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- Title
Labeling Patient (In)Competence: A Feminist Analysis of Medico-Legal Discourse.
- Authors
Secker, Barbara
- Abstract
The article investigates the potential for gender and other biases in the medicolegal discourse of patient competence. Competence or incompetence is not simply an intrinsic feature of patients but rather is determined at least partially by social factors. North American society is an aging society. Moreover, there is a significant imbalance in male/female populations. These demographic trends are significant because old people--a growing population, a majority of whom are women--are often subject to Western society's ageist myths and stereotypes which cast them, en masse, as senile and thus incompetent. The case of Mrs. G. illustrates how poverty, alienation and lack of both formal and informal supports for elderly people can bear on competence assessments. Of special significance here, given that mental competence and rationality are conflated, is the fact that psychologists attributed traits of overemotionality and irrationality to the adult female sex role. Women who are socialized into and adhere to a rigidly defined gender role may lack experience in activities deemed to fall outside the scope of the feminine role, for example, activities in the traditionally male-dominated domains of business and finance. This may lead to their ignorance and inexperience in this area being labeled incompetence.
- Publication
Journal of Social Philosophy, 1999, Vol 30, Issue 2, p295
- ISSN
0047-2786
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.1111/0047-2786.00019