A masculine perspective of gendered topics in the research literature on males and females with intellectual disability

Abstract

Background A focus on male social pathologies may have evolved within parts of the intellectual disability research literature. This article explores this notion and makes some connections between mainstream gender theory about hegemonic masculinity and the current gendered discourse in intellectual disability research.

Method We conducted a thematic analysis of all journal article titles from four prominent intellectual disability journals where “man,” “woman,” “men,” “women,” “male,” “female,” “girl,” and “boy” were mentioned in the title.

Results Thematic differences were identified between articles that focused on males or females, with less research attention on male health compared with female health. A strong focus was evident on problematised male sexual behaviour.

Conclusions There is a distinct difference evident between articles that problematise males and articles for females encouraging health promotion that suggests a disparate focus on male social pathologies. A deeper contextual analysis of unique sex differences in research is proposed.

Keywords:

• misandry
• gender
• masculinity
• disparity
• health
• intellectual disability
• female
• male

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the three reviewers whose comments on the first draft of this article were particularly incisive and subsequently improved the argument and structure of the article.