Gendering Women Identity and Mental Wellbeing through the Lifecourse

• Main Author: Clisby, Suzanne (auth)
• Other Authors: Holdsworth, Julia (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Policy Press 2014
• Subjects: Gender studies, gender groups; Social Science; Gender Studies
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

An account of how constructions of femininity fundamentally affect women's mental wellbeing through the life course. Led by women's life history accounts of growing up and growing older in the north of England, this book shows how experiences of becoming and being a woman - in family life, education, employment, motherhood and situations of violence - both enable and erode self confidence and esteem. The challenges to women's mental wellbeing cut across age and class differences and have profound impacts on the material conditions of women's lives throughout the life course. This is in turn a driver of inequality that is often under-recognised in mainstream policy.