Chapter 6 166 Table 3. Continued Gender Stereotype or Norm Expressed by men/ women Level(s) of social manifestation Exemplar Quotes Women physicians should be emphatic Women Ideological / Interpersonal I notice with doctors and health care providers; some are more empathetic than others. And when I tell of the experience with two neurologists, they think the empathetic doctor was the woman and the non-empathetic doctor was the man. But it was exactly the other way around. So the stereotypes are there too ... I also think maybe as a woman you appreciate more if a man is empathetic to you and a woman you expect it maybe more. Yes, I don’t know, if I look at myself then yes, I do appreciate that yes. SPR Then if that woman as a doctor is not empathetic, I think it’s almost worse. SPR That’s what you say too, yes that you actually expect it. SPR I find that so bad that I don’t go there anymore.” [Women] Men should be good sexual partners Men Ideological “But I think then, that’s also something I just heard, performing, it also belongs to ‘sexual performing’ in quotation marks. Not that I experience it that way, but that is also something that is very important for men often and for men in general. That you are good at sex so to speak.” [Man] *SPI = Interviewer, SPR = Respondent(s) Among the women with PD, the gendered stereotype of “Women are the family carers” was related to the normalisation of women being the household- and informal caretakers. Women indicated that the performance of these roles can mask difficulties with PD-related symptoms observed by others due to their continued participation in these activities and social roles. Women described themselves as adaptive by having various compensation strategies to juggle the challenge of performing multiple social roles whereas it was generally viewed that men would ask for- and receive help sooner. The belief that “Women should look friendly” was related to how changes in body language, posture, and facial expressions due to PD symptoms resulted in stigmatising experiences for some women, as women are often socially expected to be more emotionally and nonverbally expressive. One group of women also expressed the stereotypical idea that “women physicians should be empathic” and that women physicians might face stronger social criticism, also by their own gender peers, when they are not considered ‘empathic enough’.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw