Catalina Ramirez
Timothy K. Dalton
Narrative Medicine 10113
November 9, 2023
“Gender Disparities in Healthcare: Extending the Feminist Lens of Care”
Anny Miner’s poem, “Gender Disparities in Healthcare,” provides a deeply personal account of her journey through a healthcare system that failed to address her medical needs adequately. The emotions, normativity, and gender disparities that underpin Miner’s narrative are revealed through a feminist lens of care. Her story, which spans the majority of her life coping with never finding relief, reflects the pain and emotion of being a female patient undiagnosed for several years just as thousands of women worldwide are also not diagnosed due to a lack of feminist based healthcare. This lens allows us to understand how Miner’s experiences illustrate the importance of the right affect in care, the normativity of care, and the significance of examining and taking seriously women’s lives within the healthcare system. Within the works Feminist Ethics of Care by Jean Keller and Eva Feder Kittay and “Gender Disparities In Healthcare” by Anny Miner, it can be seen that the poem by Miner extends the theoretical framework in Keller and Kittay’s work how it provides worldly testimony to the arguments made in Feminist Ethics of Care, as Miner’s experiences demonstrate the pain and emotion of being a female patient undiagnosed for several years, where she was not properly given care through a feminist lens until she endured 16 years undiagnosed.
Miner’s poem vividly portrays her experiences of enduring severe pain, fear, and suffering during the years when she remained undiagnosed. She describes a “sharp stabbing pain between [her] shoulder blades that felt like an ice pick” and the distressing physical changes in her body. Her vivid recounting of her emotional and physical anguish echoes the sentiments expressed in Keller and Kittay’s quote: “Care done without the right affect, such as love and empathy, is often not experienced as care at all.” The concept of care as presented by Keller and Kittay emphasizes the importance of emotions, empathy, and the right affect in the caregiving process. It highlights that care goes beyond mere task performance, extending into the emotional connection between the caregiver and the care recipient. When care lacks love and empathy, it risks coming across as mechanical and insincere, failing to offer genuine support to the person in need. Miner’s story vividly illustrates the emotional dimension of caregiving. Her poem reflects the emotional toll of not receiving the care she needed, especially as a female patient. The emotional pain and fear she endured while being dismissed by healthcare providers is a stark example of care done without the right affect. Her experiences amplify the significance of emotions in caregiving, as the absence of empathy and understanding can lead to pain, fear, and mistrust. This instance in Miner’s narrative extends the discussions in “Feminist Ethics of Care” by offering a real-world testimony to the arguments made by Keller and Kittay. Miner’s experiences reveal the consequences of care lacking the right affect, emphasizing the critical importance of empathy and emotional connection in the caregiving process.
In addition, Miner’s poem further reveals the challenges she faced in seeking a proper diagnosis. Healthcare providers repeatedly dismissed her symptoms, attributing them to psychological or gender-related factors, which closely aligns with Kittay’s quote: “Kittay (2014) asks, is care that is not taken up as care by the cared for, normatively speaking, care at all?” The quote from Kittay approaches care from a normative perspective, raising questions about the nature of care and its moral and ethical criteria. It emphasizes the need for care to be recognized and accepted by the cared-for to be considered normative and ethical. In Miner’s case, her care was not recognized, nor was it taken up as care by her healthcare providers who attributed her symptoms to psychological or gender-related factors. Miner’s narrative underscores the consequences of care not being normatively recognized. Her experiences challenge the conventional notions of care, where her needs were dismissed, leading to misdiagnosis and prolonged suffering. Due to a lack of concrete data giving reason as to why she was enduring pain, her doctor dismissed her suffering several times, even attributing her ailment to anxiety or her imagination. The dismissive approach she encountered from healthcare providers raises important questions about the normativity of care in the context of gender disparities in healthcare. Miner’s story extends the feminist ethics of care by emphasizing the need for care to be genuinely recognized and accepted by the cared-for. Her ordeal calls into question the validity of the arguments made by some healthcare providers and demonstrates the harm that can result when care is not taken up as care by the cared-for.
Furthermore, Miner’s poem serves as a compelling example of the importance of examining and taking seriously women’s lives within the healthcare system. Her experiences reflect the gender disparities and disbelief that she faced, as her symptoms were frequently dismissed, and misdiagnoses prevailed. These experiences echo the sentiments expressed in Keller and Kittay’s quote: “Furthermore, care became an important concept by examining and taking seriously women’s lives.” The quote highlights the significance of recognizing and valuing women’s experiences, particularly in relation to caregiving and nurturing roles. It underscores the unique perspective that women often bring to the understanding of care, given their historical roles in caregiving. Miner’s narrative demonstrates the challenges women face when their healthcare needs are not taken seriously, and their pain is dismissed as psychosomatic or gender-related. Miner’s story extends the feminist perspective within the ethics of care by emphasizing the importance of women’s experiences in reshaping attitudes and expectations related to care and gender. In exploring a second opinion, it was a female doctor that was the first to actually listen to her testimony. This doctor was the first to show empathy to Miner and finally give Miner her long awaited diagnosis, only midway through the consultation. It is saddening that it was only when Miner met with a female doctor that she was finally understood. However, stigmas around female patients still persist in the form of internalized sexism even in female doctors, and it only takes an open mind willing to listen for female patients to be heard and properly treated equally. Her experiences as a woman in the healthcare system reveal the need for healthcare providers to listen to and acknowledge the unique health challenges faced by women.
In conclusion, Anny Miner’s poem, “Gender Disparities in Healthcare,” offers a compelling real-world testimony that aligns with and extends the theoretical framework of feminist ethics of care presented by Keller and Kittay. Miner’s experiences vividly illustrate the consequences of care lacking the right affect, the normativity of care not being recognized, and the significance of examining and taking seriously women’s lives within the healthcare system. Her story reinforces the critical importance of empathy, emotional connection, and recognition of women’s experiences in providing gender-sensitive healthcare. Miner’s narrative calls for continued research, advocacy, and gender-sensitive healthcare practices to bridge the gap in women’s health, and it emphasizes that listening to women’s voices is essential in redefining and improving care in the healthcare system. In Anny Miner’s poem, we find a powerful reminder of the value of the feminist lens of care in healthcare and a call to extend and strengthen the principles of care for all individuals.
Works Cited:
Keller, Jean, and Eva Feder Kittay. “Feminist ethics of care.” The Routledge Companion to
Feminist Philosophy, 2017, pp. 540–555, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315758152-44.
Miner, Anny. “Gender Disparities in Healthcare by Cedars-Sinai and Patients – Gender
Disparities in Healthcare by Cedars-Sinai and Patients.” PoemHunter.Com, 11 Mar. 2021, www.poemhunter.com/poem/gender-disparities-in-healthcare-by-cedarssinai-and-patients/.
