Get Inspired, Be Empowered Forums Access to Healthcare Mental Health Impact of gender discrimination on a Woman’s Mental Health

16 replies, 15 voices Last updated by Samriti Sharma 2 years, 1 month ago
  • Woospire
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    nehachitroda
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    Discrimination on the basis of gender is a common issue faced by many, among them women suffer the most, or we can say that they are most affected in terms of mentally, emotionally, socially, etc. Gender discrimination is widely spread among many and people are used to discriminating against women in each area of topic.
    It affects women very seriously and, in many ways, once women start to suffer and tolerate it becomes a habit or daily routine for her to face these issues. Men are considered superior and in top position than women in every aspect be it in personal life as husband and wife, there also the wife is made to understand, in professional life they are given priority at top positions.
    The mental health of a person is very vital and if a person is not mentally stable then it leads to many unwanted things. Impact of these issues affect on women’s mental health in forms of depression: they every day have to deal with people and listen to them; hypertension leads to an effect on daily routine and they go through stress; change in behaviour is common when a person constantly has to suffer and survive through same things, sleep disorder and non-stable mind because of multiple thoughts in a single mind, and in these ways, the mental health of women are greatly impacted.
    Gender discrimination is a common issue but still, it has not gone from its roots, there is a need to change the thoughts and mentality of people because people can compare and discriminate but on whom it is done have to face many things and badly affects them mentally also.

    Shubhangini Shaktawat
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    Impact of gender discrimination on a Woman’s Mental Health
    Like everyone else, a woman goes through different phases of her life. First she is a toddler, then she becomes an infant, a child, a teenager, then a girl, a maiden, then a woman and a middle aged woman, later on a senior citizen and so on. Everything changes with her age. The only thing that does not change is the behavior of the society towards her. It begins discriminating against her the day she is born and does not stop till she exits the world. This is a widely knows truth and this gender discrimination has a huge and ever-lasting impact on a woman’s health.
    It begins when a girl is young enough to not even understand family relations, but she understands why her father simply does not sing her to sleep because he never wanted a girl child. Not being loved is something we all fear. A girl even in her school days has to face a lot of gender discrimination and hold herself together. Bullying and ragging have not recently been heard of as they have been happening in schools and colleges for ages now. Being ragged or bullied based on gender discrimination especially breaks a teenager down to great extents. It results into depression, anxiety, etc. As we already know, a large number of girls suffer from mental illnesses in their teenage years as compared to boys.
    Confidence or self confidence plays a major role in a human being’s life. Women especially require confidence in order to survive in this misogynistic world. Although, the society remains being so cruel to women, that this confidence shatters not only the woman, but also her self-respect and self-esteem. This can cost her not only her career, but her entire life. In later years when a woman is a mother to two and is still being treated the same way she was treated when she was young, she faces serious mental issues and disbelief in self. She has no sense of respect for herself and just accepts that she will never be respected by the society until finally one day she is no more.
    We, as the human race have evolved into humans from apes but our society still requires to go a long way. We must now break stereotypes and give women the respect and status they deserve. We must now become ‘human’ not only physically, but also mentally.
    A woman myself,
    Shubhangini Shaktawat

    Manpreet Singh
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    No one thinks about it but prejudice can extend beyond discomfort or frustration. These actions and behaviors can lead to issues related to a person’s mental health. The Institute of Mental Health has published that mental disorders often occur in a variety of ways. It can be traumatic child abuse or oppression that can have a devastating effect on mental health, but the stigma and discrimination women experience every day and so on has emerged as a contributing factor to mental health.
    While sexism may seem harmless to some, serious and persistent discrimination can have lasting consequences. The study found that sexual harassment and poor mental health were linked. Studies have found that women who report sexual harassment are found to be three times more likely to experience a decline in their mental health over the next four years including coping with clinical depression.1 Although sexual harassment may have ended, these women suffered serious mental health consequences years later.
    One study found that verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and sexual harassment of flight attendants were associated with higher levels of stress. While private comments or inappropriate contact may seem insignificant to others, these actions can be meaningful to the interviewer and dress up their mental health. If sexuality is reduced, we can see a decrease in mental health problems.

    Unfortunately, the negative effects of sexual harassment on mental health can also lead to drug abuse. As people struggle to deal with their mental health properly, they may turn to drugs or alcohol to try to treat themselves. Studies suggest that racial and sexual discrimination lead to an increased risk of women ‘s overdrinking and drug abuse in men.3 In addition to the treatment of co-morbidities, these drug abuse often worsens their mental health problems. These connections may explain why mental health continues to decline as the years go by.

    No one has to deal with mental illness alone. It is a high time that we have to stand up for these issues openly and find solutions to them.

    Apoorva Pathak
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    The ill-treatment based on gender is very common in this world basically in those societies in which there are illiterate people. There different types of gender discrimination such as in education, employment, health, at home and even in working places. These discriminations directly link with mental health as we know physical torture may subduct in a short period but mental one remain forever and always repeat in the mind.

    If she discrimination against education girls are made to do house chores work and never let to study by their parents. They don’t receive a good education because of which they remain unemployed they get married early and have to remain financially dependent on their husbands. In workplaces, they are discriminated against based on work that women are weak they can’t handle male-dominated area. This leads to less courage in them. They discriminated on basis of payment. Even if they do equal work as men they are paid less. At home, the elder discriminates against them and avoid giving good health and nutrition as they think that girls are PARAYA DHAN they will be marrying one day and go away. They are not productive in one house and should be given less nutritious food.

    This directly affects the mental health of women as it leads to mental disorder such as depression, mood swings and anxiety. as they become powerless they got frustrated and start deteriorating their physical health also. According to studies, women suffer more depression and anxiety than men as they are not allowed to go out to have leisure like the male. They are kept inside the home and take care of their children. because of isolation and physical torture, they become mentally disturbed sometimes husband have forceful physical relation this lead to mental as well as emotional breakdown. This leads to the early death of the female and often they become the victim of drug abuse.

    PALAK KASHIV
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    When a girl takes birth from that day to being an aged woman, she has to face discrimination at every point in their life, women always want to be loved and valued as the men in our society. When the girl is small we can see discrimination the type of toys she has gifted with a kitchen set and dollhouse is literally wrong, when they are in school they have to face discrimination by teachers, In college, they have face ragging. Also not getting equal pay and opportunities in the workplace, all things cause a toll on mental health, they have a lot of restrictions on personal freedom, nobody asks women opinion in the family crucial decision, even when women go for job work-life balance predominantly preached to her, even passing of vulgar comments by boys when women are around through women feels anxious, and emotional, even in news we see so many cases of rape, some women are living in fear. This also affects their even man have good intentions when talking but women just ignored or feel shy to talk just because they already assume negative thoughts about him it happens when women have already face some trauma earlier. Women who want to maintain the relationship pile up their feelings and got into depression. Women can take care of mental health by explaining how they are feeling to their close ones, and writing in dairy. Doing meditation helps to clear negative thoughts from the brain. If they face a wrong behavior and do not say anything they should go for a walk, calm their mind and come back give a reply to them. Our society should try to end discrimination we are human beings men and women equal and deserves equal respect no one is superior people should break this stereotypes I think we should learn from nature it never discriminates while giving sunlight or water it treats human equally then why we human discriminates ourselves.

    shaifalikapoor03
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    Women are true warriors. Even after being discriminated they’re still fighting, standing for themselves and bringing a change.
    It’s a shame for our society who’s created a world where woman are not able to live upto their own, society have been creating hurdles for women at every step they take, discrimination is not only effecting a woman’s physical health but it also creates an impact upon their mental health.
    In a household where, sons are more appreciated than daughters, daughters there do feel hurt for getting lesser love than their brothers, houses where girls are not allowed to go for a party after 8 in the evening but their brothers or fathers are allowed to do so, feel dominated. Women when after marriage are not allowed to work like their husbands feel like caged in their own house. All the things that discriminate women, effect them into their heads due to which they feel less stronger than men, this is the one reason why women start to feel weaker than men. In order to overcome the situation, firstly woman should be able to speak up for their roles and should start to feel strong for they are no less than men. Everyone has a right to work, enjoy and live, these rights should also literally be provided to women with their utter independence.

    anshika agarwal
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    Gender discrimination is the unequal treatment of an individual or a group based on their gender. It arises from differences in gender roles that have been socially constructed.Gender discrimination affects mostly women. It occurs in the workplace and in the home. It can come in any form and affects women.
    Discrimination is negatively affecting women’s mental health in both short term and long term. Discrimination such as not properly educated, paid low, having a responsibility of child and experiencing domestic violence impact their mental health. Women face perceived gender discrimination while they are pregnant that results in depression. Lower paid discrimination leads to mental disorders like anxiety and depression. It reduce their self esteem. They become frustrated and feel less of others when they are discriminated. They start blaming themselves for everything even if the fault is of others. According to study, women suffers depression and anxiety more then men. It can also leads to sleep issue. Women who experiences rapes or sexual assaults have long term psychological impacts on their mind. These women can develop depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. Gender discrimination can also kill women. According to WHO’s research suicide between the age of 15 to 20 years girls is due to their mental health. These suicides occur due to depression and anxiety related to having experience gender discrimination.
    Therefore women suffers alot. Gender discrimination needs to stop now. It leaves its impact on them for on a long term basis.

    Anika
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    Gender Discrimination refers to any instance where a person is denied an opportunity or judged because of their gender. Gender Discrimination is found everywhere and any gender can face it. However, it is mostly faced by women as they’re still seen as the inferior sex and still denied opportunities because others feel they’re not capable.
    Often, this leads to the decline of a woman’s mental health. She loses confidence and does not feel she is capable of doing anything.
    According to a research study, it was found that gender discrimination and poor mental health could be connected. It found that women who faced gender discrimination were found to have poor mental health and faced depression.
    Gender Discrimination also leads to internalized sexism. Women might feel that what they do is incorrect and think that they are inferior and men are in all ways superior. For example: A mother might tell her daughter to act “like a girl”. She might have experienced discrimination earlier and that could be why she has internalized sexism.
    If it wasn’t the case and women didn’t face discrimination everyday, the case would be different. But we do not live in that world. We still have to fight the patriarchy and make the world a better place so that discrimination would not exist.
    When you uplift a woman, she feels empowered. If we realized and thought before we spoke, it would be good.
    People need to realize the impact words have on the growing youth. They might hear what adults say and think that it is the right thing. They might hear something sexist and believe it’s right and pass on their beliefs to others. It’s a never-ending cycle.
    Unless we call out sexist behaviour, gender equality can never be achieved.

    avanti
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    Any form of sustained stimulus is proven to cause changes in brain chemistry and form; this applies to any and every stimulus present around us and is responsible for certain conditioning. The type of conditioning that happens is largely responsible for creating memories and opportunities which decide the kind of life a person lives. Continuous exposure to stressful and discriminatory or oppressive situations leads a person to live in high alert, which is mentally and emotionally very taxing.

    In case of women, almost every single woman faces some kind of discrimination before she is even ten. Such kind of exposure to unfair situations may lead women to doubt themselves, to overwork themselves to just prove their worth, all of which have very harmful effects in the long run. Due to the patriarchal structure of our society, women have to work themselves to the bones to achieve their dreams and even then, they are not taken seriously and seen as intimidating bossy women. Whereas men never have to face the gender discrimination obstacle and are respected after they achieve their goals. These double standards are highly disturbing and very frustrating for women who work hard.

    This often leads to bad cases of imposter syndrome, stress, burnout and so much more. Women are twice as likely to have a mental illness than men, and the constant discrimination they face certainly must have some role to play in it. Right from childhood from being told the toys they should play with to what they should and shouldn’t wear right up to what they should study and who they should marry. These are just some general examples every woman will relate to, hundreds more being experienced by women in their life. Hence, we should be more empathetic to women’s struggles, providing them with as many resources to help with their mental health as possible.

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