Women’s body is incredibly captivating and multifaceted. From the moment of little girl’s birth, puberty to menopause women undergo complex stages of development and transformation which is a blessing and a curse at the same in my opinion. It is amazing how god created women’s body the way it is. I would say the biology aspect of women’s body and how it works is wonderful. For example after puberty and period stage the female anatomy and physiology prepares her to conceive and the post conception stage of the fetus the women generates life, supports the embryo development and give the child optimal support to encourage development from zero weeks to nine months, then undergoes child birth breast feeds her fetus and she worries if she will recover from the child birth, the body recuperates both physically, mentally and emotionally then undergoes the process of specific changes menopause ageing body or diseases such as breast cancer. Despite women going through tougher natural developmental stages or changes than men social constructions linked with women is significantly confounding and discriminatory. For that modern society places women invulnerable state which women and girls are forced to look, dress and behave in a certain way.
The ideal female is predominately thin, yet impossibly toned and curvaceous, accompanied by perfect skin teeth and hair. This unrealistic standard of beauty constructed by society is causes a negative body images to those who do not obtain these standards. Which in some cases, can lead to major health problems such as eating disorder, isolation, suicide, participation of unhealthy and risky behaviours such as substance abuse, alcohol, tobacco smoking and other illicit drugs. For me the ideal woman is impossible image of beauty which drives women to feel ugly on their own skin have lower self-esteem. For that, social construction dominates women and misrepresents what true beauty is by flaunting girls with flawless figures and perfect skin and creating massive pressure to look perfect.
The empowering campaign video “Because I am a girl” in this week’s lecture definitely resonated with me on personal. This is because my great grandmothers were child brides and forced into marriages they did not agree to with a male three times their age, education was not for them because they were women they were told to stay home and do house duties and that is where they belong and have more babies before their body develops. Even though this was a cultural norm at the time I cannot imagine what they had gone through. I once had intimate conversation with my great grandmother about womanhood and the role of women in the African household and I could not believe what I was hearing from her do not get me wrong my grandmother is strong women full of wisdom whom I love and respect her intelligence and experiences. My grandmother told me because she is women she never ate before her husband and she would get up first in the morning to cook and clean before her husband wakes up and this was the circle she lived throughout the years whether she was sick or having child birth cramps or not. Where men would sit back wait to be served by the poor women who had to deal with many other house choirs. As nomads, the society they live in told them moving into cities to seek education and better life was extremely shameful and taboo and the women will be disowned by her family, friends and neighbours. Basically, these women who I look up to, admire, and respect never had appropriate childhood and had limited choices and control over their lives. As for me growing up and living in a such a wealth and safe country like Australia I tell myself I am so lucky and privileged to wake and make my own decisions. Through this opportunity I can do so much to help and influence others by empowering young girls and women who are probably living in such conditions today in many parts of the developing world through promotion of long term gender equality, creating fair employment opportunities, donation to build schools and maternal centres. Even though I respect and value my cultural heritage and customs I cannot imagine what girls and women go through on daily basis. Significantly, women are the back bone of our society thus by empowering women's rights will promote equal opportunities, minimise gender discrimination in all aspects and will ultimately increase women's participation in male dominated areas and lead better and peaceful society by decreasing voilence,sexual harassment towards women and girls and advovate for better health outcomes for women. There is African proverb which goes by educating a woman one can educate an entire nation” I truly agree with this saying and means a lot to me
The next topic of the lecture which catch my attention is the ideology of “Ladylike” naturally women have classy characteristics and behaviours that classifies a woman to be lady like. However, society misuses the term today and it has become dirty words which is used to manipulate, abuse and insult women. I do believe women should have nurturing and softening attributes and characteristics, showing well manners, gentle, respectable, being polite and reserved if applicable. This does not limit women to be fragile, dependent and certainly this does not say a woman cannot be strong, determined, career minded, smart or brave and out spoken not be ladylike.
Reflection 2 - Week Three - Portrayal of Women in Popular Culture, Advertising, the Web and the Media in Contemporary Society
The content in this week’s lecture was very interestig in discussing some predominant issue that affects every women in Australia today. The contemporary trend that is immensely developing in the mainstream media today is the sexual objectification of women in popular culture, advertisement and media. Specifically, in music video, commercial television advertisements, social media and movies. The portrayals of women in popular cultuere, advertisement and media indicates that there is strong focus on women as sexual object rather than follow human being or women. I believe the portrayals of women in popular culture, advertisement and media is harmful and negative to our society as the media is generating social stereotypes for both young girls, women and men which can result in the normalisation of unhealthy social and physical habits. This issue is widespread due to the fact that the media uses sexual contents in regard to women to sell products the more viewers seem to buy into the negative portrayals and sexual objectification of women. Therefore, the portrayals of women in popular culture, advertisement and the media shapes a cultural sensaion that affect how women of dating, romance, sex and what the ideal women looks like within our society. For that, the portrayal of women in the media places women in vulnerable state which women and girls are forced to look, dress and behave in a certain way. (For example, the girl from television advertisement). Reflecting back on this week’s lecture portrayals of women in sexual objectification I am deeply concerned that young girls and women in general are objectified and sexualised publicly. For example, magazine and social media images of women heavily focus on women’s sexual feature rather than other attributes such as work capacity or intelligence. In today’s modern world I see girls’ young as ten-twelve being sexualised and society tells them you are not beautiful enough if you do not look like the girl from the magazine with perfect figure, nose, skin tone, hair, teeth and perfect skin. There is also a little value for women do not meet society’s expectation. In saying that, women are much more than pretty faces and perfect bodies and these negative portrayals of women in popular culture such as television advertisements and media have caused far detrimental and long-lasting effects on the overall health and wellbeing of girl and women across the world. Also, the media’s objectification of women will encourage girls and women in general to focus looks and sexuality which detrimental to women’s mental, emotional and physical health. Enforcing women to be pretty like the women from television advertisements will encourage immense issue for body image and develop the ideal of seeing their bodies as not their personal self but rather as sexual objects. Thus, that unhealthy reinforcement will create health issues such as eating disorder, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression isolation, suicide, participation of unhealthy and risky behaviours such as substance abuse, alcohol, tobacco smoking and other illicit drugs.These health issues are directly linked to sexualised images in the portrayal of women in the popular culture, advertisement and media.These negative portrayals have also become the clothes women and girls wear and the body image many women and young girls strive to emulate.The portrayal of women ideal woman is impossible image of beauty which drives women to feel ugly on their own skin have lower self-esteem. Social construction dominates women and misrepresents what true beauty is by flaunting girls with flawless figures and perfect skin and creating massive pressure to look perfect.
The above video illustrates a Super Bowl television commercial advertisement in America, the most reviewed and watched televison series and event of American history of the year. The sexual objectification of women through popular culture shows the media action is allowed to proceed because sex sells and this sexual objectification of women is what our society has proven they want to see in the populat culture including adverisement and media.
Reflection Three - Week four – The 'Right' Time to Have a Child: Changes in Fertility Timing and Health Outcomes for Women
This lecture encouraged me to deeply reflect on my own cultural norms, family structure and life experiences. As a woman growing up I always wanted to settlement down the right time with the right person and have children of my own with a partner of my choice and off course they say only time can tell the tell right. I was born from a society where marring at younger age is highly recommended and having a child is the greatest accomplishment a woman can do. Coming from such a background woman are constantly encouraged by close relatives, parents and grandparents to marry and have children before they reach certain age because no man will want her once she is 30 years old or above. At younger age, we were told that if women is not married in her early 20s it will difficult for her when she ages and there is social stigma and other health issues attach to woman marrying at older age. Any women who does not fit in category of marriage with children is then looked down on and not value enough and no man will dare try to marry her as she missed her timeline to marry. Thus, man in her age group would prefer to marry younger women. Even though the idea of the right time to have a child for women’s live is something every young marriable women considers at one point of her lifetime.
Despite this, women are told that she has a limited time between the period you are married and deciding to have a child might be too late. In saying that, I have two sisters who are happily married with beautiful kids of their own and I am so happy for their achievement and admire their commitments. However, as for me I am the youngest girl in the family have a different path in life which I am content with. Marriage is the only discussed at my dining table, as such according to my relatives and family I was meant to have already graduated and been in committed relationship and having my own kids by this point. In saying that, I do not really bother myself with society expectations and not extreme of this scenario at all. Whether the so called biological clock is ticking or not I see myself with kids and love the idea of children and being an auntie already has taught me a lot. This week’s tutorial exercise I have realised yes, I definitely do have a timeline in my head about how I want my life to look like and what I am hoping to achieve before I consider marriage and have kids, however I strongly believe everything happens at the right time. As a result, close relatives and extended family members are continually asking me questions like when are you getting married? have you find a man yet? It is time to get married and have kids Ardo hurry up? I am like I am in my early 20s I have got plenty of time ahead to think about settling down and having kids. Relatives would say you are a woman your biological clock is shorter than men’s I always laugh it off and say the right time will come. However, it annoys me sometimes, it is funny how people expect others to do something that has no benefit in it for them. Just to be clear I am in no rush whatsoever to find a guy and bring a child to this world when I am not fully capable of doing it just because that is what I am meant to be doing and others around me are doing. Being in long term relationship or married and having kids are both beautiful things but I do not think it should be the only thing that women can be valued for or respected for due to her marital status. I believe in autonomy and people should be able to decide things like marriage and children and never be in something because of age related stigma and should not be concern about the so called biological clock ticking when it comes, it comes no women should ever feel validated by society pressure or depend on a man or other people to validate women’s happiness. But without devaluing women’s life choice it is important to appreciate women as whole. I totally get the fact that women have shorter timeline between when she has successful career finds the right partner and deciding children may be a little late. But it comes when I come nobody can pressure or speed that natural process for anybody.
Your biological clock doesn't give a #@$! about your career goals: Is
career driven women discussing their struggle journey to get pregnant naturally For the first time in U.S. history, women are more likely to have a college degree than men. At the same time, these women are delaying motherhood longer and getting pregnant later in life, with the help of cutting edge technology. Lisa Ling investigates how women are having babies from frozen eggs
The crazy, conflicting advice about when women should have children: the below article summaries methods used to encourage women to think about having children how confusing it get when women are told to freeze their eggs by close relatives or health professionals.
Reflection 4- Week Five: Changing Gender Roles in Families: Paid Work, House Work, and Child-Raising
The allocation parents' time to paid and unpaid work and child raising remains very gendered across the world today, with fathers usually in full-time paid employment, and mothers often employed part-time or not in employment. Mothers also spend more time than fathers doing household work, whether that is child care or other domestic work. Even when mothers work full-time, when there are young children in the family, mothers tend to do more of the child care and other domestic work than fathers, and gender differences such as these are apparent across many developed countries including Australia. If I reflect on my own parents and how the changing gender roles in the family, paid work, house work and child- raising.
I grew up with full-time working parents my father was flight in flight out worker and he worked outside town even though my father worked away from home it felt like he greatly contributed to raising us with mum. My mother was a business woman who also worked full-time and raised nine kids with the help of my grandmother. My mother would wake up five in the morning to cook for us, clean the house, take us to school, wash our clothing and then she would go to work close to midday and this was the circle she lived in until we were teenagers and finish school. Regardless of their professional career both my father and mother shared different yet similar gender roles in the family for example when dad comes to home from his distance work mum will continue going to her work in the morning and dad will do the house work duties including child care by doing the cooking, clean, take us to school, look after the younger ones and tutoring us until mum comes back from work and when mum is home in the evening she will start from where dad left it off and I guess they both were educated they supported each other. In saying that, even though I was brought up by such hard-working parents who shared gender roles equally in the family in terms of paid, house work and child raising my culture advocated otherwise. For example, if we discuss the perspective my culture views these issues is different to what I have seen my parents do for decades to raise us kids.
However, my culture encourages that the man should take up a professional or any manual job to be the breadwinner while the women stays home despite her career aspiration or education background and It’s almost unexpected thing for a Somali man to do the house work (cooking, cleaning) or even help out with child care of his own children. For that, based on my culture young girls are trained at young age to do the house work despite their education or part work the may doing, while boys are placed in superior position and not encouraged to help around the house. But rather they sit back and play video games and wait to be served like kings by their sisters and mothers. In saying that, by the minutes a woman gets married she is expected to give all her dreams up including professional career to support her husband and children even though is this a good thing the hard-unpaid work she does is never appreciated by anyone in her household and she is performs all the unpaid work tasks in the house day in day out which is better than paid work and deserve recognition. Thus, many women today are valued very less for the hard-unpaid work they do in the house compare to the male counterparts and continue to experience gender inequality. In this case, I would say my mother is one privileged women to have had a man who appreciates the little things she do and continues to chase her career aspirations and not feel obligated to do all the housework, child raising alone while working long hours.
This post is from United nation Women instagram page where all women from over the world are showcased and celebrated for the deversity and encourages all women who do home inside home should be valued for their hard work.
Moving from my main topic; I am going to briefly reflect on gender inequality in Australian today and women in the workforce who still experience unequal pay for same work roles as their male colleagues. Thus, Australian women are over represented as part time workers in low paid industries and insecure work continues to be underrepresented in leadership roles in the private and public sectors across Australia. Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014 states that the Australia women do the two-thirds of the unpaid caring and domestic work in Australian households. Women spend almost three times as many hours each week looking after children compared with men. Australian women reached retirement age with an average of 36 per cent or $87,532 less superannuation than men. As a result, women are more likely to experience poverty in their retirement years and be far more reliant on the age pension.
Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014 indicates that Australian women account for 92 per cent of primary carers for children with disabilities, 70 per cent of primary carers for parents and 52 per cent of primary carers for elderly partners. Consequently, this gender role differences places women in an unhealthy and discriminatory environment that affects their long term health and rights. Despite the fact that women encompass approximately 46 per cent of all employees in Australia, they then take home $262.50 less than men each week, regardless of their equal work and educational proficiency. Also, the national gender “pay gap” is 17.1 per cent and it has remained between 15 per cent and 18 per cent for the past two decades in regard to the equal pay policy being in place.
Equal work deserves equal pay campaign advocates to raise awareness for the gender pay gap!
Reflection 5- Week Six "Walking into Doors": The Impact of Domestic Violence on Women Locally and Globally
In this week’s lecture, I have learnt an issue that is deep yet underestimated by many of us which significantly impacts many women across the world today. Domestic violence is a major social issue, and it affects all people no matter what economic, geographical, educational, racial background, social or sexual orientation one has. Domestic violence against women and girls has become a major public health issues, and have serious and long-lasting detrimental consequences for women’s health. It affects all people regardless of their economic, geographical, educational, racial, social or sexual orientation one has or background. Across Australia 1 in 5 Australian women experience sexual violence and 1 in 6 Australian women experience physical from current or former partners.These rates are elevated among certain populations such as women from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and refugees.
Domestic violence does not only affect women alone it does significantly impact men and women equality even though many people find it hard to pick up the signs and symptoms of domestic violence usually when you people realize they have been experiencing domestic violence may feel it is too late to get help or do not want to cause a problem. however, the psychological consequences of domestic violence can have serious physical and mental problems; injuries can include death which impacts all women from different age groups. Reflecting back on this week’s lecture I have never ever have witness domestic violence or had close relationship with people who had experience domestic violence in their life. I yet always criticized, questioned and wondered why some women would still tent to stay with abusive and violent partner when she can simply wake away from such environment.
Upon watching Leslie Morgan Steiner heart-rending Ted talk on “Why domestic violence victims do not leave”. Leslie tells the story of her relationship, correcting misconceptions many people hold about victims of domestic violence, and explaining how we can all help break the silence. It really caught my attention made me realised domestic violence is not an easy subject that many people can talk about or even notice it happening to them when it actually is until it is too late sometimes. In saying that, I was harsh and not realistic to judge quickly and assume topics such as domestic violence can be solved by simply leaving and I was wrong. However, this Ted Talk has changed my perspective as Leslie emphasized the contextual factors and determinants that make women to continuously stay in abusive and violent relationships. This environment makes the victim to feel vulnerable to act on, afraid of what the outcome may be or unable to leave such environment. Also, in many cases the abusive and violent partner continues to stalk, threatened to kill the victim thus to avoid such situations many women feel the need to stay in abusive relationship. Hearing Leslie personal experience with domestic violence the idea of crazy love does surely happen and exist and for that men tent to take opportunity over that to routinely abused and threatened woman’s life. Therefore, we must not take domestic violence as small problem it has been going on for centuries and continue to happen to girls and women in both developed and developing worlds similarly and live in fear.
Leslie Morgan Steiner is the author of "crazy love" domestic violence survivor she shares her personal experience about how she was madly in love with a man who routinely abused her and threatened her life. Steiner tells the story of her relationship, correcting misconceptions many people hold about victims of domestic violence, and explaining how we can all help break the silence. Understanding why victims stay is important and this article sums up how domestic violence is not something that can be solved overnight yet takes time for more information visit http://www.ncadv.org/learn-more/what-is-domestic-violence/why-victims-stay
REFLECTION 6 – WEEK 7: Women who Love Other Women: The Social Treatment of Lesbians and the Consequences for Health
Marriage equality is a very interesting topic in Australia today and this week’s lecture has touched historical tolerance and social treatment. I personal have minimal knowledge on this topic and it is not something I often explore and I am glad I did this week. Throughout history, homosexuals experienced a significant social and policy issues across the world including Australia. Most historians agree that there is evidence of homosexual activity and same-sex love, whether such relationships were accepted or persecuted, in every documented culture. It is evident that many cultures and religions do not tolerate or welcome homosexuals or lesbian women and this is primarily based on the way they are raised but it is important to acknowledge this issues within our society. In general, I believe women face certain health risks and inequalities. However, sexual minority women those who identify as lesbian or bisexual as well as women who have sex with women, are diverse as the rest of the population, their shared experience of discrimination within the society creates common health issues that hinder the overall health and well-being.
Even though complete social acceptance still remains a major public health issue for lesbian women nonetheless the Australian society generally regards heterosexuality as the most acceptable sexual orientation, which means that women who love other women are often marginalized and discriminated against in relation to their health and well-being. As such, women who love other women encounter barriers to health care that include concerns about confidentiality and disclosure, discriminatory attitudes and treatment, limited access to health care and health insurance, and often a limited understanding as to what their health risks may be. This is mainly generated by social mistreatment and social stress. In saying that, I am not really united with lesbian or had ever had contact with someone who defines themselves as one but I do believe that people should do what makes them happy regardless of their background or gender and lesbian women should not be considered as socially deviant and should enjoy their basic human rights as much as straight woman do and not be excluded from society and public areas.
Lesbian social mistreated is an immense issue which encourages continuous discrimination inequalities against vulnerable members of the community and this places lesbian women as often inferior and seen as unwanted other within society. Despite the increasing social and political advocacy and campaign for the LGBTI community, the lesbian and other homosexuals face a complex range of cultural, social, political, religion and health issues within society. it is evident that same sex attracted young people, violence, and discrimination was also common. A 2010 study of 3134 young Australians found that 61 per cent had suffered verbal abuse because of their sexuality, 18 per cent suffered physical assault and 69 per cent suffered other forms of homophobia. Also, women who love women have increased the risk of mental ill-health and suicidality among LGBTI people is not due to sexuality, sex or gender identity in and of themselves but rather due to discrimination and exclusion as key determinants of health. Homophobia is a fear of and prejudices against people who are perceived to be homosexual or trans respectively, or more generally to not conform to mainstream male or female gender norms. They are often expressed as stereotyping, discrimination, harassment, and violence. The health impacts of social exclusion and abuse towards lesbian woman include; feeling unsafe, risks of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, suicide thoughts, self-harm, psychological stress, increased unhealthy and risky health behaviour, sexually transmissible diseases such as HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, violence, alcohol abuse and unsafe sexual behaviors.
Reflection 7 Week 8: Mental Health and Drug/Alcohol Use Amongst Women Across the Ages
In this weeks lecture content has highlighted the issue of mental health drug\alcohol use amongst women across the ages in our society today. However, I was astonished when the discussion on men being perceived to be more rational than women emerge and women being illogical and hysterical. This profound content was interesting to understand and learn more about the complexity of mental health and drug\Alcohol use amongst women across the ages. Prior to this detailed lecture I personally thought that women were at greater mental health status than men, however; listening to Julie-Anne’s lecture on the rate of mental issues women face throughout their lives was immense and overwhelming. In saying that, mental health is also an emerging disease amongst Australian women. In 2013, 1 in 4 Australian women experience depression at some stage in their life. Also, women are more likely to suffer from more than one mental illness at a time, which is linked to increased severity of mental illness and increased disability. Australian women also have higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression than men. There is a significant number of women of productive age in Australia experience mental disorder including; depression, anxiety, eating disorder, self-harm, and suicide as well as the range of other issues such as substance misuse, alcohol abuse, and illicit drugs. Also, eating disorder is higher in women due to the pressure to look good and slim as seen in many of social media influences on women’s body. This is a makes a woman to become less confident with their body and take up unhealthy behaviors and get addicted to certain substances.
Reflecting back on mental health drug\alcohol use amongst women across the ages it is evident that depression, anxiety, psychological distress, sexual violence, domestic violence and escalating rates of substance use affect women to a greater extent than men across different countries and different settings. Pressures created by their multiple roles, gender discrimination and associated factors of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, overwork, domestic violence and sexual abuse, combine to account for women's poor mental health. There is a positive relationship between the frequency and severity of such social factors and the frequency and severity of mental health problems in women. Severe life events that cause a sense of loss, inferiority, humiliation or entrapment can predict depression for women. Despite the increasing mental health issues experienced by Australian women across ages, there is significant social support and mental health programs which aim to support women with mental health, drug, and alcohol use to promote better health and reduce their dependence of substance abuse. Nevertheless, to reflect on my recent professional journey, I had the opportunity to travel to Vietnam for professional placement as part of my degree the rates of women with mental crisis I observed was immense in saying that the profession of mental health in Vietnam is underdeveloped and there is very limited mental health awareness programs as well as inadequate social and professional support for women with mental health issues such as postnatal depression, psychosis, anxiety, and other mental health crisis. The lack of effective mental health care for women in Vietnam was confronting and challenging to understanding as people who were suffering from mental health crisis left untreated and their families were put on immense health and economic burden to care for their loved ones. Thus, mental health is a significant issue across the world. For that, despite the increasing rates of mental health drug\alcohol use among women across ages, there is an effective system in place to support and educate individuals and their families compared to developing countries where mental health care is not well established and misunderstood.
Reflection 8 Week 9: The Fashion Industry and Body Image: Impact on Women’s Health
This week’s lecture content was interesting one especially to me, I feel like it was relevant topic that has immense impact on today’s generation, as a woman the fashion industry and body image influences me in some point in my life and this is because today we have reached an age where social media models, magazines and YouTube bloggers influence women’s lives. Many of us follow supermodel on social media we hope in somewhat to figure out how that particular model maintains her figure and looks and this drives many women insane and creates low self and anxiety. For example, women in general are expected by society to look slim yet tanned with perfect hair, teeth, dresses well and live in certain way and many of us do not fit in this category. Thus, the significant pressure to have model type body impacts on women’s health and leads to both poor physical, mental health, substance abuse and eating disorder. For that, the fashion industry culture is overwhelmed with images, websites, magazines, television, and advertising have come to serve as a manual for how we should look, dress and live. The images we see attempt to show us what is desirable to the opposite sex, and how to achieve that look. However, we are not the same. Women, especially, range dramatically in size, shape, and appearance. Throughout life, our bodies are in a constant state of change.The fashion industry in particular perpetuates the that we can, and should appear in a certain likeness to what we see on the page and screen. To reflect in this week’s lecture in-depth two aspects caught my attention was the disorderly bodies and identities. For example, physical factors such as body size and shape, cosmetic surgery and eating disorders, emotional issues, low self-esteem and dysphoria is evident across the contemporary world.
Today we are losing bodies as fast as we are losing language just as English has become the lingua franca of the world, so is the white, blondified, small-nosed, pert-breasted, long-legged body is becoming to stand in for in for the great variety of human body that there are. In saying that, Western beauty ideals actually, man-made western beauty ideals have spread to the rest of the world through globalisation and is now being upheld as models through fashion industry and this immense impact on women’s health. through the ads of beauty and fashion women in general are under incredible pressure to have ideal body. For example, the truth is that female body exists in an infinite variety of sizes and shapes, but in fashion magazines and on the runway only one shape is represented tall and thin. The oversize women are considered unattractive and encourages their engagement with unhealthy and risky health behaviours. Therefore, globalisation and the way American fashion industry and media has been exported to the rest of the world has had a profound effect in the way women all over the world perceive beauty ideals. While it's crucial to remember that negative body image is partially rooted in the global process of capitalism, I believe individuals still have the power to fight back with the notion of fashion industry system which exploits, manipulates and seduces women into hating themselves.
WEEK 10 NO LECTURE MID SEMESTER BREAK
Reflection 9 Week 10: The Health of Australia Women- What are the Key Challenges
I found this week’s lecture very interesting having an Indigenous guest lecturer was amazing to here from the Indigenous perspective on the issues in the community. As such, there was several interesting topics that were surprising from this content. A specific topic of this lecture I am going to reflect on in-depth is smoking during pregnancy among Indigenous women and the mum & bubs. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are considered the most socially and economically disadvantaged and have the poorest health status.Many Indigenous women suffer health problems due to the context of their lives, with significant impacts being related to dispossession, forced removals from family, racism, marginalisation and exposure to violence. As such, the current health status of Indigenous people is is the result of colonisation.Thus, this encourages the up take of unhealthy behaviours for example Indigenous women many responsibilities roles as mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, wives and partners, and most commonly it is the women in households who have the main responsibility for looking after the health of other family members places them to experience poorer health outcome. In generally, smoking during pregnancy is significant public health issues among Indigenous women which severely contributes to variety of complex health issues such as cardiovascular disease including stroke, hypertensions, lung cancer, low birth weight and prematurity.
Over the years, the prevalence of smoking has decreased to 20% among the general non- Indigenous Australian population aged fifteen years and above. Nevertheless, the smoking rates among Indigenous Australians continue to increase to 47% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population reporting twice high rates of daily smoking. A recent data published by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2012-2013, illustrated that Indigenous women are three times more likely to smoke during pregnancy than non-Indigenous women (Australian Bureau Statistics, 2015). In 2004 about 56% of Indigenous women smoked while pregnant compared to 13% among non-Indigenous women. In addition, 12% of births in the community were low birth weight and 11.7% premature compare with non-Indigenous births 6.2 & 7.2% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015).
I personal believe lifestyle issues such as smoking during pregnancy is normalised tradition and it is acceptable habits in the Indigenous communities. The habit of continuously smoking throughout pregnancy has expanded the impinging culture of smoking among young pregnant mothers with low levels of knowledge which impacts their health and their fetus In saying that, these women face complex range of social, environment and political issue and these are the main determining factors for their smoking behaviors. Also, there is strong culture of smoking among partners, family and friends which has become important social gathering and formation of social relationship with other smokers and cessation leads to sense of social exclusion and isolation. Despite this, there is lack of culturally appropriate and inclusive smoking programs that tackle the multilayered health behavior. Moreover, it is evident that the current smoking strategies in place demonstrate no effect on tackling the alarming rates of smoking among Indigenous pregnant women.The historical and cultural factors which drives their behavior is significantly misunderstood and not examined appropriately to develop strategies that improve their smoking behavior for the long-term.
As a result, these interventions are inadequate in nature and remain targeting the individual lifestyle changes and evaluate short-term influences of health behavior while ignoring other contextual factors which initiate their poor health outcome. To ensure better health outcomes, strategies need to include knowledge and awareness of the history, experience, culture and rights of Indigenous women. To improve these health disparity we need to understand and address the historical, cultural and multilayered influences. It is essential to implement effective community based initiatives which is culturally appropriate and inclusive strategies that target the larger multilayered determinants of smoking during pregnancy. These strategies aim to tailor community needs in order to increase approach ability by including families, individuals, communities and local Indigenous business. To adopt and build multi-level approach to target the contextual factors simultaneously and develop effective strategies that generate supportive environment for community at large.
Reflection 10- WEEK TWELVE Healthy Ageing for Women
Healthy ageing for women is an essential aspect of women’s health and wellbeing. As such, the life expectancy for Australian women is increasing. Despite women’s increasing life expectancy, women spent many years with disability such as mental issues, including significant levels of severe limitation and disease, illness or hereditary conditions. However, women are more susceptible to risks factors causing diseases and complication such as chronic illness, injury and premature death, including. Also, nearly half of Australian women are overweight or obese, with younger women gaining weight at a much higher rate than previous generations. As we age women are more likely to suffer from deficiencies of certain vitamins and minerals, as well as increased mental health issues, bone issues, declining kidney and liver function.
Approximately one third of women do not exercise regularly and over consume high fat and sugar foods and inadequate intake of fruit. As a women and future health professional this topic is very meaningful in understanding healthy ageing for women. Healthy aging for women involves good habits like eating healthy, physical activity and good mental and physical support. In spite of this women can be benefit from number of healthy lifestyle to maintain healthy ageing throughout their life. These include eating healthy balance diet, sleeping well, exercise and physical activity can help you stay fit and strong. It is important that for women to work with her healthcare provider to manage health conditions like diabetes, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure. Also, healthy behaviour seeking such as doing regular health screenings is important way to help recognize health problems. It is important ask the healthcare provider which health screenings are right for women and find out how often she should get screened.
Science says that your diet, how much you exercise and your genes all play a role in determining how long you will live as this is somewhat true I just want to brief talk my grandmother who is 102 years old very healthy for her age and continues with normal daily life activities as normal. My grandmother has over 200 grandkids and surprisingly she raised some of these children. I personally think my grandmother’s healthy ageing is attributed to many factors for example she lives in very collective and harmony society where many of the first world issues we suffer from do not exist. In such age she is completely fit physical, mentally and emotional and continues to walk, do the cooking, visit relatives, look after grand kids and socialises with others. In many instances this has to do with the collective culture many western countries lack in, when our grandparents get older or one is left behind we do not send them to age care facilities or leave them in their empty homes. Even though is excellent resource to have it damages the health of the elderly and makes them feel lonely in their world. Rather our elderly live with their close family especially their son or daughter where will get all the care she deserves in such system the elderly feels loved and looked after she will have constant communication with people loves and not feel isolated in random aged care facility and looking in the window to see who might come today and visit her so he can have a few conversations with. This loneliness system drives elder to have unhealthy ageing process. As lonely is significantly public health it contributes to several health issues which weakened the healthy ageing.I think living life in a such harmony where you can see loved ones, feel loved and care for improves healthy ageing and quality of life and wellbeing. This system allows the elderly to continue with as normal by performing tasks and interacting and enjoying what life has to offer.
To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world's "Blue Zones," communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. In his talk, he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.
Thanks to Julie-Anne for a wonderful semester! This unit has prepared me to acknowledge significant social and health inequalities that contemporary women face across lifespan and has truly inspired me to further explore and understand women's health issues and how we can better manage and improve these issues
Your biological clock doesn't give a #@$! about your caree
Student ID: N9110429
Reflection 1- Week Two Women's Amazing bodies
Women’s body is incredibly captivating and multifaceted. From the moment of little girl’s birth, puberty to menopause women undergo complex stages of development and transformation which is a blessing and a curse at the same in my opinion. It is amazing how god created women’s body the way it is. I would say the biology aspect of women’s body and how it works is wonderful. For example after puberty and period stage the female anatomy and physiology prepares her to conceive and the post conception stage of the fetus the women generates life, supports the embryo development and give the child optimal support to encourage development from zero weeks to nine months, then undergoes child birth breast feeds her fetus and she worries if she will recover from the child birth, the body recuperates both physically, mentally and emotionally then undergoes the process of specific changes menopause ageing body or diseases such as breast cancer. Despite women going through tougher natural developmental stages or changes than men social constructions linked with women is significantly confounding and discriminatory. For that modern society places women invulnerable state which women and girls are forced to look, dress and behave in a certain way.
The ideal female is predominately thin, yet impossibly toned and curvaceous, accompanied by perfect skin teeth and hair. This unrealistic standard of beauty constructed by society is causes a negative body images to those who do not obtain these standards. Which in some cases, can lead to major health problems such as eating disorder, isolation, suicide, participation of unhealthy and risky behaviours such as substance abuse, alcohol, tobacco smoking and other illicit drugs. For me the ideal woman is impossible image of beauty which drives women to feel ugly on their own skin have lower self-esteem. For that, social construction dominates women and misrepresents what true beauty is by flaunting girls with flawless figures and perfect skin and creating massive pressure to look perfect.
The empowering campaign video “Because I am a girl” in this week’s lecture definitely resonated with me on personal. This is because my great grandmothers were child brides and forced into marriages they did not agree to with a male three times their age, education was not for them because they were women they were told to stay home and do house duties and that is where they belong and have more babies before their body develops. Even though this was a cultural norm at the time I cannot imagine what they had gone through. I once had intimate conversation with my great grandmother about womanhood and the role of women in the African household and I could not believe what I was hearing from her do not get me wrong my grandmother is strong women full of wisdom whom I love and respect her intelligence and experiences. My grandmother told me because she is women she never ate before her husband and she would get up first in the morning to cook and clean before her husband wakes up and this was the circle she lived throughout the years whether she was sick or having child birth cramps or not. Where men would sit back wait to be served by the poor women who had to deal with many other house choirs. As nomads, the society they live in told them moving into cities to seek education and better life was extremely shameful and taboo and the women will be disowned by her family, friends and neighbours. Basically, these women who I look up to, admire, and respect never had appropriate childhood and had limited choices and control over their lives. As for me growing up and living in a such a wealth and safe country like Australia I tell myself I am so lucky and privileged to wake and make my own decisions. Through this opportunity I can do so much to help and influence others by empowering young girls and women who are probably living in such conditions today in many parts of the developing world through promotion of long term gender equality, creating fair employment opportunities, donation to build schools and maternal centres. Even though I respect and value my cultural heritage and customs I cannot imagine what girls and women go through on daily basis. Significantly, women are the back bone of our society thus by empowering women's rights will promote equal opportunities, minimise gender discrimination in all aspects and will ultimately increase women's participation in male dominated areas and lead better and peaceful society by decreasing voilence,sexual harassment towards women and girls and advovate for better health outcomes for women. There is African proverb which goes by educating a woman one can educate an entire nation” I truly agree with this saying and means a lot to me
The next topic of the lecture which catch my attention is the ideology of “Ladylike” naturally women have classy characteristics and behaviours that classifies a woman to be lady like. However, society misuses the term today and it has become dirty words which is used to manipulate, abuse and insult women. I do believe women should have nurturing and softening attributes and characteristics, showing well manners, gentle, respectable, being polite and reserved if applicable. This does not limit women to be fragile, dependent and certainly this does not say a woman cannot be strong, determined, career minded, smart or brave and out spoken not be ladylike.Reflection 2 - Week Three - Portrayal of Women in Popular Culture, Advertising, the Web and the Media in Contemporary Society
The content in this week’s lecture was very interestig in discussing some predominant issue that affects every women in Australia today. The contemporary trend that is immensely developing in the mainstream media today is the sexual objectification of women in popular culture, advertisement and media. Specifically, in music video, commercial television advertisements, social media and movies. The portrayals of women in popular cultuere, advertisement and media indicates that there is strong focus on women as sexual object rather than follow human being or women. I believe the portrayals of women in popular culture, advertisement and media is harmful and negative to our society as the media is generating social stereotypes for both young girls, women and men which can result in the normalisation of unhealthy social and physical habits. This issue is widespread due to the fact that the media uses sexual contents in regard to women to sell products the more viewers seem to buy into the negative portrayals and sexual objectification of women. Therefore, the portrayals of women in popular culture, advertisement and the media shapes a cultural sensaion that affect how women of dating, romance, sex and what the ideal women looks like within our society. For that, the portrayal of women in the media places women in vulnerable state which women and girls are forced to look, dress and behave in a certain way. (For example, the girl from television advertisement). Reflecting back on this week’s lecture portrayals of women in sexual objectification I am deeply concerned that young girls and women in general are objectified and sexualised publicly. For example, magazine and social media images of women heavily focus on women’s sexual feature rather than other attributes such as work capacity or intelligence. In today’s modern world I see girls’ young as ten-twelve being sexualised and society tells them you are not beautiful enough if you do not look like the girl from the magazine with perfect figure, nose, skin tone, hair, teeth and perfect skin. There is also a little value for women do not meet society’s expectation. In saying that, women are much more than pretty faces and perfect bodies and these negative portrayals of women in popular culture such as television advertisements and media have caused far detrimental and long-lasting effects on the overall health and wellbeing of girl and women across the world. Also, the media’s objectification of women will encourage girls and women in general to focus looks and sexuality which detrimental to women’s mental, emotional and physical health. Enforcing women to be pretty like the women from television advertisements will encourage immense issue for body image and develop the ideal of seeing their bodies as not their personal self but rather as sexual objects. Thus, that unhealthy reinforcement will create health issues such as eating disorder, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression isolation, suicide, participation of unhealthy and risky behaviours such as substance abuse, alcohol, tobacco smoking and other illicit drugs.These health issues are directly linked to sexualised images in the portrayal of women in the popular culture, advertisement and media.These negative portrayals have also become the clothes women and girls wear and the body image many women and young girls strive to emulate.The portrayal of women ideal woman is impossible image of beauty which drives women to feel ugly on their own skin have lower self-esteem. Social construction dominates women and misrepresents what true beauty is by flaunting girls with flawless figures and perfect skin and creating massive pressure to look perfect.
The above video illustrates a Super Bowl television commercial advertisement in America, the most reviewed and watched televison series and event of American history of the year. The sexual objectification of women through popular culture shows the media action is allowed to proceed because sex sells and this sexual objectification of women is what our society has proven they want to see in the populat culture including adverisement and media.
Reflection Three - Week four – The 'Right' Time to Have a Child: Changes in Fertility Timing and Health Outcomes for Women
This lecture encouraged me to deeply reflect on my own cultural norms, family structure and life experiences. As a woman growing up I always wanted to settlement down the right time with the right person and have children of my own with a partner of my choice and off course they say only time can tell the tell right. I was born from a society where marring at younger age is highly recommended and having a child is the greatest accomplishment a woman can do. Coming from such a background woman are constantly encouraged by close relatives, parents and grandparents to marry and have children before they reach certain age because no man will want her once she is 30 years old or above. At younger age, we were told that if women is not married in her early 20s it will difficult for her when she ages and there is social stigma and other health issues attach to woman marrying at older age. Any women who does not fit in category of marriage with children is then looked down on and not value enough and no man will dare try to marry her as she missed her timeline to marry. Thus, man in her age group would prefer to marry younger women. Even though the idea of the right time to have a child for women’s live is something every young marriable women considers at one point of her lifetime.
Despite this, women are told that she has a limited time between the period you are married and deciding to have a child might be too late. In saying that, I have two sisters who are happily married with beautiful kids of their own and I am so happy for their achievement and admire their commitments. However, as for me I am the youngest girl in the family have a different path in life which I am content with. Marriage is the only discussed at my dining table, as such according to my relatives and family I was meant to have already graduated and been in committed relationship and having my own kids by this point. In saying that, I do not really bother myself with society expectations and not extreme of this scenario at all. Whether the so called biological clock is ticking or not I see myself with kids and love the idea of children and being an auntie already has taught me a lot. This week’s tutorial exercise I have realised yes, I definitely do have a timeline in my head about how I want my life to look like and what I am hoping to achieve before I consider marriage and have kids, however I strongly believe everything happens at the right time. As a result, close relatives and extended family members are continually asking me questions like when are you getting married? have you find a man yet? It is time to get married and have kids Ardo hurry up? I am like I am in my early 20s I have got plenty of time ahead to think about settling down and having kids. Relatives would say you are a woman your biological clock is shorter than men’s I always laugh it off and say the right time will come. However, it annoys me sometimes, it is funny how people expect others to do something that has no benefit in it for them. Just to be clear I am in no rush whatsoever to find a guy and bring a child to this world when I am not fully capable of doing it just because that is what I am meant to be doing and others around me are doing. Being in long term relationship or married and having kids are both beautiful things but I do not think it should be the only thing that women can be valued for or respected for due to her marital status. I believe in autonomy and people should be able to decide things like marriage and children and never be in something because of age related stigma and should not be concern about the so called biological clock ticking when it comes, it comes no women should ever feel validated by society pressure or depend on a man or other people to validate women’s happiness. But without devaluing women’s life choice it is important to appreciate women as whole. I totally get the fact that women have shorter timeline between when she has successful career finds the right partner and deciding children may be a little late. But it comes when I come nobody can pressure or speed that natural process for anybody.
Your biological clock doesn't give a #@$! about your career goals: Is
career driven women discussing their struggle journey to get pregnant naturally For the first time in U.S. history, women are more likely to have a college degree than men. At the same time, these women are delaying motherhood longer and getting pregnant later in life, with the help of cutting edge technology. Lisa Ling investigates how women are having babies from frozen eggs
The crazy, conflicting advice about when women should have children: the below article summaries methods used to encourage women to think about having children how confusing it get when women are told to freeze their eggs by close relatives or health professionals.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/the-crazy-conflicting-advice-about-when-women-should-have-childr/
Reflection 4- Week Five: Changing Gender Roles in Families: Paid Work, House Work, and Child-Raising
I grew up with full-time working parents my father was flight in flight out worker and he worked outside town even though my father worked away from home it felt like he greatly contributed to raising us with mum. My mother was a business woman who also worked full-time and raised nine kids with the help of my grandmother. My mother would wake up five in the morning to cook for us, clean the house, take us to school, wash our clothing and then she would go to work close to midday and this was the circle she lived in until we were teenagers and finish school. Regardless of their professional career both my father and mother shared different yet similar gender roles in the family for example when dad comes to home from his distance work mum will continue going to her work in the morning and dad will do the house work duties including child care by doing the cooking, clean, take us to school, look after the younger ones and tutoring us until mum comes back from work and when mum is home in the evening she will start from where dad left it off and I guess they both were educated they supported each other. In saying that, even though I was brought up by such hard-working parents who shared gender roles equally in the family in terms of paid, house work and child raising my culture advocated otherwise. For example, if we discuss the perspective my culture views these issues is different to what I have seen my parents do for decades to raise us kids.
However, my culture encourages that the man should take up a professional or any manual job to be the breadwinner while the women stays home despite her career aspiration or education background and It’s almost unexpected thing for a Somali man to do the house work (cooking, cleaning) or even help out with child care of his own children. For that, based on my culture young girls are trained at young age to do the house work despite their education or part work the may doing, while boys are placed in superior position and not encouraged to help around the house. But rather they sit back and play video games and wait to be served like kings by their sisters and mothers. In saying that, by the minutes a woman gets married she is expected to give all her dreams up including professional career to support her husband and children even though is this a good thing the hard-unpaid work she does is never appreciated by anyone in her household and she is performs all the unpaid work tasks in the house day in day out which is better than paid work and deserve recognition. Thus, many women today are valued very less for the hard-unpaid work they do in the house compare to the male counterparts and continue to experience gender inequality. In this case, I would say my mother is one privileged women to have had a man who appreciates the little things she do and continues to chase her career aspirations and not feel obligated to do all the housework, child raising alone while working long hours.
This article discusses how families can drive and promote equality in the house, but only if we help them evolve;
https://theconversation.com/families-can-drive-gender-equality-but-only-if-we-help-them-evolve-77546
Moving from my main topic; I am going to briefly reflect on gender inequality in Australian today and women in the workforce who still experience unequal pay for same work roles as their male colleagues.
Thus, Australian women are over represented as part time workers in low paid industries and insecure work continues to be underrepresented in leadership roles in the private and public sectors across Australia. Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014 states that the Australia women do the two-thirds of the unpaid caring and domestic work in Australian households. Women spend almost three times as many hours each week looking after children compared with men. Australian women reached retirement age with an average of 36 per cent or $87,532 less superannuation than men. As a result, women are more likely to experience poverty in their retirement years and be far more reliant on the age pension.
Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014 indicates that Australian women account for 92 per cent of primary carers for children with disabilities, 70 per cent of primary carers for parents and 52 per cent of primary carers for elderly partners. Consequently, this gender role differences places women in an unhealthy and discriminatory environment that affects their long term health and rights. Despite the fact that women encompass approximately 46 per cent of all employees in Australia, they then take home $262.50 less than men each week, regardless of their equal work and educational proficiency. Also, the national gender “pay gap” is 17.1 per cent and it has remained between 15 per cent and 18 per cent for the past two decades in regard to the equal pay policy being in place.
Reflection 5- Week Six "Walking into Doors": The Impact of Domestic Violence on Women Locally and Globally
In this week’s lecture, I have learnt an issue that is deep yet underestimated by many of us which significantly impacts many women across the world today. Domestic violence is a major social issue, and it affects all people no matter what economic, geographical, educational, racial background, social or sexual orientation one has. Domestic violence against women and girls has become a major public health issues, and have serious and long-lasting detrimental consequences for women’s health. It affects all people regardless of their economic, geographical, educational, racial, social or sexual orientation one has or background. Across Australia 1 in 5 Australian women experience sexual violence and 1 in 6 Australian women experience physical from current or former partners.These rates are elevated among certain populations such as women from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and refugees.
Domestic violence does not only affect women alone it does significantly impact men and women equality even though many people find it hard to pick up the signs and symptoms of domestic violence usually when you people realize they have been experiencing domestic violence may feel it is too late to get help or do not want to cause a problem. however, the psychological consequences of domestic violence can have serious physical and mental problems; injuries can include death which impacts all women from different age groups. Reflecting back on this week’s lecture I have never ever have witness domestic violence or had close relationship with people who had experience domestic violence in their life. I yet always criticized, questioned and wondered why some women would still tent to stay with abusive and violent partner when she can simply wake away from such environment.
Upon watching Leslie Morgan Steiner heart-rending Ted talk on “Why domestic violence victims do not leave”. Leslie tells the story of her relationship, correcting misconceptions many people hold about victims of domestic violence, and explaining how we can all help break the silence. It really caught my attention made me realised domestic violence is not an easy subject that many people can talk about or even notice it happening to them when it actually is until it is too late sometimes. In saying that, I was harsh and not realistic to judge quickly and assume topics such as domestic violence can be solved by simply leaving and I was wrong. However, this Ted Talk has changed my perspective as Leslie emphasized the contextual factors and determinants that make women to continuously stay in abusive and violent relationships. This environment makes the victim to feel vulnerable to act on, afraid of what the outcome may be or unable to leave such environment. Also, in many cases the abusive and violent partner continues to stalk, threatened to kill the victim thus to avoid such situations many women feel the need to stay in abusive relationship. Hearing Leslie personal experience with domestic violence the idea of crazy love does surely happen and exist and for that men tent to take opportunity over that to routinely abused and threatened woman’s life. Therefore, we must not take domestic violence as small problem it has been going on for centuries and continue to happen to girls and women in both developed and developing worlds similarly and live in fear.
Leslie Morgan Steiner is the author of "crazy love" domestic violence survivor she shares her personal experience about how she was madly in love with a man who routinely abused her and threatened her life. Steiner tells the story of her relationship, correcting misconceptions many people hold about victims of domestic violence, and explaining how we can all help break the silence.
Understanding why victims stay is important and this article sums up how domestic violence is not something that can be solved overnight yet takes time for more information visit http://www.ncadv.org/learn-more/what-is-domestic-violence/why-victims-stay
REFLECTION 6 – WEEK 7: Women who Love Other Women: The Social Treatment of Lesbians and the Consequences for Health
Marriage equality is a very interesting topic in Australia today and this week’s lecture has touched historical tolerance and social treatment. I personal have minimal knowledge on this topic and it is not something I often explore and I am glad I did this week. Throughout history, homosexuals experienced a significant social and policy issues across the world including Australia. Most historians agree that there is evidence of homosexual activity and same-sex love, whether such relationships were accepted or persecuted, in every documented culture. It is evident that many cultures and religions do not tolerate or welcome homosexuals or lesbian women and this is primarily based on the way they are raised but it is important to acknowledge this issues within our society. In general, I believe women face certain health risks and inequalities. However, sexual minority women those who identify as lesbian or bisexual as well as women who have sex with women, are diverse as the rest of the population, their shared experience of discrimination within the society creates common health issues that hinder the overall health and well-being.
Even though complete social acceptance still remains a major public health issue for lesbian women nonetheless the Australian society generally regards heterosexuality as the most acceptable sexual orientation, which means that women who love other women are often marginalized and discriminated against in relation to their health and well-being. As such, women who love other women encounter barriers to health care that include concerns about confidentiality and disclosure, discriminatory attitudes and treatment, limited access to health care and health insurance, and often a limited understanding as to what their health risks may be. This is mainly generated by social mistreatment and social stress. In saying that, I am not really united with lesbian or had ever had contact with someone who defines themselves as one but I do believe that people should do what makes them happy regardless of their background or gender and lesbian women should not be considered as socially deviant and should enjoy their basic human rights as much as straight woman do and not be excluded from society and public areas.
Lesbian social mistreated is an immense issue which encourages continuous discrimination inequalities against vulnerable members of the community and this places lesbian women as often inferior and seen as unwanted other within society. Despite the increasing social and political advocacy and campaign for the LGBTI community, the lesbian and other homosexuals face a complex range of cultural, social, political, religion and health issues within society. it is evident that same sex attracted young people, violence, and discrimination was also common. A 2010 study of 3134 young Australians found that 61 per cent had suffered verbal abuse because of their sexuality, 18 per cent suffered physical assault and 69 per cent suffered other forms of homophobia. Also, women who love women have increased the risk of mental ill-health and suicidality among LGBTI people is not due to sexuality, sex or gender identity in and of themselves but rather due to discrimination and exclusion as key determinants of health. Homophobia is a fear of and prejudices against people who are perceived to be homosexual or trans respectively, or more generally to not conform to mainstream male or female gender norms. They are often expressed as stereotyping, discrimination, harassment, and violence.
The health impacts of social exclusion and abuse towards lesbian woman include; feeling unsafe, risks of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, suicide thoughts, self-harm, psychological stress, increased unhealthy and risky health behaviour, sexually transmissible diseases such as HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, violence, alcohol abuse and unsafe sexual behaviors.
To emphasise on this topic further this articles summaries the prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian women people face within the society. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2072932/
Reflection 7 Week 8: Mental Health and Drug/Alcohol Use Amongst Women Across the Ages
In this weeks lecture content has highlighted the issue of mental health drug\alcohol use amongst women across the ages in our society today. However, I was astonished when the discussion on men being perceived to be more rational than women emerge and women being illogical and hysterical. This profound content was interesting to understand and learn more about the complexity of mental health and drug\Alcohol use amongst women across the ages. Prior to this detailed lecture I personally thought that women were at greater mental health status than men, however; listening to Julie-Anne’s lecture on the rate of mental issues women face throughout their lives was immense and overwhelming. In saying that, mental health is also an emerging disease amongst Australian women. In 2013, 1 in 4 Australian women experience depression at some stage in their life. Also, women are more likely to suffer from more than one mental illness at a time, which is linked to increased severity of mental illness and increased disability. Australian women also have higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression than men. There is a significant number of women of productive age in Australia experience mental disorder including; depression, anxiety, eating disorder, self-harm, and suicide as well as the range of other issues such as substance misuse, alcohol abuse, and illicit drugs. Also, eating disorder is higher in women due to the pressure to look good and slim as seen in many of social media influences on women’s body. This is a makes a woman to become less confident with their body and take up unhealthy behaviors and get addicted to certain substances.
Reflecting back on mental health drug\alcohol use amongst women across the ages it is evident that depression, anxiety, psychological distress, sexual violence, domestic violence and escalating rates of substance use affect women to a greater extent than men across different countries and different settings. Pressures created by their multiple roles, gender discrimination and associated factors of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, overwork, domestic violence and sexual abuse, combine to account for women's poor mental health. There is a positive relationship between the frequency and severity of such social factors and the frequency and severity of mental health problems in women. Severe life events that cause a sense of loss, inferiority, humiliation or entrapment can predict depression for women. Despite the increasing mental health issues experienced by Australian women across ages, there is significant social support and mental health programs which aim to support women with mental health, drug, and alcohol use to promote better health and reduce their dependence of substance abuse. Nevertheless, to reflect on my recent professional journey, I had the opportunity to travel to Vietnam for professional placement as part of my degree the rates of women with mental crisis I observed was immense in saying that the profession of mental health in Vietnam is underdeveloped and there is very limited mental health awareness programs as well as inadequate social and professional support for women with mental health issues such as postnatal depression, psychosis, anxiety, and other mental health crisis. The lack of effective mental health care for women in Vietnam was confronting and challenging to understanding as people who were suffering from mental health crisis left untreated and their families were put on immense health and economic burden to care for their loved ones. Thus, mental health is a significant issue across the world. For that, despite the increasing rates of mental health drug\alcohol use among women across ages, there is an effective system in place to support and educate individuals and their families compared to developing countries where mental health care is not well established and misunderstood.
Reflection 8 Week 9: The Fashion Industry and Body Image: Impact on Women’s Health
This week’s lecture content was interesting one especially to me, I feel like it was relevant topic that has immense impact on today’s generation, as a woman the fashion industry and body image influences me in some point in my life and this is because today we have reached an age where social media models, magazines and YouTube bloggers influence women’s lives. Many of us follow supermodel on social media we hope in somewhat to figure out how that particular model maintains her figure and looks and this drives many women insane and creates low self and anxiety. For example, women in general are expected by society to look slim yet tanned with perfect hair, teeth, dresses well and live in certain way and many of us do not fit in this category. Thus, the significant pressure to have model type body impacts on women’s health and leads to both poor physical, mental health, substance abuse and eating disorder. For that, the fashion industry culture is overwhelmed with images, websites, magazines, television, and advertising have come to serve as a manual for how we should look, dress and live. The images we see attempt to show us what is desirable to the opposite sex, and how to achieve that look. However, we are not the same. Women, especially, range dramatically in size, shape, and appearance. Throughout life, our bodies are in a constant state of change.The fashion industry in particular perpetuates the that we can, and should appear in a certain likeness to what we see on the page and screen. To reflect in this week’s lecture in-depth two aspects caught my attention was the disorderly bodies and identities. For example, physical factors such as body size and shape, cosmetic surgery and eating disorders, emotional issues, low self-esteem and dysphoria is evident across the contemporary world.
Today we are losing bodies as fast as we are losing language just as English has become the lingua franca of the world, so is the white, blondified, small-nosed, pert-breasted, long-legged body is becoming to stand in for in for the great variety of human body that there are. In saying that, Western beauty ideals actually, man-made western beauty ideals have spread to the rest of the world through globalisation and is now being upheld as models through fashion industry and this immense impact on women’s health. through the ads of beauty and fashion women in general are under incredible pressure to have ideal body. For example, the truth is that female body exists in an infinite variety of sizes and shapes, but in fashion magazines and on the runway only one shape is represented tall and thin. The oversize women are considered unattractive and encourages their engagement with unhealthy and risky health behaviours. Therefore, globalisation and the way American fashion industry and media has been exported to the rest of the world has had a profound effect in the way women all over the world perceive beauty ideals. While it's crucial to remember that negative body image is partially rooted in the global process of capitalism, I believe individuals still have the power to fight back with the notion of fashion industry system which exploits, manipulates and seduces women into hating themselves.
WEEK 10 NO LECTURE MID SEMESTER BREAK
Reflection 9 Week 10: The Health of Australia Women- What are the Key Challenges
Over the years, the prevalence of smoking has decreased to 20% among the general non- Indigenous Australian population aged fifteen years and above. Nevertheless, the smoking rates among Indigenous Australians continue to increase to 47% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population reporting twice high rates of daily smoking. A recent data published by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2012-2013, illustrated that Indigenous women are three times more likely to smoke during pregnancy than non-Indigenous women (Australian Bureau Statistics, 2015). In 2004 about 56% of Indigenous women smoked while pregnant compared to 13% among non-Indigenous women. In addition, 12% of births in the community were low birth weight and 11.7% premature compare with non-Indigenous births 6.2 & 7.2% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015).
I personal believe lifestyle issues such as smoking during pregnancy is normalised tradition and it is acceptable habits in the Indigenous communities. The habit of continuously smoking throughout pregnancy has expanded the impinging culture of smoking among young pregnant mothers with low levels of knowledge which impacts their health and their fetus In saying that, these women face complex range of social, environment and political issue and these are the main determining factors for their smoking behaviors. Also, there is strong culture of smoking among partners, family and friends which has become important social gathering and formation of social relationship with other smokers and cessation leads to sense of social exclusion and isolation. Despite this, there is lack of culturally appropriate and inclusive smoking programs that tackle the multilayered health behavior. Moreover, it is evident that the current smoking strategies in place demonstrate no effect on tackling the alarming rates of smoking among Indigenous pregnant women.The historical and cultural factors which drives their behavior is significantly misunderstood and not examined appropriately to develop strategies that improve their smoking behavior for the long-term.
As a result, these interventions are inadequate in nature and remain targeting the individual lifestyle changes and evaluate short-term influences of health behavior while ignoring other contextual factors which initiate their poor health outcome. To ensure better health outcomes, strategies need to include knowledge and awareness of the history, experience, culture and rights of Indigenous women. To improve these health disparity we need to understand and address the historical, cultural and multilayered influences. It is essential to implement effective community based initiatives which is culturally appropriate and inclusive strategies that target the larger multilayered determinants of smoking during pregnancy. These strategies aim to tailor community needs in order to increase approach ability by including families, individuals, communities and local Indigenous business. To adopt and build multi-level approach to target the contextual factors simultaneously and develop effective strategies that generate supportive environment for community at large.
A culturally appropriate service in Hunter New England Health is committed to providing culturally appropriate care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across all community setting such program understands the multilayered determinants to effectively address the health inequality of Indigenous women.Recent research addressing smoking during pregnancy among Indigenous women sums up this issues very well https://www.researchgate.net/publication /5539499_Indigenous_women_and_smoking_during_pregnancy_Knowledge_cultural_contexts_and_barriers_to_cessation
http://www.ruralhealth.org.au/10thNRHC/10thnrhc.ruralhealth.org.au/papers/docs/Passey_Megan_D9.pdf
Reflection 10- WEEK TWELVE Healthy Ageing for Women
Approximately one third of women do not exercise regularly and over consume high fat and sugar foods and inadequate intake of fruit. As a women and future health professional this topic is very meaningful in understanding healthy ageing for women. Healthy aging for women involves good habits like eating healthy, physical activity and good mental and physical support. In spite of this women can be benefit from number of healthy lifestyle to maintain healthy ageing throughout their life. These include eating healthy balance diet, sleeping well, exercise and physical activity can help you stay fit and strong. It is important that for women to work with her healthcare provider to manage health conditions like diabetes, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure. Also, healthy behaviour seeking such as doing regular health screenings is important way to help recognize health problems. It is important ask the healthcare provider which health screenings are right for women and find out how often she should get screened.
To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world's "Blue Zones," communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. In his talk, he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.
Thanks to Julie-Anne for a wonderful semester! This unit has prepared me to acknowledge significant social and health inequalities that contemporary women face across lifespan and has truly inspired me to further explore and understand women's health issues and how we can better manage and improve these issues
Your biological clock doesn't give a #@$! about your caree