1. Assessing Future Research Needs: Mental and Addictive Disorders in Women (Transcript)
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From page 50... ...
17. Toxic Shock Syndrome: An Assessment of Current Information and Future Research Needs, 85.
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