I Enjoy Being a Girl.
I had an epiphany.
I've just figured out what Psychology means to me.
Sounds weird right? I love Psychology, every aspect of it, and I've known since my first day in Psych 101 that I would be a Psychologist and why I wanted to do it but I could never come to terms with something.
And it's this. People say that the reason people become Psychologists is to figure out why they themselves are so screwed up.
I'm not perfect, but I'm not screwed up. I have learned a lot about myself by going through all of my schooling, and will continue to in every encounter professional, academic, or personal, but I'm not screwed up.
My research interests include (but aren't limited to although this is my primary interest) female offenders, crimes committed against women, gender and crime, domestic violence and sexually motivated crimes, differential Criminal Justice System outcomes for offenders with mental disorders specifically those related to reentry and recidivism, especially concerning women.
I know the theme. My population of choice is women. I care about women, women's needs, and women's issues. For a while I would tell people who asked that I love a challenge. There's not a lot of research on women. Just now people are starting to wonder if we need separate theories for men and women. That's theories. The basis of all research is theory. Looking at issues of gender are in their infancy.
And I realized, just now, that I got into Psychology and made my focus women because I am a woman.
Not only am I a woman, but I am a valued woman.
That may seem common sense now that you've read it but it's not true for a lot of people. And because of that I'm incredibly lucky.
And the introspective part comes into play because of this. I was raised to believe I could make my life whatever I wanted. That nothing could get in between me and my goal. In spite of the fact that it's a man's world and I may never achieve in my career or my life what men do, I will fight them for it every day and earn everything I get.
And I do not understand how this is not a widespread belief. How boys are more valuable than girls. How when my parents had 3 girls people kept asking them when they were getting a boy (like they had a choice) and speaking sympathetically to my Dad because he wouldn't have a full experience because he didn't have any boys. And how if this is the social norm, a belief that research shows has not changed in parental preference for male or female children since 1941, how can my parents have been so happy with girls? How they could treat us as though we matter if we don't. And how I could still believe it with every fiber of my being that there is no benefit to being a male versus being a female.
And a career was born.
I'm reading a book right now, I mentioned it in my last post, about female friendships and I'm going to review it once I'm finished. I actually wanted to wait and smush all this together into one entry but I just got off the phone with my Mom and I can't forget to write this down because it's important, if only to me.
So thank-you Mom and Dad for not succumbing to the statistics that once a girl is born, in my family I was the first, her parents are 6% more likely to get divorced than if I had been a boy. And that in spite of the fact that parents with three daughters are about 10% more likely to get divorced than parents of three sons, a likelihood that doubles in households with three teenaged girls, you were there for us and each other. Modeling what a healthy marriage is, how to raise kids--not girls, kids. But enforcing the truth, the absolute truth, that being a girl is special and never limiting.
Me and my sisters.
You can read the research I cited here:
http://www.international.ucla.edu/cms/files/PERG.Dahl.pdf
I've just figured out what Psychology means to me.
Sounds weird right? I love Psychology, every aspect of it, and I've known since my first day in Psych 101 that I would be a Psychologist and why I wanted to do it but I could never come to terms with something.
And it's this. People say that the reason people become Psychologists is to figure out why they themselves are so screwed up.
I'm not perfect, but I'm not screwed up. I have learned a lot about myself by going through all of my schooling, and will continue to in every encounter professional, academic, or personal, but I'm not screwed up.
My research interests include (but aren't limited to although this is my primary interest) female offenders, crimes committed against women, gender and crime, domestic violence and sexually motivated crimes, differential Criminal Justice System outcomes for offenders with mental disorders specifically those related to reentry and recidivism, especially concerning women.
I know the theme. My population of choice is women. I care about women, women's needs, and women's issues. For a while I would tell people who asked that I love a challenge. There's not a lot of research on women. Just now people are starting to wonder if we need separate theories for men and women. That's theories. The basis of all research is theory. Looking at issues of gender are in their infancy.
And I realized, just now, that I got into Psychology and made my focus women because I am a woman.
Not only am I a woman, but I am a valued woman.
That may seem common sense now that you've read it but it's not true for a lot of people. And because of that I'm incredibly lucky.
And the introspective part comes into play because of this. I was raised to believe I could make my life whatever I wanted. That nothing could get in between me and my goal. In spite of the fact that it's a man's world and I may never achieve in my career or my life what men do, I will fight them for it every day and earn everything I get.
And I do not understand how this is not a widespread belief. How boys are more valuable than girls. How when my parents had 3 girls people kept asking them when they were getting a boy (like they had a choice) and speaking sympathetically to my Dad because he wouldn't have a full experience because he didn't have any boys. And how if this is the social norm, a belief that research shows has not changed in parental preference for male or female children since 1941, how can my parents have been so happy with girls? How they could treat us as though we matter if we don't. And how I could still believe it with every fiber of my being that there is no benefit to being a male versus being a female.
And a career was born.
I'm reading a book right now, I mentioned it in my last post, about female friendships and I'm going to review it once I'm finished. I actually wanted to wait and smush all this together into one entry but I just got off the phone with my Mom and I can't forget to write this down because it's important, if only to me.
So thank-you Mom and Dad for not succumbing to the statistics that once a girl is born, in my family I was the first, her parents are 6% more likely to get divorced than if I had been a boy. And that in spite of the fact that parents with three daughters are about 10% more likely to get divorced than parents of three sons, a likelihood that doubles in households with three teenaged girls, you were there for us and each other. Modeling what a healthy marriage is, how to raise kids--not girls, kids. But enforcing the truth, the absolute truth, that being a girl is special and never limiting.
Me and my sisters.
You can read the research I cited here:
http://www.international.ucla.edu/cms/files/PERG.Dahl.pdf
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