This book integrates the role of gender in girls' and women's development across the life span, looking specifically at internal and external vulnerabilities and risks, and the protective or supportive factors that facilitate effective coping, positive growth, strength and resilience. The interaction between physical, psychological, and cultural factors is integrated within each period of development. The book emphasizes how gender socialization of female development and behavior impacts self-evaluation and identity processes within various cultural groups. The authors also discusses the social roles that girls and women reflectively adopt and describe how externally induced risks such as poverty, interpersonal abuse, and violence influence a healthy development.
Women today are in a situation where both the monetary and human effects of stress take their toll as women face unprecedented pressures in accommodating the demands of home and career and personal family stresses that often result. In addition to this, while women are prone to the same stressors as men, they are confronted with potentially unique physical and psychological stressors of their own. They may also become stress “carriers” as in the abusive husband and unfair boss relationship. Ironically, despite these differences women live longer than men, although collectively they are reported to have more symptoms, illnesses, intake of drugs and doctor-hospital visits. This book by a pioneer in stress research presents an essential analysis of this subject.