Making Sense of Troubled Livelihoods

Gendered Expectations and Poor Health Narratives in Rural South Africa

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2368435
AutoresErin Ice (0000-0001-5806-1509, University of Michigan, autor correspondente), A Mojola (0000-0002-2610-2625, Princeton University), Sanyu A Mojola, Nicole Angotti (0000-0002-9206-5914, American University, USA), Francesc Xavier Gómez-Olivé (0000-0002-4876-0848, University of the Witwatersrand), Brian Houle (0000-0003-2157-3118, The Australian National University, Australia)
Ano2022
Volume36
Fascículo5
Páginas735-763
Data de publicação2022-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGender & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0891-2432 • E-ISSN: 1552-3977
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/08912432221114877
OpenAlexW4287307764
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas82

When men and women cannot attain idealized gendered forms of economic provision and dependence, how do they make sense of this perceived failure? In this article, we posit that poor health narratives serve as a gendered tool to make sense of inadequate livelihoods, even when that inadequacy is attributable to structural conditions. We draw on survey and life-history interview data from middle-aged and older rural South Africans. The survey data show that even after adjusting for biometrically measured health differences, working-age (40-59 years) men report poorer health when they are unemployed, and women (age 40+) and pension-age men (age 60+) report poorer health when they live without household earners. Life-history interviews show parallel patterns: When their economic circumstance is not troubled, individuals regularly minimize health concerns; conversely, when they have a troubled livelihood, individuals draw on poor health to explain it. When women and men cannot perform idealized gendered practices in the family, poor health becomes a tool to reduce the resulting cognitive dissonance. Poor health narratives recast perceived gender failures to an individualized, biological explanation. Our study illustrates how the epidemiological context can be a resource that forestalls a redefinition of gender norms when the gender order is in crisis

Cognitive dissonance · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Livelihood · Narrative · Sociology · Gender Studies · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Psychology · Social Psychology