Systematic Patriarchy: A Social Determinant of Gender-Based Discrimination Interacting with Child Development and Mental Health

Abstract

The systematic oppression of women and gender-based discrimination has deep roots in human civilization. As evident in both written texts and widespread practices, conscious and unconscious biases associated with patriarchy have been—and continue to be—interlaced with power struggles, control, and conformity enforced by the male-dominant cultures of the time. Brought into bold relief in this pandemic, recent dramatic events (the tragic murder of George Floyd and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, for example) have heightened social outrage against bias, racism, and bigotry and have also brought us to an inflection point demanding our better understanding of the pernicious and long-term mental health effects of patriarchy. There are compelling grounds to further expand their construct, but efforts to do so in psychiatric phenomenology have, until now, failed to gain momentum and substantive attention. The resistance may in part lie in misconceptions that patriarchy is supported by archetypal endowments of the collective unconscious constitutive of shared societal beliefs. While many continue to live with the adverse experiences associated with patriarchy within the current times, critics have argued that our concepts about patriarchy are not empirical enough. Empirically supported deconstruction is indeed necessary to debunk misinformed notions that undermine women’s equality.

The Impact of COVID-19 Related Distress on Antenatal Depression in Australia

“…Part of this may be because there are more systemic issues at play impacting women, which umbrella above the individual psychosocial and demographical characteristics of women. This would suggest that the impact of the pandemic on women’s mental health is influenced not only by individual characteristics and experiences, but also by more systemic issues such as the influences of patriarchy and capitalism that are known to negatively impact women [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ].…”