Researchers have developed a unique measure of calculating economic, cultural, and political dimensions that are called “structural heteropatriarchy,” intertwined with oppression that operates at multiple levels to benefit men and heterosexual individuals; it expands on current research on structural cross-section.

Measures include state-level LGP policies, family planning policies and funding streams, and indicators of structural sexism (e.g., the political and economic status of women compared to men). Birth results were obtained from four wave data from a National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

There is growing evidence that structural sexism and structural discrimination against women and LGB populations are associated with worse health outcomes. It is known that exposure to discrimination and stress can negatively affect birth outcomes.

“Our study goes beyond the individual experience of discrimination to look at how systems of oppression reinforce each other and result in poor birth outcomes,” says Philbin, an assistant professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia Mailman. “A pregnant person need not identify or ‘feel’ their heteropatriarchal environment as potentially detrimental for that pregnancy to be negatively impacted.”

Structural heteropatriarchy can restrict access to reproductive health care or shape the type of care provided; it can restrict access to socioeconomic opportunities, and it can shape terms and expectations related to reproduction — all of which can contribute to adverse birth outcomes.

An example can be found in the notion that the woman’s role is that of a mother married to a man; structural heteropatriarchy creates a system that enforces that rule (e.g., by prohibiting abortion, same-sex marriage or adoption).

Access to family planning is strongly linked to birth effects. People often avoid having children for reasons related to birth defects, including financial insecurity, mental health issues, and abusive partnerships. People terminate pregnancies due to health problems directly related to the pregnancy.

The researchers found no statistical differences between how heteropatriarchy was affected in terms of individuals’ sexual identities; all pregnant women had adverse effects of heteropatriarchy at birth. This suggests that the negative effects of heteropatriarchy can “leak” and affect individuals who are not the target of these policies. For example, heterosexual women may be negatively affected by circumstances that have greater restrictions on LGBT rights as part of a system that reinforces sexism and heterosexism.

Future research should examine the impact of heteropatriarchy on additional health effects, along with other structural imbalances such as racism, immigrant-related stigma, and transgender oppression.

The first author was Bethany G. Everett, University of Utah, Salt Lake City and co-authors are Aubrey Limburg, University of Colorado Boulder, and Patricia Homan, Florida State University, Tallahassee.

This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (grant HD091405) and the Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America (AG045061-06) from the National Institutes on Aging. Philbin was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (grant DA039804A).

Source: Medindia