Thoughts & Feelings area
This area, more than any of the others, is associated with women's feelings of sadness or depression.
This is likely because several of the questions on the Inventory in this area, are concerned with how society determines women should behave, which in turn interacts with what women think and feel about themselves.
These questions, just like all of the others, came from women themselves in the original research.
A societal expectation is that women put others first, usually the care of children and other family members, and themselves last.
Most women try to be the selfless superwoman or 'good woman', who puts her own needs on the backburner, with the hope that there will be some time left at the end of the day to do what she needs for herself. Unfortunately, this usually doesn't happen. What does happen is women become exhausted trying to meet the needs of everyone else and in the end don't know what they want for themselves anymore because it's been so long since they had any time for themselves.
Most women are aware that this is going and know they're in a double bind. They may have tried to change things so there is a bit more time for themselves, only to find that the expectations of others always win out.
This can lead to women feeling resentful, unhappy and stuck in an unfair situation which they cannot change. What is needed is more reciprocal caring, or a rebalancing so that a woman can self-care more.
It's important that women don't blame themselves if this situation has happened and realise that the unspoken rules of society which commits them to self-sacrificing, whilst caring for everyone else first, are very strong.
Women who try to be different and self-care, run the risk of being called selfish or worse.
There was a very strong link between all of the questions in this area and depression for those women in the research.
In other words, being a 'good woman' in our society is not good for your health!
There are also women who may not necessarily be investing all of their time caring for other people, but are working very hard in a career or profession because they feel a real pressure to do so if they are to keep the job or to progress. This is also connected to what's termed the 'gender gap' where women earn roughly 80% of what men earn for the same work.
As well there are many women who try to combine both roles, who are totally exhausted managing the household as well as paid work outside of the home. Managing the household is traditionally seen as a woman's job even when she has paid work outside of the home.
So if you have a high score in this area, it is reasonable to assume that you are caught up in being the 'good woman' and self-sacrificing your own needs, just like women in our society are expected to do.
Can you do anything about it?
Before you think of changing anything, you need to realise that there are strong forces that will try to pull you back into self-sacrificing ways.
Others who benefit from your caring ways, won't be happy if you make changes and decide to take some time for yourself.
Once again, in this area, you may need to find yourself a supportive counsellor to talk with and help you work out if there is anything you can change.
This area naturally interacts with the Relationships area as well as the Community area.
All of the areas interact together to make up the combined map of your sadness or depression. Depression for women is as much socially constructed (by rules society imposes) as it is connected to the physical, the relationships and the community areas.
You can find out more about this area as well as the others by downloading the eBook which will be available shortly.
