Problems Faced by Breastfeeding Women
- Interference with social life.
- Biases against them breastfeeding in public.
- Misconceptions about breastfeeding
- Health issues like cracked or inverted nipples.
Important Terms in the Study
- Paternalistic Prejudice: reflects a desire to domesticate and exploit a low status group; these paternalistic stereotypes about competence serve as explanations that legitimize the status difference favoring the dominant group.
- Perceived Competence: an individual's belief in ability to learn and execute skills.
- Objectification Theory: a framework for understanding the experience of being female in a culture that sexually objectifies the female body.
- BIAS Map: predicts that emotions more strongly and directly predict behaviors because they mediate the link from warmth and competence judgments to behaviors.
These are the main findings of the three studies.
- Breastfeeding mothers are seen as incompetent when compared to other categories of women.
- Breastfeeding mothers are victims of "passive harm".
- In one study, the breastfeeding mother was excluded from a potential job.
- Negative perceptions were often equal to the perceptions elicted by the sexualized breast.
- Mother's breasts are viewed as instruments (objects) and sexual conflation of the maternal breast resulted in negative views of the mother.
Study 1 Findings
Warmth of a breastfeeder was higher, but with lower levels of competence.Study 2 Findings
Breastfeeding women were treated similarly to a woman with a sexualized breast.Study 3 Findings
Women who breastfeed were less likely to be hired in this study.
About the Author
Jessi L. Smith.
Jessi L. Smith is a Professor of Psychology and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University
of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
Dr. Smith’s research specializes in social psychological aspects of gender and culture that
advance the success of marginalized and minoritized people within the spaces they learn, work, and live.
She has over 70 peer reviewed publications and one book to her credit.
She is dedicated to reshaping structures to positively impact research motivation and ensuring the highest level of integrity, inclusion, and ethics.
Other resarch by this author
- Appealing to faculty gatekeepers: Motivational processes for intentions to adopt an evidence-based intervention. (2022)
- The “gift” of time: Documenting faculty decisions to stop the tenure clock during a pandemic. (2022)
- The Reproducibility Movement in Psychology: Does Researcher Gender Affect How People Perceive Scientists With a Failed Replication? (2022)
- Department leaders as critical conduits for the advancement of gender equity programs. (2022)
- “Broad” Impact: Perceptions of Sex/Gender-Related Psychology Journals. (2022)
- Social influences of interest: Conceptualizing group differences in education through a self-regulation of motivation model.(2019)
Why is Breastfeeding Important?
It's inexpensive, it is healthy for both mother and child and it is natural!