Gendered racism and the sexual and reproductive health of Black and Latina Women

ABSTRACT

Objective: To understand health disparities, it is important to use an intersectional framework that examines unique experiences of oppression faced by particular groups due to their intersecting identities and social positions linked to societal structures. We focus on Black and Latina women and their experiences with ‘gendered racism’ – unique forms of oppression due to the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender – to foster understanding of disparities between Black and Latina versus White women in sexual and reproductive health outcomes in the U.S. Specifically, we focus on stereotype-related gendered racism (ongoing discrimination and stereotype threat based on historically-rooted stereotypes about Black and Latina women's sexuality and motherhood) and birth control-related mistrust (ongoing mistrust of the government and medical system related to birth control due to historical and current abuses).

Design: We analyzed data from two survey studies with adult women in New York (Study 1: paper-and-pencil community data collection, N = 135, M_age= 43.35) and across the U.S. (Study 2: online data collection, N = 343, M_age= 29.49) who were currently pregnant or had at least one child and identified as Black, Latina, or White.

Results: Black and Latina women reported greater frequency of and concern over stereotype-related gendered racism (F(3,131) = 17.90, p < .001 Study 1; F(3,339) = 22.23, p < .001 Study 2) and greater birth control-related mistrust (F(3,131) = 7.55, p < .001 Study 1; F(3,339) = 17.32, p < .001 Study 2) than White women did. In turn, stereotype-related gendered racism was positively associated with pregnancy-specific stress (ß = .40, p < .001 Study 1; ß = .33, p < .001 Study 2), and birth control-related mistrust was negatively associated with sexual relationship power (ß = −.19, p = .002 Study 2), which are factors known to contribute to birth outcomes and sexual risk, respectively.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that gendered racism may play an important role in existing racial/ethnic disparities in women's sexual and reproductive health outcomes, and interventions addressing gendered racism at multiple levels are needed to promote health equity.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• black
• discrimination
• disparities
• hispanic
• gendered racism
• intersectionality
• Latina
• mistrust
• pregnancy
• reproductive health
• sexism
• sexual health
• stereotypes
• women

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank ProofPilot and the many undergraduate and graduate research assistants who helped to collect data for these two studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.