Women In Pain: Gender and Morbidity in Mexico - Essay Example

Ethnographic Review “Women in pain: gender and morbidity in Mexico” by Kaja Finkler is a motivating book. Finkler advocates to explain the disparity morbidity patterns experienced by women and men in Mexico. The author conducted the research, and observed Mexicans lives for 20 years. She did her research by living with families, she was also trained as a “spiritual healer, and studied biomedical practices” in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City. The author’s comprehension of the population she discusses is evident on every page and in the description. The complexity of the issues discussed with regard to women in pain is also clearly explained. Finkler’s objective in writing the book was to deepen our understanding of human sickness through what she termed as life lesions. In addition, biomedicine has without doubt made incredible advances and has succeeded in treating difficult medical impairments. Nonetheless, at times biomedicine fails to lessen patients routinely experienced symptoms because of the restrictions of the biomedicine script, a script that fails to understand life’s lesions. Finkler develops life lesions in an outstanding symbol of how wounds imposed on people that is women during their lives are narrated in the concept of life lesions in the reflection of a sense of loss of control, or the life of a person being out of control. Finkler analysis of the Mexican gender role outlook makes it understandable why women with little control of their lives would convey chronic and unexplained physical pain. In case, readers would presume that all Mexican women are trapped in similar gender roles and experience the type of life lesions described by Finkler, she warns against stereotyping the whole population of Mexican women. The women discussed in her book, are a specific set of women. She chose them as a subset from a sample of 205 women she interviewed earlier at the hospital, of which 161 were later interviewed at the comfort of their homes. The 10 case studies in the book were drawn from the 161 women interviewed both in the hospital and at home. The book is divided into three parts: the first part evaluates the literature with regard to the nature of sickness, nature of gender and the connection between gender and sickness. The second part puts out a good review of gender roles in Mexico, historical associations between men and women and the place of spiritualist or evangelical movements in the lives of poor men and women. Additionally, Finkler also incorporate an overview profile of women in her chosen population. The longest section of the book is left for case studies. The reader is expected to meet with “Juana who is in search of dignity amid a garbage dump, Susana a woman who has ventured into the public domain, Carlota who changed from proletarian to a housewife, Maria whose life experiences have changed from bad to worse, Norma who claimed to have found God, Josefina who narrates that she has dedicated her whole life to working very hard. Rebecca on the other hand is a woman at the verge of disintegration, Julia who struggles to live with a drunken husband, Alicia who is a mother and a mistress and Margarita a woman in such of individualism”. With regard to nature of sickness, women and men have differing health needs and outcomes. This is because of biological differences, especially “sex-connected biology such as genital secretions, secondary sex characteristics and reproductive events like pregnancy and menopause”. Finkler noted that gender affects the risk of mortality and morbidity through diverse exposure and helplessness, the harshness and consequences of illness and access to health care services (Finkler 5). In most of Mexican cities, there exists biasness when it comes to gender and healthcare. Most men are given priority than women therefore putting the women under the risk of further complications and stress. Moreover, the existence of socioeconomic inequality has been the main reason for health biasness in Mexico. Socioeconomic factors like education, income and occupation has been the main problem faced by Mexican women (Finkler 7). The women discussed by Finkler lacked proper educational background with some forced to drop out of school to cater for their siblings. In addition, in the past educating women was termed to be unimportant since women were not expected to work in any formal job. Most women are dependable on their husbands therefore when they fall ill they cannot cater for their medical bill making it difficult for them to seek medical care when struck by illness. Additionally, the employed women work under harsh conditions and their wage can hardly cater for their daily needs. When it comes to occupation, the women are employed in underpaid job and their working conditions are hostile and challenging. Due to poor living standards and the hardships of lives women experience sickness through stress and depression and most of the medical practitioners, overlook their health problems worsening their situation. Some of them seek help in spiritual healers because the hospitals seem to provide limited assistance. Gender roles in Mexico involve an intense strain of masculinity (Finkler 28). Men are anticipated to be controlling, antagonistic and promiscuous whereas women are expected to be obedient, dependent and motherly. Over the years, a shift has been seen in the role of women in Mexico. However, the shift is in a slow pace. Mexican women gained the right to vote in 1953, nevertheless majority of leaders in Mexico are men. In the past, women were not allowed to work outside their homes unless the work was informal or in farms. Today women are working as domestic workers, street sellers, teachers and nurses (Finkler 29). The women however face prejudice and persecution and their wages are considerably lower than that of men. Nonetheless, as their numbers increase the women are becoming more involved in trade unions and social movements so that their condition and that of other women can be improved. Daily lives of Mexican women are faced with hardships and challenges (Finkler 34). Margarita for example was among the ten women discussed by Finkler. She was a 37 year old woman married with two children. Margarita was a depressed woman in such of individualism (Finkler 92). When she started seeing doctors, she vowed to do anything the doctors recommended of her so that she could feel better. Margarita shared her life experiences to Finkler. as a woman she did not get proper formal education. Her father claimed that women were not to be educated because they would get married and their husbands would take care of them. Therefore, Margarita did not attend school since she was the first born she was expected to take care of her siblings especially the male ones since they were expected to attend school. She worked like a dog; all the family chores were bestowed to her (Finkler 92). As a child, Margarita felt sexually assaulted by her father and this frightened her. Her father would occasionally brush against her breast making the 11-year-old Margarita scared. When she told her mother about it, the mother brushed it off as though is was nothing of importance. One time, Margarita recounts her father had raped their 10 old house help (Finkler 93). The house help tried to tell Margarita’s mother but she did not take the matter seriously so was the maid’s mother. Even though everyone overlooked the incident, it remained in Margarita’s mind for a long time. She also added that she still feels insecure when she sees her husband bathing their 3 year old daughter because she thinks a similar experience may happen to her. In short, she has no trust in men when it comes to their own daughters. Margarita ran away from home in her late teens and was forced into marriage to an educated man (Finkler 93). The man was so insecure and he would lock Margarita in the house until he returned in the evening. Even after delivering their son, the man still locked Margarita and she had no freedom of movement. He left no money therefore; it was difficult for Margarita to move around. Later the man began seeing other women who were educated this affected Margarita forcing her to run back to her parent’s home. The husband would go fetch her and Margarita would run away again (Finkler 94). Eventually she was able to escape for good. In her father’s house, she was forced to work like a slave making her lack time to spend with her young. This depressed her and at times, it made her suicidal. After several years, Margarita was lucky and she got married to another man. He was not rich and she wanted was love and care that she lacked in most of her life. Nevertheless, the husband was not sexually active and this depressed Margarita. She decided to seek medical help and most of the doctors and physicians were of little help to her. Her pains and suffering worsened forcing Margarita to believe that the ex wife of her then husband had bewitched her. She was referred to a psychiatrist who was also not of too much assistance to her (Finkler 97). Margarita earns more than her husband does and this might be the reason why the husband is reluctant when it comes to sexual relations with his wife. Different doctors keep on recommending different dosage for Margarita’s problems to no success. Her pain and suffering therefore persist without concrete assistance. Many women around the globe undergo similar experiences as those of Margarita and they get little help from the society because women are overlooked and ignored (Finkler 98). Maria a 33-year’s old married woman with two children is another illustration. she resides in a new developing neighborhood in Mexico City and like other women in the book she seen a number of physicians and healers without success for her pains and suffering. She was diagnosed as having “a spastic colon, parasitic colitis and diverticulitis” (Finkler 190). Other physicians termed her condition “ovarian problems,” “chronic nervous colitis” and another doctor told her that her problems were as a result of “animals in her stomach” (Finkler 192). Maria said that she has undergone through a fright (susto) that resulted her to becoming extremely nervous. In a bid to find relief from a continuing pain, she sought out a homeopath, which was also not successful. When social security doctors were unable to help her, they referred Maria to a psychiatrist with whom she discussed about her negative response to have sexual relations with her husband because the husband was sexually active with another woman. Maria explained that her sessions with the psychiatrist involved only talks (Finkler 192). The psychiatrist asked Maria questions with regard to her sexual relations with the husband and how she treated her two children. At the end of the sessions, the psychiatrist recommended Maria to change her attitude and be submissive to the husband. Maria wondered why the psychiatrist recommended that and if the husband was not going to change what will happen to her. In addition, the psychiatrist failed to consider that Maria’s sickness was worsened by her husband’s behavior. If Maria’s changes her attitude and the husband remained, the same Maria’s sickness was not going to get any better. In the end, Maria told the psychiatrist that she did not like being with her husband and that the husband was involved in extra marital affairs. The psychiatrist instead told Maria that she needed to have a conversation with her husband and that all will be solved. Moreover, the psychiatrist doubted Maria’s claim that her husband was involved in extra marital affairs. As a result, Maria did not return to the psychiatrist for another session because she was not receiving any significant assistance (Finkler 192) Finkler remarks that the medical profession gave little assistance to Maria. For instance, the psychiatrist failed to notice her suffering and pain, in addition medicine also failed to treat Maria as a whole person who was experiencing a life misery and injustice. Looking at Maria’s life lesions, we see her lack of control over her own life. As a child, Maria was unable to acquire primary school education since she was forced to care for her 10 brothers and sisters. She was also unable to control her husband from seeking other women. Due to poverty and traditional gender roles Maria was limited in making major life’s decisions the result was pain and suffering. The women used by Finkler in her analysis are real and they are recognizable to anyone who has worked and lived in Mexico. Many women around the world undergo similar experiences as those of the Mexican women. Therefore, the book is an interesting book; the concept applied of life lesions is a crucial contribution, permitting readers to understand the cumulative impact of life battering on a person. Finkler also succeeds with the chapters on the origin of sickness, gender and history. Life lesions could not be comprehended without the case studies of the women. Work cited Finkler, Kaja. 1994. Women in Pain: Gender and Morbidity in Mexico. 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