This book explores the 'gender pain gap'the systemic disparities in how women's chronic pain and illness are perceived, believed, and treated. Focusing especially on conditions without visible markers, Eilidh Galbraith examines why women's pain remains socially, culturally, and theologically problematic. Through interdisciplinary analysis and qualitative storytelling, she investigates how power dynamics shape medical responses and influence women's credibility as narrators of their own suffering. Drawing on feminist theology, trauma studies, and health research, Galbraith weaves together her own experiences with those of other women to reveal how silence and disbelief impact health outcomes and identity. This deeply personal study challenges dominant narratives and calls for a more compassionate, justice-oriented approach to women's pain.

Draws attention to the philosophical and theological histories of the gender pain gap Contextualises the gender pain gap using the lived experiences of real women Written from a UK context in which the NHS is increasingly subject to social and political scrutiny.

Autorentext

Eilidh Galbraith is a feminist practical theologian and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Aberdeen. Her research explores theology, trauma, and gender, focusing on health disparities and epistemic injustice. This is her second monograph, which extends her commitment to amplifying voices that are all too often silenced.

Klappentext

Eilidh Galbraith's work offers a deeply nuanced and thoroughly researched exploration of marginalised bodies and the politics of pain. Through rigorous scholarship and original qualitative research, it challenges entrenched narratives and advances new understandings of chronic illness as ongoing trauma. Timely, insightful, and essential, this book stands as a vital contribution to feminist and practical theology.
Katie Cross, Christ's College Lecturer in Practical Theology, University of Aberdeen, UK

This book explores the 'gender pain gap'the systemic disparities in how women's chronic pain and illness are perceived, believed, and treated. Focusing especially on conditions without visible markers, Eilidh Galbraith examines why women's pain remains socially, culturally, and theologically problematic. Through interdisciplinary analysis and qualitative storytelling, she investigates how power dynamics shape medical responses and influence women's credibility as narrators of their own suffering. Drawing on feminist theology, trauma studies, and health research, Galbraith weaves together her own experiences with those of other women to reveal how silence and disbelief impact health outcomes and identity. This deeply personal study challenges dominant narratives and calls for a more compassionate, justice-oriented approach to women's pain.

Eilidh Galbraith is a feminist practical theologian and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Aberdeen. Her research explores theology, trauma, and gender, focusing on health disparities and epistemic injustice. This is her second monograph, which extends her commitment to amplifying voices that are all too often silenced.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. 'Misbegotten Men'.- Chapter 3. Wandering Wombs.- Chapter 4. Mad Women.- Chapter 5. Trauma: The artist formerly known as hysteria.- Chapter 6. Walking Wombs with Hysterical tendencies.- Chapter 7. Reproductive autonomy or reproductive control?.- Chapter 8. The Average Man and the Invisible Woman.- Chapter 9. 'The Average White Woman'.- Chapter 10. 'The Average Able-bodied, neurotypical woman'.- Chapter 11. The 'Average cis-het' woman.- Chapter 12. The Average Young Slim Woman.- Chapter 13. The Gender Pain Gap.- Chapter 14. The Chronic Pain Gap.- Chaper 15. Incredible Women.- Chapter 16. Gaslit.- Chapter 17. Do no harm?.- Chapter 18. The 'MeToo' of Chronic pain.- Chapter 19. Not Recovery, but.