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Both sexes want more women in construction and a more family friendly workplace

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Both sexes want more women in construction and a more family friendly workplace

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Very few women work construction. It is a male-dominated field due to the idea that men are stronger and more capable as well as the fear associated with joining a construction company as a woman due to the large male population. The statistics in this article are reflective of the social construction of gender.

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Despite being qualified to operate a range of heavy equipment and having almost two decades of experience, when Samantha Fratus walks on to a site, builders are often surprised by what they see.

The slight-framed, 36-year-old - who goes by "Sam" instead of "Samantha" when applying for jobs - stands out in the male-dominated construction industry.

However, once she's settled onto an excavator, directional drill or forklift, she's right at home.

"You name it. Put me on it. I'll operate it," she said.

In fact, she's so comfortable with her role in civil construction that she often encourages other women to join the sector, calling up girlfriends to see if they can fill in when an extra body is needed on site.

As she sees it, the construction sector offers plenty of work and pays well.

However, despite a skills shortage in construction right across Australia, the number of women on the tools has remained low.

University of Melbourne Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning's Natalie Galea said the industry's hyper masculinity was only part of the problem.

The 50-to-80-hour work week was also a big factor.

"It very much assumes the person [who's] doing the work has no care responsibilities or has someone doing those care responsibilities for them," she said.

Family unfriendly workplaces

In 2021, 10 per cent of construction managers were women, up from 7 per cent in 2016.

That looks set to continue to rise, given official data shows the number of women with qualifications in Building Construction Management has doubled since 2016.

However, census data shows only 1 per cent of plumbers, concreters, roof tilers, bricklayers and carpenters are female.

Ms Fratus thinks cheaper, more flexible child care would make it easier for women to take up and retain jobs in construction.

The mother of six says she typically works from 7am to 5pm. School typically operates between 9pm and 3pm.

"You've got to either have good people to look after your children or pay a lot of money for child care," she said.

Luke Allman works as a site manager on commercial construction sites and agrees the industry is not family friendly.

His wife takes their son to and from daycare every day because she works flexible hours, while he often works from 5:30am to 5pm.

Their son starts primary school next year and Mr Allman would like to make things easier for his wife and play a bigger role in his son's life, but his long hours make that challenging.

"To be able to be a part of that process would be really nice," he said,

"It's important for him to see his dad take the time to drop him off and pick him up from school."

More women better for all

The construction sector is the fourth-largest employer in Australia, offering nearly 1.2 million jobs.

However, despite the size of the workforce, the psychological well-being of people in the industry is a cause of ongoing concern.

According to research conducted at Melbourne University's Centre for Health Equity, male construction workers die by suicide at a rate about twice that of other male workers.

Dr Galea said the industry's suicide rate was not surprising.

"These long work hours, they bleed over into people's family life and that produces stress, poor work-life balance, relationship breakdowns," she said.

"Construction workers are six times more likely to kill themselves than die from a workplace accident."

Dr Galea said the current work practices in the construction sector were not just limiting women's participation, but also affecting men's health.

She thinks efforts to change the industry to accommodate more women would also make it a better place for men to work.

Mr Allman agrees.

He said the long hours and early starts would be difficult to change but having more women in the industry would help it move towards more flexible working arrangements.

"It would make us change our perspective on how we work and the hours that we do work," he said.

A different perspective

To attract more women into the industry, Dr Galea thinks the sector needs to address its sexist culture and work much harder at putting its best foot forward.

She said few people outside the industry knew how well it paid, and there was little appreciation of how deeply social work sites were.

"If you're a social person, you'll probably thrive in that environment," she said.

Ms Fratus agrees that it can, at times, be challenging to work in a male-dominated environment, but also that construction sites have a great sense of community.

"Whether it's boys or the girls, everyone's got each other's back," she said.

"We all just want to go home safe at the end of the day."

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Both sexes want more women in construction and a more family friendly workplace

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Despite being qualified to operate a range of heavy equipment and having almost two decades of experience, when Samantha Fratus walks on to a site, builders are often surprised by what they see. The slight-framed, 36-year-old - who goes by "Sam" instead of "Samantha" when applying for jobs - stands out in the male-dominated construction industry.

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On twitch, the majority of viewership is located in a section called just chatting. Navigating to this section displays mainly women in suggestive clothing who are talking to chatters. The social construction of gender is that by wearing loads of makeup and scandalous clothing, they will accumulate more money as there is such focus on female attractiveness. This supports the social construction of gender, as women are objectified and seen as something to look at rather than people.

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Twitch is an interactive livestreaming service for content spanning gaming, entertainment, sports, music, and more. There's something for everyone on Twitch.

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How Katniss is the Traditionally Masculine one in The Hunger Games

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How Katniss is the Traditionally Masculine one in The Hunger Games

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In the Hunger Games series, Katniss is a female identifying person who takes on the traditionally masculine role of hunting when her father dies, as well as saving the male protagonist, Peeta, throughout the books. She is an opposition to the social construction of gender.

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In Fifty Shades of Grey, the social construction of gender is the basis of the entire story.  It takes the idea that women are traditionally more submissive, while men take on a dominant role, to frame the entire story. It romanticizes the thought of a dominant man coming in to save a women from all her problems while also dominating her. This story is a classic representation of the social construction of gender.

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The button is a YouTube show where people are put in a room across from each other with a button in the middle. At any point, the button may light up red and a person may press it to move on to a different potential partner. In this episode, the contestants are blindfolded to try and stray from the idea that connection is mainly about physical attraction. This contestant subverts this requirement by hugging the other person to determine their size. Because the social construction is that women have to be thin to be attractive, if he feels the person is overweight, he immediately buzzes. His views on weight and its correlation to female attractiveness are a product of the social construction of gender.

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Guy on Dating Show Rejects Everyone He Thinks is Fat

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The Land O Lakes company removed the Native American from the logo of their products after over 100 years. This change was made in response to the idea that using Native Americans as mascots or logos was oppressive and made light of the plight they have endured for centuries. This change challenges oppression by stopping the association of an oppressed people with butter.

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This study of a college campus found that there was a distinct lack of gender-neutral bathrooms in comparison to female and male gendered bathrooms. This is oppressive to people who do not identify as a specific gender or those who are uncomfortable using the bathroom associated with their selected gender. It also displays privilege for those who identify as cisgender as they have access to more bathrooms because of their identity. This article reinforces oppression against people who are not cisgender.

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Most people believe that a bathroom should not be a site of stress. However, for many or trans and nonbinary people, the search for the "correct" bathroom is its own struggle.

Lil Bresee, the president of SUNY Oswego's LGBT club, Pride Alliance, said they feel "better off" using gender-neutral bathrooms because of the privacy and comfort they offer. Still, Bresee said there are not enough gender-neutral bathrooms on campus.

"If they were more frequent, I would just use them," Bresee said. "Instead, I choose to get over myself and use whichever room I pass for. But that's not right either."

There are four residence halls with gender-neutral bathrooms: Scales Hall, Waterbury Hall, Funnelle Hall and Riggs Hall. Riggs Hall has only two unmarked gender-neutral restrooms in the basement which are not mentioned on the school website. Excluding residence halls, a tour of the campus found six gender-neutral bathrooms: three in Mary Walker Health Center, one in Penfield Library, one in Tyler Hall and one in Marano Campus Center. The bathroom in MCC, however, is in an obscure area by Swetman Gymnasium behind another door.

Many faculty and student leaders vocalize support for trans-inclusivity. However, some people on campus find ways to express their disapproval. Facilities Services received many reports of menstrual product dispensers in male and gender-neutral bathrooms being found vandalized.

The university asks students to contact Title IX coordinator Lisa Evaneski if they believe they were discriminated against or harassed in a campus bathroom.

"I think everybody should be able to go to the bathroom where they feel comfortable," Evaneski said. "I think that's the most basic human need to be able to do that."

Evaneski said that there are students who have gotten urinary tract infections from waiting to get to a building with a gender-neutral bathroom. For students on hormone therapy, she said, this can cause additional issues.

The planning committee for the Hewitt Hall renovation approved of featuring gender-neutral bathrooms on every floor.

Broadcasting professor Michael Riecke is the representative of the School of Communication, Media and the Arts for the renovation. Riecke supported the inclusion of gender-neutral bathrooms.

"The days of a men's room and a women's room exclusively are behind us," Riecke said.

The plans included one pair of gendered bathrooms on the first floor. The planners made the decision to be welcome to those who are unfamiliar with gender-neutral bathrooms.

"It's a hard transition for people who have lived their entire 50, 60, 70 years of life looking for [a gendered] symbol in front of the bathroom door," Riecke said.

Evaneski recognized that these changes may be too slow for some students.

"They have a commitment to make these bathrooms more inclusive in the future, but they might not get to a building for three or four years," Evaneski said. "I think for students especially, they want it done now while they're still here."

Evaneski assured, however, that the university is "doing the best we can."

In June 2021, the SUNY Board of Trustees issued a resolution authorizing "all public single-occupancy bathroom facilities at each state-operated institution shall be designated as gender neutral for use by no more than one occupant at a time or for family or assisted use."

In most renovations since 2015, Facilities Services upgraded single-occupancy bathrooms to be gender-neutral. However, many single-occupancy bathrooms on campus, such as in Tyler Hall, are still gendered.

Last semester, the university's Office of the President formed a committee dedicated to inclusive practices for LGBT students. The committee included bathroom changes and pronoun guides in their agenda.

In December 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Assembly Bill A5420 which required all single-occupancy bathrooms in public spaces to be labeled gender-neutral.

Photo by: Evan Youngs

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Lack of gender-neutral bathrooms creates concerns for transgender inclusivity

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Most people believe that a bathroom should not be a site of stress. However, for many or trans and nonbinary people, the search for the "correct" bathroom is its own struggle. Lil Bresee, the president of SUNY Oswego's LGBT club, Pride Alliance, said they feel "better off" using gender-neutral bathrooms because of the privacy and comfort they offer.

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This video has a couple each going for runs at night and comparing their experiences. The man describes his experience as normal and ordinary, while the woman explains that she was running with a group due to the fear of being alone. She then goes into a tangent of a time where she had parked her car and was going to her apartment and was approached by an inebriated man who followed her to her apartment. She describes the fear she felt being alone, especially with a stranger following you. This video reinforces the idea that cisgender men have more privilege, as they do not have to be afraid when alone at night.

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A Man And A Woman Compare Running Alone At Night

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This study was conducted to determine the bias associated with people of Asian descent when compared to others from a hiring perspective. It found that people with Asian surnames were much less likely to get a callback or an interview than white surnames with the same experience. This reinforces the idea that white people have privilege, and that Asian people are oppressed.

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The TV show Survivor is very popular and has been for a long time.  As the show enters season 41, CBS announced that the show will attempt to feature at least 50% Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). This is a large step into normalization for mainstream media. This decision challenges oppression and white privilege by diversifying the TV show cast.

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Update On Survivor Seasons 41/42 and Beyond - Inside Survivor

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All the latest news and rumors on filming, casting, and location news for Survivor seasons 41, 42, and beyond.

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This tool allows one to examine how the average wages of multiple genders and races compare. According to the collected data, Women in general make less than men, but specifically Black and Hispanic women make less than White and Asian women. This is an example of how the intersectionality between gender and race can affect the amount of money one can earn.

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Earnings and earnings ratios by sex, race, and occupation group

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The movie Hairspray has many examples of intersectionality. One such example is that the star of the movie is an overweight white woman who is initially rejected from a spot as a dancer due to her size. This is an example of intersectionality between weight and gender. She is initially discriminated against because she is a large woman, but once she proves herself to be a good dancer, she is accepted.

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The idea behind Missing White Woman Syndrome is that females who are white and of upper or middle class are more covered by media than others in the event of a disappearance.  The intersectionality of race, gender, and class influence the amount of attention paid to a missing person.  For example, this article examines the coverage of two women, Natalee Holloway, a white woman, and LaToyia Figueroa, a pregnant black Hispanic woman. Figueroa disappeared in Philadelphia in 2005, the same year Holloway disappeared, yet Holloway received more media coverage.

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Missing white woman syndrome is a term used by social scientists and media commentators to refer to extensive media coverage, especially in television, of missing person cases involving young, white, upper-middle-class women or girls. The term is used to describe the Western media's[citation needed ] disproportionate focus on upper-middle-class white women who disappear, compared to coverage of missing women of color, women of lower social classes and missing men or boys. Although the term was coined in the context of missing person cases, it is sometimes used of coverage of other violent crimes. Instances have been cited in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa.

PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill is said to be the originator of the phrase. Charlton McIlwain defines the syndrome as white women occupying "a privileged role as violent crime victims in news media reporting", and concludes that missing white woman syndrome functions as a type of racial hierarchy in the cultural imagery of the West. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva categorizes the racial component of missing white woman syndrome as a form of racial grammar, through which white supremacy is normalized by implicit or even invisible standards.

Missing white woman syndrome has led to a number of right-wing tough on crime measures that were named for white women who disappeared and were subsequently found harmed. In addition to race and class, factors such as supposed attractiveness, body size and youthfulness function as unfair criteria in the determination of newsworthiness in coverage of missing women. News coverage of missing black women was more likely to focus on the victim's problems, such as abusive boyfriends or a troubled past, while coverage of white women tends to focus on their roles as mothers or daughters.

A study of news coverage of missing children found that African American missing children cases were significantly underrepresented when compared to national statistics. Female missing children were significantly underrepresented in national news reporting. The coverage of death cases for African American boys was significantly greater than expected. Coverage of non-African American female kidnapping cases was greater than expected. A subsequent study found that girls from minority groups were the most under-represented in these missing-children news reports by a very large margin.[citation needed ]

Zach Sommers, a sociologist at Northwestern University, noted that while there is a sizable body of research that shows that white people are more likely than people of color to appear in news coverage as victims of violent crime, there is relatively little when it comes to missing persons cases. In 2013, Sommers cross-referenced the missing persons coverage of four national and local media outlets against the FBI's missing persons database. Sommers found black people received disproportionately less coverage than whites and men received disproportionately less coverage than women; Sommers could not directly assess the number of missing white women in the FBI files due to how the data was structured but concluded that there was circumstantial-although not statistically conclusive-evidence that white women received disproportionate coverage. In the same study, professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva theorised that the subtle standard of placing a premium on white lives in the news helps to maintain and reinforce a racial hierarchy with whites at the top. For example, black women are members of both a marginalized racial group and a marginalized gender group. Crucially, though, black women have an "intersectional experience [that] is greater than the sum of racism and sexism". In other words, like white women, black women are subject to sexism, but the form of that sexism differs for black women because of the compounding effects of racial discrimination; with missing white woman syndrome being a pertinent manifestation of this social phenomenon. Some sociologists have argued that the tone of media coverage for black female victims differs markedly from coverage of white female victims in that the former are more likely to be blamed for purportedly putting themselves in harm's way, either knowingly or unknowingly. Victim blaming in this context reinforces the notion that black female victims are not only less innocent, but also less worthy of rescue relative to white women. Other observers note the lack of publicity given to black female victims of police brutality in news coverage, attributing the silence to a tradition of "sexism and patriarchy" in American society.

A report that aired on CNN noted the differences between the level of media coverage given to Caucasian women like Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in 2002 and 2005 respectively, and LaToyia Figueroa, a pregnant Black Hispanic woman. Figueroa disappeared in Philadelphia the same year Holloway disappeared. Figueroa and her unborn daughter were found murdered. The San Francisco Chronicle published an article detailing the disparity between the coverage of the Peterson case and that of Evelyn Hernandez, a Hispanic woman who was nine months pregnant when she disappeared in 2002.

Kym Pasqualini, president of the National Center for Missing Adults, observed that media outlets tend to focus on " damsels in distress"-typically, affluent young white women and teenagers.

In a 2016 article about the disappearance of Tiffany Whitton, journalist Tom Junod observed that white women of lower social status such as Whitton, a 26-year-old unemployed drug addict who was on parole, do not get much media attention as "media outlets are ruthlessly selective, and they tend to prefer women who are white, pretty, and, above all, innocent." Whitton's mother stated that producers of shows like Nancy Grace told her they weren't interested in her daughter's case. Dr. Cory L. Armstrong wrote in The Washington Post, "the pattern of choosing only young, white, middle-class women for the full damsel treatment says a lot about a nation that likes to believe it has consigned race and class to irrelevance."

According to a study published in The Law and Society Association, aboriginal women who go missing in Canada receive 27 times less news coverage than white women; they also receive "dispassionate and less-detailed, headlines, articles, and images".

In January 2006, the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, accused the media of 'institutional racism' in its reporting of murders. He contrasted the reporting of the death of the male white lawyer Tom ap Rhys Price with the murder of the male Asian builders' merchant Balbir Matharu. He said 'murders in minority communities do not seem to interest the mainstream media'. He said that the death of Damilola Taylor (a 10-year-old black boy) was clearly an exception to this. He said he had been surprised at how much coverage the murders of two 10-year-old white girls in Soham had received. He did not mention any white women.

University of Leicester Criminology Professor Yvonne Jewkes cites the murder of Milly Dowler, the murder of Sarah Payne, and the Soham murders as examples of "eminently newsworthy stories" about girls from "respectable" middle-class families and backgrounds whose parents used the news media effectively. She writes that, in contrast, the killing of Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old boy from Nigeria, initially received little news coverage, with reports initially concentrating upon street crime levels and community policing in London, and largely ignoring the victim. Even when Damilola's father flew into the UK from Nigeria to make press statements and television appearances, the level of public outcry did not, Jewkes asserts, reach "the near hysterical outpourings of anger and sadness that accompanied the deaths of Sarah, Milly, Holly, and Jessica". However, according to the BBC, the killing of Damilola Taylor had shocked the UK.

Two cases of missing white girl syndrome that have been given as contrasting examples: the murder of Hannah Williams and the murder of Danielle Jones (both were white). It was suggested that Jones received more coverage than Williams because Jones was a middle-class schoolgirl, whilst Williams was from a working-class background with a stud in her nose and estranged parents. Another explanation for the difference in the coverage has been given: the eroticisation of the victim by news reports about a sexual relationship between Jones and her murderer (who was her uncle).

Sandile Memela, chief director for social cohesion at South Africa's Department of Arts and Culture, noted amidst the Oscar Pistorius trial that there existed substantial differences between how media outlets reported on the murders of Reeva Steenkamp and Zanele Khumalo; two South African models, respectively white and black, who had been murdered by their boyfriends under nearly identical circumstances. Memela asserted that the discrepancy between the media coverage of the Steenkamp and Khumala murders amounted to " structural racism" within South African society, and stated: "As a country we seem to have chosen to ignore the agony, pain and suffering of the Khumalo family for no other reason than that they are black."

On September 11, 2014, the South African news network SABC3 aired an investigative report which raised concerns around the "Missing White Woman Syndrome"; where the death of Steenkamp was juxtaposed with the death of Zanele Khumalo.

Jessica Lynch

Social commentaries pointed to media bias in the coverage of soldier Jessica Lynch versus that of her fellow soldiers, Shoshana Johnson and Lori Piestewa. All three were ambushed in the same attack during the Iraq War on March 23, 2003, with Piestewa being killed and Lynch and Johnson being injured and taken prisoner. Lynch, a young, blonde, white woman, received far more media coverage than Johnson (a black woman and a single mother) and Piestewa (a Hopi from an impoverished background, and also a single mother), with media critics suggesting that the media gave more attention to the woman with whom audiences supposedly more readily identify.

Lynch herself leveled harsh criticism at this disproportionate coverage that focused only on her, stating in a congressional testimony before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary. People like Lori Piestewa and First Sergeant Dowdy who picked up fellow soldiers in harm's way. Or people like Patrick Miller and Sergeant Donald Walters who actually fought until the very end. The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales.

Presumed kidnapping of "blonde angel" in Greece

In October 2013, a girl estimated to be about 4 years of age was found in the custody of a Roma couple in Greece and was presumed to have been abducted. The story about the "blonde angel" and the search for her biological parents received international media coverage. A Romani rights activist commented on the case to say "imagine if the situation were reversed and the children were brown and the parents were white." The child was later identified as Maria Ruseva. Her biological mother was a Bulgarian Roma who gave Maria up for adoption.

Murder trial defendants

Critics have also cited excessive media coverage of murder trials where the defendant is female, white, young and attractive, and included them along with Missing White Woman Syndrome instances in an all-encompassing narrative nicknamed the "woman in jeopardy" or "damsel in distress" genre. In such cases, the media will focus on the accused, rather than the victim as in Missing White Woman Syndrome cases, and they will be more ambiguous about their guilt than in other criminal cases regardless of evidence. Cited examples include Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony.

The following missing person cases have been cited as instances of missing white woman syndrome; media commentators on the phenomenon regard them as garnering a disproportionate level of media coverage relative to contemporary cases involving missing girls or women of non-white ethnicities, and missing males of all ethnicities. The date of death or disappearance is given in parentheses.

February 27, 1992

Kimberly Pandelios

A 20-year-old woman who disappeared after leaving to respond to a model-wanted ad at the Angeles National Forest. The case was publicized in a 1995 episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

September 24, 1992

Dail Dinwiddie

A 23-year-old college student who disappeared after attending a U2 concert. She remains missing.

November 16, 1995

Linda Sobek

A 27-year-old model and former Los Angeles Raiders cheerleader who disappeared while on assignment. Salacious details of the case were printed in the national media. Her murderer was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

June 23, 1997

Kristen Modafferi

An 18-year-old college student who disappeared from the San Francisco Bay Area and remains missing. Her disappearance, just 3 weeks after her 18th birthday, helped to establish Kristen's Law and the National Center for Missing Adults.

January 10, 2002

Rachel Cooke

A 19-year-old college student who disappeared while jogging. Her disappearance was publicized nationally, but she is still missing.

March 21, 2002

Amanda "Milly" Dowler

A 13-year-old girl who disappeared after school. Her remains were found after an extensive six-month search, and the case played a significant role in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

June 5, 2002

Elizabeth Smart

A 14-year-old girl, missing for 9 months after being in captivity. Her captor was sentenced to life in prison.

August 29, 2002

Audrey Herron

A 31-year-old woman and mother of three who disappeared after leaving work.

December 24, 2002

Laci Peterson

A 27-year-old pregnant woman murdered by her husband. The case led to the implementation of "Laci and Connor's Law", which defines violence against a pregnant woman as violence against two separate legal subjects (the mother and the unborn child).

March 23, 2003

Jessica Lynch

A 19-year-old Private First Class injured and taken prisoner at the Battle of Nasiriyah.

November 22, 2003

A 22-year-old student who was found murdered. Her murderer was convicted, and the case prompted the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry.

March 27, 2004

Audrey Seiler

A 20-year-old college student who was found alive after an extensive search; it was later revealed she had fabricated the incident.

July 19, 2004

Lori Hacking

A 27-year-old woman murdered by her husband.

May 30, 2005

Natalee Holloway

An 18-year-old high school senior who disappeared in Aruba and remains missing. She was declared legally dead on January 12, 2012.

May 3, 2007

Madeleine McCann

A 3-year-old girl who disappeared from her parents' hotel room during a family holiday in Portugal. Described by The Daily Telegraph as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".

February 9, 2009

Haleigh Cummings

A 5-year-old girl kidnapped from her father's trailer in Satsuma, Florida.

October 5, 2009

Aisling Symes

A 2-year-old girl who disappeared from her home in Auckland, New Zealand. She was feared abducted but her body was found in a drain near her home a week later, and it was determined that she was the victim of accidental drowning after wandering off from her mother's side while she was carrying out household chores. Tim Hulme, writing for The Sunday Star-Times, surmised that age was a much greater factor than race or class in the extensive media coverage the case garnered.

July 16, 2018

Mollie Tibbetts

20-year-old who disappeared while jogging near her home in Brooklyn, Iowa. Her body was discovered over a month later on August 21.

October 15, 2018

Jayme Closs

A 13-year-old girl was abducted from the Barron, Wisconsin home of her parents, both of whom were killed during the incident. She escaped her captor 88 days later.

December 1, 2018

Grace Millane

A 22-year-old British tourist from a wealthy family who disappeared while visiting New Zealand. Her body was discovered in a rural area of Auckland just over one week after she went missing. A man was subsequently convicted of her murder.

The following missing person cases have been expressly compared to contemporary missing person cases labeled as examples of "Missing White Woman Syndrome", in order to highlight differences in coverage between them. The date of death or disappearance is given in parentheses.

Name

Description

Case contrasted with

Source(s)

Unknown

Srey Nath

A 15-year-old Cambodian student lured to Thailand with a job offer and enslaved in a Malaysian brothel. After escaping with three other girls and reporting to police, she was jailed for a year for illegal immigration and subsequently deported to Thailand, where she was sold to another brothel.

Jaycee Dugard

1993 - ongoing

Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez

Over 800 violent deaths of women and girls in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez.

Natalee Holloway

April 1, 2001

Hannah Williams

A 14-year-old London working-class girl with a history of running away from home, who disappeared during a shopping trip. Her body was discovered a year later during the search for a middle-class missing girl, Danielle Jones, and most of the (scarce) coverage Williams received was early speculation about the possibility of her body being Jones's.

Danielle Jones

May 3, 2002

Alexis Patterson

A 7-year-old African-American girl who disappeared after being dropped off at her Milwaukee, Wisconsin elementary school, just one month before Elizabeth Smart was abducted in Utah; her case received only a small fraction of the media attention given to Smart's. No trace of Alexis has ever been found.

Elizabeth Smart

Alex Hernandez

March 23, 2003

Lori Piestewa

A 23-year-old United States Army soldier, of Hopi descent and a single mother, killed at the Battle of Nasiriyah.

Jessica Lynch

February 25, 2005

Donna Cooke

A 23-year-old prostitute found strangled in Lake Thonotosassa during the search for Jessica Lunsford. Coverage of the then unidentified woman was reduced to the Sheriff reassuring viewers, "it is not our girl" (meaning Lunsford), which was denounced as "dehumanizing" by critics. Cooke's murder remains unsolved.

Jessica Lunsford

July 18, 2005

Latoyia Figueroa

A 24-year-old, five months pregnant Afrolatina waitress (and already a single mother) who disappeared in Philadelphia after leaving a prenatal care session. Her remains were discovered in Chester, Pennsylvania one month later.

Natalee Holloway

January 8, 2009

Oscar Garcia-Calles

Two Salvadoran brothers aged 16 and 14 who disappeared while traveling to Green Brook, New Jersey. Possibly abducted by an unrelated adult male.

Danielle van Dam

Samuel Garcia-Calles

Jessica Lunsford

April 29, 2009

Shalomiel Solel

A 3-year-old African-American boy abducted by his non-custodial parents from Carson, California. Found undernourished and living on the streets with his parents in New Orleans, in March 2011.

Caylee Anthony

October 1, 2009

Srikanth Rayadurgam

A 23-year-old Indian student disappeared in Auckland, New Zealand. Rayadurgam's family denounced that a Wellington team originally assigned to investigate his disappearance was redirected in short notice to Henderson in order to assist on the search of 2-year-old Aisling Symes.

Aisling Symes

May 30, 2010

Stephany Flores

A 21-year-old Peruvian business student murdered in a hotel room by Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect of the Natalee Holloway case.

Natalee Holloway

July 5, 2016

Manuela Chavero

A 42-year-old woman who disappeared in the early morning from her home in Monesterio, Extremadura, Spain; she left the TV on, her cell phone in the kitchen, and her pants on the bed.

August 25, 2016

Iván Durán

A 30-year-old man from Baiona, Galicia, Spain disappeared 3 days after Diana Quer.

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Missing white woman syndrome is a term used by social scientists and media commentators to refer to extensive media coverage, especially in television, of missing person cases involving young, white, upper-middle-class women or girls.

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A personal example of intersectionality is that between gender and ADHD diagnosis. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 4 years old, but it took until my girlfriend was 19 for her to receive a diagnosis, even though we had similar symptoms. The main difference between genders in the diagnostic process is that males are more likely to be disruptive, leading to further testing. Females may experience the same exact other issues, but the disruptiveness leads to many more diagnoses than without. This is an example of the intersectionality between gender and ability leading to Females with ADHD being less likely to receive help than males.

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People of different genders experience ADHD in unique ways, but further studies are still needed to uncover exactly why and how.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects people of all gender identities, but ADHD impacts folks of each gender differently.

While ADHD appears to be more common in males, females are often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed due to differences in symptoms.

Understanding the gender differences in ADHD may help you become more aware of how symptoms present among women and girls versus men and boys.

Is ADHD more common in males or females? This answer is tricky.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 12.9% of men and boys live with ADHD compared to 5.6% of women and girls.

But women and girls may be affected more than these statistics suggest.

"ADHD is just as prevalent in girls but is underdiagnosed due to different factors," says Julia Edwards, a licensed mental health counselor and an ADHD-certified clinical services provider in Iowa.

"Boys and men are more likely than girls and women to be referred for services, even when their symptom profiles are exactly the same," says Edwards, noting that this leads to higher diagnosis rates among boys and men.

A 2019 study suggests that ADHD diagnosis may be more easily missed among females during the diagnostic process.

Females are also less likely to be prescribed medication and receive a diagnosis because they don't typically display the disruptive external symptoms associated with ADHD.

Based on Edwards' experience living with ADHD and working with folks who have it, she's noticed that different rates of diagnoses are often attributed to factors like cultural and gender biases and expectations.

Due to a lack of education on ADHD in women and girls, Edwards says they're more likely to be improperly diagnosed with other mental health conditions like:

"For adults, the diagnosis process can be complex because it has to be very thorough," Edwards says. "The later in life people try to seek a diagnosis, the more they have to take into consideration comorbidities, trauma, medical conditions, etc."

Edwards notes that a mental or medical health professional will typically refer someone for ADHD testing. Then they'll undergo a thorough psychological interview and various cognitive testing exercises to try to receive a diagnosis.

"The age of onset of ADHD symptoms is typically before the age of 12, but it can be as early as 2 to 3 years old," Edwards says.

She notes that boys tend to show an earlier onset than girls because of the presentation of symptoms.

A 2021 study on adult-onset ADHD suggests that symptoms that present later in life could be due to childhood symptoms that weren't addressed by a medical professional, among other factors.

Edwards says that ADHD is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition, which means that people don't "grow out of it." But symptoms can change over time, especially with an early diagnosis and proper treatment.

"When untreated, symptoms can intensify during the teenage years because of hormones," Edwards adds.

For example, changes in estrogen can affect the intensity and presentation of ADHD symptoms at different stages of life, such as:

Edwards has noticed that the diagnosis rate in women (between the ages of 30 to 45) has been rapidly increasing, particularly in recent years due to pandemic-related changes in structure and environment.

"As a therapist specializing in adult ADHD, about 90% of my ADHD clients are women who've been diagnosed later in life," she adds.

ADHD symptoms differ depending on a person's gender, age, and other factors.

"I personally don't believe that there are no significant differences in the symptoms between men and women," Edwards says.

"What's different are the behaviors and presentation of the same symptoms because of the structural and functional differences between the male and female brain," she says.

ADHD symptoms in women and girls

According to Edwards, women are less likely to be externally hyperactive and impulsive than men. She notes that internal hyperactivity in women can be in the form of overthinking, intrusive thoughts, and negative self-talk.

Other internalized symptoms of inattention, distractibility, and hyperactivity among women and girls with ADHD may include:

maladaptive daydreaming

anxiety

depression

spacing out during conversations

easily losing focus

auditory processing disorder

forgetfulness

eating disorders

hypersexuality

impatience

body-focused repetitive behaviors (e.g., skin picking, hair pulling, leg bouncing)

fatigue

insomnia

crying with deep emotion, anger, and feelings of guilt and shame

shyness due to social anxiety and sensory sensitivities

They may also experience the following symptoms of rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD):

ADHD symptoms in men and boys

On the other hand, men and boys with ADHD are more likely to show external behaviors like:

hyperactivity (e.g., fidgeting)

disruptive behavior

frequently losing items

interrupting others during conversations

aggressive behaviors

high risk behaviors (e.g., substance misuse, speeding, unhealthy sexual behaviors, excessive financial spending)

Edwards notes that RSD can present among men in the same intensity as women. Men can also experience low self-esteem and insecurities, but most of the time it's externalized as:

anger

apathy

self-centeredness

seeming insensitive to other people's emotions

teasing others or being sarcastic

needing to be right or proving others wrong

defensiveness

Edwards notes that heightened emotions or emotional dysregulation for males can look more like temper tantrums and anger outbursts, too.

"There are many men who are emotionally sensitive, and because of gender bias, they [experience] shame for being in touch with their emotions instead of meeting society's expectations of 'being tough or strong,'" Edwards says.

People of different genders experience ADHD in unique ways.

Yet further studies are still needed to uncover exactly how ADHD impacts men, women, and other gender identities. More research can help to increase education, remove stigma, and improve treatment for those who live with ADHD and are looking for help.

If you're curious about ADHD symptoms and how they may impact you based on your gender, consider speaking with a therapist.

"An early diagnosis means prevention of future complications," Edwards says. "But the ultimate goal regardless of age and gender is to improve quality of life and having the emotional freedom to be our true selves."

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ADHD in Women vs. Men: How Prevalence and Symptoms Differ by Gender

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People of different genders experience ADHD in unique ways, but further studies are still needed to uncover exactly why and how. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects people of all gender identities, but ADHD impacts folks of each gender differently.

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Rosa Parks was a black female who took a stand against segregation in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. Her intersectionality as a black and female person led to discrimination on multiple fronts. By refusing to give up her seat, she challenged the discrimination associated with her intersectionality.

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The Women's March, which began in 2017, is a series of rallies and protests that takes place around the world to advocate for gender equality, reproductive rights, and social justice. The Women's March is an example of feminist praxis because it brings together women from diverse backgrounds to advocate for a common cause.

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In the past few years, several countries have implemented restrictive abortion laws, sparking protests and advocacy efforts. Feminist praxis involves advocating for reproductive rights and fighting against policies that restrict access to abortion.

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The Black Lives Matter movement, which began in 2013, is a social justice movement that advocates for the recognition and value of Black lives. The movement focuses on ending police brutality, promoting racial justice, and supporting the Black community. The Black Lives Matter movement is an example of feminist praxis because it recognizes the intersectionality of race and gender in the experiences of Black women.

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The #MeToo movement, which gained momentum in 2017, is a social media campaign that encourages survivors of sexual assault and harassment to share their stories. The #MeToo movement is an example of feminist praxis because it empowers survivors to speak out against their abusers and creates a space for healing and solidarity.

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Feminist praxis involves advocating for the rights and inclusion of transgender individuals. This might involve supporting policies that protect transgender individuals from discrimination, educating communities about transgender issues, and centering transgender voices in feminist organizing.