Women, Violence and Mental Illness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Women, Violence and Mental Illness - Essay Example The continued exclusion of women as equal to women has become one of the primary factors that have contributed to women’s experience of violence in the home (Sokoloff and Dupont, 2005). Although there is already a rising awareness of violence against women, fact remains that almost a 12.9 million of women have experienced domestic violence in UK (Walby and Allen, 2004). In addition, 44% of victim of domestic violence are involved in more than just one (Dodd et al, 2004) and that women are assaulted by men they know (Walby and Allen, 2004). These data only represent the reported violence committed against women. It is assumed there are still more cases left undocumented because violence is generally perceived as underreported (Flink, Paavilainen, and stedt-Kurki, 2005). In this scenario, the continued experience of violence against women is an attestation of the unremitting struggle of women for inclusion in the public sphere (e.g. Jaggar & Young 2000; Tong 2000). In this conte xt, this study will attempt to address the issue of how socio-political factors influence mental health. Several identified socio-political factors affect mental health.... Intimate partner violence includes physical and sexual violence, threats of violence and psychological and emotional abuse. The perpetrator may be a current or former spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or dating partner (Watts and Zimmerman, 2002). Numerous studies have shown that women abused by partners or by other perpetrators are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, headache, gynaecological and sexual problems, PTSD, eating and digestive disorders, infections, musculoskeletal disorders, and chronic pain; they are more likely to attempt suicide, to abuse alcohol and legal and illegal drugs (Campbell, 2002; Koss et al., 2003; Krug et al., 2002). Battered women or women suffering from violence are also women subjected to psychological illness or distress. In this situation, women become the â€Å"embodiment of a â€Å"problem† which must be resolved or eliminated† (Tremain, 2008, p 102). Gender as a factor that affects mental illness increases the stigma of menta l illness, widens, and deepens the experience of discrimination and injustice, if it is experience by a woman. As such, women become more isolated and left voiceless because socio-political factors have become the instruments that perpetuate her continued oppression and dehumanisation as she suffers from. It is a triple burden that women carry alone and in isolation for, they have become â€Å"the deviant Other which in turn eliminates the possibility of mutuality (Stocker, 2001, p 49). The Woman’s Voiceless Call The life of a woman is permeated by concerns associated with psychiatric disorders, from her menstruation, through her pregnancy, in her post-partum period until her menopause (Kornstein and Clayton 2002). Prejudice and stereotyping are typically associated and created base on the gender