Now we know and presumably we should be grateful: Women who remain 鈥渙ptimistic鈥� 鈥� and as a result, live longer. That鈥檚 the message from a recent US study of 70,000 female nurses. Those who identified as the most optimistic had a 31 per cent reduced risk of mortality compared with the least optimistic.
This message may seem OK at first glance 鈥� who doesn鈥檛 want to live longer? But beyond the actual science, there is a problem. Why were women singled out, both as subjects for the study and as the recipients of this message?
Why not determine whether people, irrespective of gender, could enjoy the health benefits of positivity? Was the gendering tied to an existing expectation for women to remain sanguine, amiable and upbeat?
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This exists on the same spectrum as men who feel compelled to shout 鈥渟mile鈥� at passing female strangers, should they not appear visibly cheered 鈥� there is a peculiar pressure on women to read as pleasant.
The messaging around this research feels particularly hampered by these problems, insinuating an almost moral and personal imperative to be optimistic 鈥� aimed at just one half of society.
In the Huffington Post, Richa Sood of US medical research group Mayo Clinic : 鈥淲omen have a lot of self-doubt鈥� But if we could focus on 鈥業 tried my best, pat on the back, I will do better next time,鈥� that鈥檚 optimism, and we are caring for ourselves.鈥�
There is a lot to decode 鈥� from the flippancy of invoking 鈥渟elf-doubt鈥� through to the patronising obligation to care for ourselves. It is reductive language.
Unfortunately, the onus is being placed on women to remain optimistic at a time in which there is still huge gender inequality, in which women鈥檚 fundamental human rights are actively under threat.
Women employed full-time in the UK still than their male counterparts; this figure hits 18.1 per cent when including part-time workers (women tend to be overrepresented in part-time work, still picking up the majority of domestic and parental labour). An in the UK are murdered by their partners each week. Hard won reproductive rights are under threat as the country鈥檚 minority Conservative government relies on the backing of 聽the DUP, which has a hardline stance against abortion.
Remaining broadly optimistic requires an active disengagement with the facts.
鈥淥ptimism is about 25 to 30 per cent genetic,鈥� Sood states. 鈥淪o what that means is it can be learned.鈥� Optimism is a broadly abstract state of mind to aspire towards, a bit like a stereotypical feminine ideal.
While charmingly cantankerous and curmudgeonly men are a cultural mainstay, often a codified means of communicating depth or intelligence, women exhibiting similar tendencies towards the morose or pessimistic are characterised as boorish or bitches, if made visible at all.
There is something dehumanising about flatly measuring and determining 鈥渙ptimism鈥� as an expressly female requirement. What鈥檚 more, optimism is surely more the product of circumstance than a simple shift of mindset.
This is an expansion of the myriad ways women are pressured to modify behaviour: to take up less space, to present in a certain manner. If you want us to look on the sunny side, at least give us a little something to be optimistic about.
Read more: Greater equality in science will take more than Ada Lovelace Day; *Sad face* 鈥� Being happy does not help you live longer; How to be happy (but not too much)
