Читать книгу Counseling the Contemporary Woman - Suzanne Degges-White - Страница 6

Adrienne N. Erby

Women Are the Sum of Many Diverse Parts

Throughout the lifespan, women and girls receive explicit and implicit messages about the value and roles they hold in society. These messages are heavily shaped by cultural values; however, it is also important to recognize that many of these cultural values are steeped in systems of oppression, including sexism, genderism, patriarchy, and androcentrism (Singh & Mingo, 2018). These intertwined systems of oppression directly and indirectly affect people of all genders, setting standards, rules, and norms about gender identity, expression, and behavior. Gender typing begins early in development as children are socialized into a gender binary that gives differential value to boys and girls while overlooking nonbinary and gender-variant identities entirely. Children quickly associate behaviors with gender and assign value based on the gendered norms and ideals that pervade all aspects of society, from preschool teachers to mass media (Comstock, 2005). The “feminine ideal” typically refers to a narrow, culturally laden visage of valued womanhood, encompassing both appearance and behavior. An online search for stock photos using the phrase “all-American girl” yielded results of mostly white, thin, young, able-bodied, feminine women with flowing blond hair. This image is often set as the standard for women, creating a restrictive lens through which all women are evaluated and most often found wanting. These images belie the breadth of women’s diversity and communicate clear cultural messages about American womanhood.

Given this context, it is not surprising that women and girls as well as transgender and gender nonconforming individuals in the United States face unique physical and mental health risks connected to gender-specific issues such as gender conformity, role overload, and body image (American Psychological Association [APA], 2018; Crissman, Stroumsa, Kobernik, & Berger, 2019; Glynn, Maclean, Forte, & Cohen, 2009). These and other issues of health information, health-care access, and health risks are identified for women and girls around the globe. Women are disproportionately impacted by sexual violence and intimate partner violence, as well as health and income disparities (APA, 2018; James et al., 2016; Planty, Langston, Krebs, Berzofsky, & Smiley-McDonald, 2013; Singh & Mingo, 2018; Vardeman-Winter, 2017). Even within these issues, there is considerable intragroup (i.e., within-group) variation that is not strictly dichotomous. To provide effective counseling, counselors must understand women’s experience and issues through a multifaceted lens that fully embraces cultural diversity and complexity.

Sue and Sue’s (2013) tripartite model addressing individual, cultural, and universal factors provides the most comprehensive frame of personal identity, in which all individuals, in many respects, are (a) like no other individual, (b) like some individuals, or (c) like all other individuals (p. 41). First, individual uniqueness entails factors specific to the individual, such as genetic specificity, convergence of multiple social identity groups, and lived experience. As each woman’s experience differs from all other women’s experiences, understanding the individual is fundamental to ethical counseling practice. But individual experience does not occur in a vacuum; rather, experience is influenced and shaped by a cultural and sociopolitical context that all people are affected by and contribute to. Cultural identity reflects the most complex element of identity, including areas of shared identities and experiences, such as being Southeast Asian or being a woman. Within these cultural groupings, there is still wide variation and overlap that cannot be conceptualized in an additive form. As Bowleg (2008) stated, “Black + lesbian + woman ≠ Black lesbian woman,” suggesting that shared membership in each group does not result in a uniform experience. Lastly, universal dimensions of identity include factors common to all people, such as the ability to use symbols and experience emotions. It is at this universal level that counselors initiate the professional relationship, demonstrating respect and value for each person on a human level. From this point, counselors build knowledge and understanding of cultural and individual identity. The challenge for counselors is attending to all domains of identity and recognizing that each is influenced by regional, national, and global contexts that socially locate identity and experience. In this chapter, the cultural domain will be emphasized, specifically examining cultural complexity, identity salience, identity convergence, and sociopolitical context in counseling women.