Social determinants of health are essentially anything socially related that can have a huge impact on one’s health, including inequality and poverty. These social determinants are just the basic building blocks that eventually lead to greater effects on one’s health and even population. These could include drugs, social support, food, transportation policy, etc. If these aspects are left untreated, they could lead to addiction, social exclusion, or stress that eventually lead to a huge impact on health (Wilkinson 2003). One social determinant of health that has affected women in China greatly is the aspect of gender. Gender expectations in this country are leading more and more women to committing suicide, increasing the suicide rate between women and men.
In China, women have an important role to carry within society as they are expected to have a full time job, take care of their family, and still do all household duties (Weiyuan 2009). As you can imagine all of this with little to no help would be very stressful to someone’s mind and body. This continued expectation can cause a lot of anxiety or even social isolation that could build so much over time that it could increase early death or even poor mental health (Wilkinson 2003). The woman mentioned in the article “Women and Suicide in Rural China”, sadly mentions that there is a popular saying “one – to cry; two – to scream; and three – to hang herself” when it comes to a woman’s problems (Weiyuan 2009). This belief that women cannot escape their home life or to get help for their mental illness is very concerning from an outside view. As mentioned in my previous essays, this pressure that is constantly put on Chinese women leads to higher rates of mental health, like depression, that is left untreated and can build up enough to lead someone to end their own life.
However, the amount of duties women are forced to uphold are not the only reasons for their poor mental health. In fact, due to the beauty standards for their gender, they are expected to achieve a lot of unattainable images, such as being very thin. Eating disorders in China have grown a significant amount in the last decade due to the increasing popularity of being slim. This is much different than what the beauty standard was a few decades ago as being plump or having fuller faces was considered the beauty norm for women (Jung 2018). In the article “Young Women’s Perceptions of Traditional and Contemporary Female Beauty ideals in China”, the author Jaehee Jung suggests that this increase in unrealistic body standards may even be due to the increased opportunities for women that, in return, have threatened the patriarchal system (2018). I agree with this because people in China are very comfortable in this societal system and if this is threatened, alike all things that have been in place for a long time, they need some way to keep it in place as these unrealistic standards of that a woman should be like has done here.
To conclude, the huge amount of pressure put on women for an unrealistic body or how to take care of their family is what pushes a lot of women to give up and commit suicide. These unrealistic gender expectations put a lot of stress on their mind and body and essentially becomes too much to handle. If these women were born a man, they would probably not have the same amount of pressure put on them just for the gender they identify with. Overall, this social determinant I have identified as gender, has forced these women’s mental health to become so bad, that without treatment or change, they look to suicide.
Works Cited:
Jung, J. (2018). Young Womens Perceptions of Traditional and Contemporary Female Beauty Ideals in China. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal,47(1), 56-72. doi:10.1111/fcsr.12273
Weiyuan, C. (2009). “Women and Suicide in Rural China.” World Health Organization. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87.12: 888-9. ProQuest.
Wilkinson, R. (2003). The Solid Facts: Social Determinants of Health. WHO Regional Office for Europe.