Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
History
First Advisor
Joseph Tinguely
Second Advisor
Zoli Filotas
Third Advisor
Susan Puumala
Keywords
Otherization, Healthcare, Gender Discrimination, Hegel, Beauvoir
Subject Categories
Feminist Philosophy | Medical Humanities | Philosophy
Abstract
Healthcare interactions are a core feature of medical practice and medicine cannot function without these relationships. Moreover, the physician-patient relationship within healthcare have revealed varying problems that arise within the interpersonal interactions. These problems were even more concerning when they showed gender discrimination occurring within medical interactions, such as workplace discrimination of female physicians, higher risk of misdiagnosing and mortality of female patients, and an overall medical culture that invalidated women. Understanding the extent of these problems was achieved through analyzing philosophical structures presented within the philosophical writings of G. W. F. Hegel and Simone de Beauvoir. Application of Hegel’s master-slave dialectic revealed how viewing individuals as an “other” can result in a concept known as otherization. Otherization was analyzed within healthcare through gender-based stereotyping and dehumanization of individuals. Simone de Beauvoir took this general concept of how individuals are viewed as the other and specifically analyzed the structure in relation to gender. This application was achieved through applying the master-slave dialectic idea to the dialectic occurring between men and women, with women taking up the placement of the other. Women’s placement within this dialectical structure was an answer to the problems of gender discrimination occurring in healthcare.
Recommended Citation
Beare, Rachel M., "Otherization and Healthcare: A Philosophical Analysis of Gender-Based Discrimination in Medicine" (2024). Honors Thesis. 320.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/320