The self-help movement refers to the self-direction endeavor towards improvement in all important aspects of one’s life like the emotional, political or social. The self-help movement emerged in the United States as a way of trying to find solutions to health and other related problems from friends. The 1980s so the proliferation of self helps movements in the United States. Among the contributing factors to the widespread of these movements was the reduced level of confidence in Psychotherapy as a measure to help people with personal problems. Psychotherapy had failed to adequately address the problems of people with personal needs which included the desire to share out their problems with people who are experiencing similar situations in life. These people needed important information from their colleagues with whom they share similar circumstances to help them cope with mental problems. (Steve,2005) Gender problems have also contributed to the lack of confidence in the psychotherapy offered by the various caregivers. There has been growing concern over the attraction of the caregiver /counselor towards the clients. According to the experienced counselors managing attraction towards the clients is a major challenge in their work. However, it is vital to note that the other way round, the attraction of the client towards the counselor has been adequately managed by the counselors because of the training they receive. The number of self-help groups had tremendously increased to over half a million in the United States with more than seven million people being involved in their activities. Self-help groups exist for a variety of personal problems ranging from alcoholism, overreaction gambling, and other disorders. The philosophical concept behind the formation of self-help groups is that people with similar problems can unite and share important information that can assist them in containing and living a positive life. The existence of online support groups has also been evidenced with men and women obtaining assistance to their problems through cyberspace. ( Timko,2002).Online self-help groups differ from face-to-face groups in a number of respects. The online groups have the advantage of thousands of support than the face-to-face groups which would only have a few personnel as support. The type of format for help on the internet also differs from that which concerns the usual face-to-face self-help groups. Self-help groups have enjoyed financial advantage and this is one factor that has facilitated their proliferation amongst the different groups of people. This is because the minimal or no fee that is charged by the self-help groups are compared to other caregivers. There has been a proposal to unite the activities of Medicare provides and the self-help groups to help to contain the costs of providing care to people with various personal problems. Most participants in self-help movements have been attracted to the groups because of the difference in cost between traditional care providers and self-help groups. There have been gender issues as regards to Self –Help movements with statistics indicating more participation of women in the activities than the number of men. Most of the groups experience gender issues because most of them are formed with the wider view of problems that are gender sensitive for instance there are problems related to only men and those that revolve around women. The self help movements have also had their contribution in trying to address difference between men and women.
The differences between genders
There are still differences between men and women basing on both environmental and biological points of view. Theories that are based on biological evidence assert that human evolution contributes significantly to the existing differences between men and women. They cite biological programming to be the fundamental cause of the current state whereby women occupy a disadvantaged position in society. They claim that men posse’s suitable adaptations in the society that they live a life full of pleasure and thus women must conform by accepting their role as subordinates. Even though some of these Maximalist theories rely on biology as a source of their evidence there is an element of social learning in them in the sense that they assert that differences between men and women can be attributed to learning. Both the maximalist and minimalist theories bring out the point that still in behavior there exist differences between men and women. (Linda, 2008)
Looked at from the capacity or ability perspective, there are differences in physical strength between men and women. The differences are related to mass and the size of the muscles whereby men have more mass and have muscular strength more than women. Physical strength contributes significantly to the difference in gender.
In terms of job feminine jobs are considered to be less labor intensive therefore calling for lesser pay for instance proposers of this notion say that secretaries should be less paid because their work does not require a lot of energy. Gender cannot be used as a good predictor of ones mental abilities, this is because in some intellectual abilities only small and minor differences exist between men and women. In terms of cognitive aspects, men have been noted to be enhanced in mental rotation than their women counterparts.
Writing also brings out the difference in that women have been studied to be faster than men in writing abilities. When it comes to stereotyping men are much involved than women according to research. Involvement in criminal behavior men scores higher than women with the majority of the arrests being compost of men. Sexual behaviors also portray men to be much involved in behaviors such as masturbation at a higher rate than women. According to the American Psychological Association, there is a difference in the way men experience emotional disorders such as depression from women. Women tend to be more affected by depression than men. There are also differences in the decisions and choices made by men and women concerning their lives. Differences between men and women in the way they make choices in life have placed them into two categories. All in all, there have been continued differences and discrimination of women from men leading to an endless war of sexes. Women will continue to rise against these forms of discrimination that have given them a subordinate position in society. This is because of a feeling of being left behind as the males dominate all aspects of human life. Some people are of the opinion that as long as there exists relationships between men and women, conflicts will never end and the two sexes will never gets along because of the differences which continue to remain unaddressed by the society.
References
- Linda Brannon, 2008,Gender Psychological Perspectives, 5th edition American Psychological Association, 2000.
- Steve Salerno (2005) Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, ISBN 1-4000-5409-5 p.24-25
- Timko, Christine, Moos, R.H., Finney, J.W. & Connell,E.G. 2002. Gender difference in help-utilization and the 8-year course of alcohol abuse. Addiction. 97(7):877.