Thesis
Estoy luchando (I am fighting/struggling): Machismo and distress among rural Guatemalan women
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102051
Abstract
In rural Guatemala, gender inequality and social suffering lead to internalized distress among women. With very few health-related resources available, understanding the psychosomatic symptoms of and factors contributing to such distress is critical for offering practical solutions to reduce trauma and poor mental health. In this thesis, I draw from ethnographic fieldwork conducted from May to August 2015 in a developing rural Guatemalan community. I conducted 25 semi-structured qualitative interviews with adult women, interviews with community leaders, participant-observation, and informal interviews. I performed eighty household surveys and psychometric models of distress. I argue that various behaviors rooted in machismo ideology negatively affect indigenous K'iche' women's mental health. Women offer male behaviors as problems including alcoholism, control over household income, extramarital relationships and promiscuity, prohibiting women from leaving the household, prohibiting women from working, and control over household decision-making. Women experienced a number of syndromes that indicated distress. I argue that women experience these "idioms of distress" because of social suffering pertaining to their position within the gender hierarchy in Guatemala. I discuss the actions women take to mitigate distress symptoms, including taking medications, and, under extreme circumstances, receiving psychological and legal assistance from officials at a governmental agency. I also offer recommendations for future work on the association between structural violence, social suffering, gender relations, and women's mental health.
Metrics
63 File views/ downloads
95 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Estoy luchando (I am fighting/struggling)
- Creators
- Caitlynn Caroline Carr
- Contributors
- Robert J. Quinlan (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525191801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis