Gender Bias in Families and Its Clinical Implications for Women

Within the framework of feminist theory, this clinical study of 45 women with brothers explores family-based gender bias and elucidates its role in the lives of women. Bias is conceptualized along three dimensions: (1) devaluation--the woman perceives that she was less valued by her parents than a brother; (2) abuse without redress--the woman reports that she was abused by a brother and perceived herself as unable to get redress from her parents; and (3) deprivation--the woman perceives herself to have been deprived of resources or privileges that a brother had. The author identifies several legacies from the girlhood experience of gender bias that may be associated with depression in women: involvement in demeaning intimate relationships; self-doubt about competence in comparison with males; an isolating distrust of relationships; and the sacrifice of personal and relational development to serve parents and compensate for problematic brothers. Components of treatment are the therapist's self-awareness of int ernalized sexism; the questioning of client beliefs, based on sexist assumptions, that devalue women; and expanding women's perceived range of choice for improving their lives. Key words: depression; feminism; psychotherapy; sexism; siblings; women The women's movement has dramatically changed how Americans think about gender, although, just as the civil rights movement did not end racism, women's liberation has not ended sexual inequality, even within families. Sexual inequality still occurs between husbands and wives and also reveals itself in the differential ways that parents treat male and female children. This clinical study focuses on the second form of inequality: on parental bias that puts daughters at a disadvantage. Research and clinical theory affirm the existence of parental attitudes and behavior that discriminate against girls. According to psychological studies of nonclinical samples, parents treat daughters differently than sons: they criticize and interrupt daughters more than sons; restrict their independence more; react more negatively to their emerging sexuality; and assign them more household chores (Bronstein, Duncan, Frankowski, Piendiadz, & D'Ari, 1992; Cowan, Cowan, & Kerig, 1993; Goodnow, 1988; Steinberg & Steinberg, 1994). Fathers spend more time with sons and report feeling closer and happier than with daughters (Lamb, 1986; Larson & Richards, 1994). In a large-scale survey of adult females, 83 percent of those with brothers who were questioned about "who had been treated better" within their families -- themselves or their brothers--said that "their mothers had often been 'nicer' to their brothers and had granted more freedom and privileges to their brothers" than to them (Hite, 1994, p. 171). Among families with daughters and no sons, parents are more likely to divorce than in families with sons (Morgan, Lye, & Cond ran, 1988). Even before birth, girls appear to be at a disadvantage. Although parental preference for male children in China and India has been well-publicized, a prenatal preference for boys exists in the United States as well, albeit to a diminishing and lesser extent than in developing countries. When surveyed, most Americans express the wish that their first child be a boy and that there be a predominance of males if they want more than two children (Steinbacher & Ericsson, 1994). Women are twice as likely to give girls up for adoption as boys (Lewin, 1992). Clinical theory and research also support the concept of gender-related bias within families. As long ago as 1939, Karen Homey recognized that the existence of parental "preference for a brother" was "one of the many factors impressing on the female child the feeling that she is inferior" (p. 70). Homey identified parental preference for male children as belonging "to the pattern of a patriarchal society" and linked that pattern to female vulnerability. …