Women's body dissatisfaction, social class, and social mobility
Introduction
In general, research has demonstrated that for a given body size, socio-economically advantaged women are more dissatisfied with or concerned about their bodies than socio-economically disadvantaged women (Ogden & Thomas, 1999; Wardle & Griffith, 2001). An explanation concerns the role of thinness as a marker of social distinction in industrialised society (Bordo, 1993), which makes it more likely to be valued by individuals higher on the socio-economic spectrum. Sociological authors have highlighted social class differences in the extent to which investment in and control over the body is considered a ‘project’ worthy of time and effort (Bourdieu, 1984), a perspective which predicts that socio-economically advantaged individuals are more likely to aspire to, and invest effort in attaining a particular bodily appearance (which at the present time is thin).
The interrelationship between socio-economic position, body size, and body dissatisfaction is more relevant for women than for men. There is a clear social stratification of body size among women in modern societies with a larger average body size and a higher prevalence of obesity among socially disadvantaged than among socially advantaged women (Wardle, Waller, & Jarvis, 2002; Sobal, 1991; Sobal & Stunkard, 1989). This relationship is not as strong or as consistent among men (Wardle et al., 2002; Sobal & Stunkard, 1989). Obesity appears to be more strongly stigmatised in women than in men, and there is evidence of demonstrable consequences experienced by women for being obese. Based on US data, Gortmaker, Must, Perrin, Sobol, and Dietz (1993) found that women who had been overweight during adolescence had more negative outcomes 7 years later, including completion of fewer years of school, being less likely to be married, and having higher rates of household poverty, relative to women who had not been overweight. Based on British data, Sargent and Blanchflower (1994) showed that women who had been obese at age 16 earned significantly less at age 23 than women who had not been obese at age 16; this finding was independent of parental social class and baseline ability test score, and was not obtained among men in the sample. Body dissatisfaction is strongly related to body size in females, with larger women more likely to be dissatisfied (Allaz, Bernstein, Rouget, Archinard, & Morabia, 1998; Reboussin et al., 2000). Not surprisingly, the evidence is clear that concern with and distress about bodily appearance (particularly weight) is a highly gendered phenomenon. Women score higher than men on almost any indicator of dissatisfaction with their own bodily appearance (Feingold & Mazzella, 1998). Dissatisfaction with weight is so common among women as to be considered a ‘normative discontent’ (Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1985).
Pervasive dissatisfaction with one's weight among women is widely blamed on ubiquitous images of extremely thin women in the media. These media images portray extreme thinness as typical and attainable by all women, and they convey the powerful message that thinness is a prerequisite for physical beauty. This message is believed to have emerged in the mid-1960s with the arrival of ‘Twiggy’, a fashion model for women who had a childlike body (Brumberg, 1988). There is good evidence that the current ‘ideal’ of female beauty, operationalised in terms of the size of women presented in the media, is vastly smaller (particularly thinner, but also taller) than the average woman (Spitzer, Henderson, & Zivian, 1999). And, experimental studies show that exposure to these images negatively impacts on the body image of girls and women who inevitably feel that, against this stringent standard, it is impossible to ‘measure up’ (for a review see Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002). Feminist writers (e.g., Orbach, 1978) suggest that body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are an inevitable result of a fundamentally misogynistic society that facilitates these outcomes in women by objectifying their bodies and devaluing their experience. Thus, socio-cultural and feminist perspectives provide viable explanations for the preponderance of body dissatisfaction in women versus men. However, their utility in explaining social class differences in body dissatisfaction among women is more limited.
Individual socio-economic position is not a uni-dimensional construct, and may be defined in a number of ways including occupation, education, and income. Each of these indicators has been examined for an association with body dissatisfaction or some related construct (e.g., dieting, weight monitoring), and results are not entirely consistent. Among US adult women, Jeffery and French (1996) found that likelihood of dieting increased with increasing income, and that higher income women reported that they would notice a smaller amount of weight gain than lower income women. However higher and lower income women did not differ in the importance they ascribed to body weight, nor in their desired body mass index (BMI). Using a nationally representative British sample, Wardle and Griffith (2001) found that women with higher occupationally defined social class were more likely to perceive themselves as overweight, to monitor their weight more regularly, and were more likely to be trying to lose weight, despite being lighter on average. Jeffery, Adlis, and Forster (1991) studied education in relation to dieting among US adult women, and found that those with more formal education were more likely to have dieted in the past, but were no more likely to report current dieting, than women with less education. Although various indicators of socio-economic position have been examined in relation to body dissatisfaction, it is not clear which indicator is most important in this context. One goal of the present study is to evaluate the association of both occupationally defined social class and education with body dissatisfaction and determine which is the more important determinant.
Existing research on social class and body dissatisfaction has dealt exclusively with women's current socio-economic position, with little or no attention paid to the socio-economic position of her family of origin. Furthermore, to our knowledge there are no studies addressing social mobility over the life span as it relates to adult body dissatisfaction. Research has shown an association between social mobility and obesity, with upward social mobility reducing the likelihood of being obese in comparison with those who remain in the manual classes (Langenberg et al., 2003).1 Also women who come from lower social class origins are likely to increase in weight more rapidly throughout adulthood (Hardy, Wadsworth, & Kuh, 2000). The close relationship between body size and body dissatisfaction prompted us to study social mobility in relation to body dissatisfaction.
We are limited in specifying particular hypotheses regarding an association between body dissatisfaction and social mobility, since evidence on this issue is absent. However, we might draw from ecological data showing that the prevalence of body dissatisfaction and cultural pressures for women's thinness coincide in a graded manner with westernisation (and wealth) on a global scale, with women living in more westernised countries having greater body dissatisfaction than those living in non-westernised countries, with countries in transition intermediate between the two (Jaeger et al., 2002). Although ecological patterns of development over time must not be equated with associations during an individual's life history, we might suspect that intergenerational shifts in personal socio-economic position will show some association with body image at midlife. This can be accommodated within Bourdieu's discussion of lifestyles, in which he suggests that behaviours are guided by tastes which develop over time as a function of income and occupation, and social conditions (Bourdieu, 1984). Appearance investment (e.g., time and money spent on grooming), and other behaviours such as food selection, are shaped over time by one's social circumstances which are related to degree of wealth. Thus changes in social circumstances, or intergenerational movement between social classes, might entail a transition in terms of priorities related to weight and appearance, or a shift in experience of social norms regarding the appeal of particular body types. The importance of a transition from one socio-economic position to another with respect to body image is not known. Perhaps the socio-economic circumstances of one's family of origin are so pertinent to later body image that intergenerational stability or mobility doesn’t matter. Alternatively, perhaps current or adulthood socio-economic advantage or disadvantage is the primary influence, in which case the direction of transition in social class from childhood to adulthood would appear important to investigate. Furthermore, it is possible that these patterns differ for different dimensions of body dissatisfaction (i.e., weight versus general appearance), or by different indicators of socio-economic position (i.e., occupation versus education).
Unlike in men, where a large degree of intergenerational continuity in social class (income or occupation) has been demonstrated, research is more limited in women and is complicated by shifts in mobility by marriage (Bartley, Sacker, & Schoon, 2002). Studies suggest that downward mobility in women may be more likely due to a more limited range of jobs available to women in the recent past (Bartley et al., 2002). Therefore, social mobility (in addition to stability) would appear particularly important to study in relation to women's health. Furthermore, the generation of women currently in middle age (who comprise the sample for the present study) have lived through a sizeable increase in the extent of paid workforce participation by women (Krieger, Chen, & Selby, 1999). Thus, intergenerational social mobility may be particularly pertinent to this cohort of women, and further clarification is needed regarding its association with health outcomes.
A finding of more body dissatisfaction among socially advantaged women could help to explain the social class gradient in obesity. This knowledge could help in the design of interventions to reduce the level of obesity among lower socio-economic position groups. It is possible that socio-economic position influences body size and body image through behaviours including healthy diet and regular physical activity, which are related to body size and are shown to be more common among socio-economically advantaged individuals (Colhoun & Prescott-Clarke, 1996). Second, on a more theoretical level, the interplay between body size, body dissatisfaction, and social class is interesting from a social epidemiological perspective because it provides insight into class culture. While health behaviours and health status outcomes are reasonably straightforward to investigate, the present topic may help to get at more elusive lifestyle concepts as aesthetic preferences, ideals, and aspirations of distinction. It is unlikely that social class differences in health can entirely be explained in terms of easily measurable behaviours and outcomes; a more complete understanding of the social determinants of health demands insight into the more nebulous elements of one's socio-economic position.
Body dissatisfaction has previously been shown to be common among women in middle age (Allaz et al., 1998; McLaren & Kuh, 2004), but studies are few. Dissatisfaction carries negative consequences for health and well-being among women of this age group, including elevated feelings of depression, lower quality of life, low energy levels (Reboussin et al., 2000), and avoidance of social situations, physical intimacy, and exercise (McLaren & Kuh, 2004). Thus, additional research into its origins is desirable. We (McLaren & Kuh) recently found that for any given weight, women from the non-manual social classes in this age group were more dissatisfied about their body weight but not about their general appearance, than women from the manual classes. Inconsistencies in research on the social class-dissatisfaction relationship might therefore reflect inconsistencies on the aspect of body dissatisfaction (weight or general appearance) assessed. The specific aims of this study are to examine current body esteem (weight and general appearance dimensions) as a function of (a) adult social class, (b) childhood social class, (c) educational qualifications, and (d) occupationally defined intergenerational social mobility among a large cohort of middle-aged British women.
Section snippets
Participants
The data source is the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development, a follow-up study of 2547 women and 2815 men since their birth in March 1946 in England, Scotland, and Wales (Wadsworth, 1991; Wadsworth & Kuh, 1997). This was originally a class-stratified sample which included all births to non-manual households, all births to agricultural workers, and a randomly selected 1 in 4 sample of the remaining families (Atkins, Cherry, Douglas, Kiernan, & Wadsworth, 1981). When
Results
Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. At midlife these women were slightly overweight on average (mean BMI=26.7 kg/m2). In childhood, over half the sample was classified as from the manual social classes in accordance with the original sampling procedure. In adulthood over 80% of the women were classified as in the non-manual classes. Consequently, the two biggest groups were those who were ‘always non-manual’ and ‘upwardly mobile’ (those in the manual classes as a child and in the
Discussion
To our knowledge this study is the first to examine the relationship between social class and body dissatisfaction from a longitudinal perspective, which enabled investigation of the effects of childhood social class and social mobility. Strengths of our study include prospectively collected data on occupation, education, and body weight and height from a large national sample. We also had social class data from both the woman and her partner, which made it possible to define social class as a
Acknowledgements
This study of women's health is funded by the UK Medical Research Council.
At the time of writing, L. McLaren was supported by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
References (36)
- et al.
Class inequalities in women's healthCombined impact of childhood and adult social class—a study of 630 US women
Public Health
(2001) - et al.
Body weight preoccupation in middle-age and ageing womenA general population survey
International Journal of Eating Disorders
(1998) - et al.
The 1946 British birth cohortAn account of the origins, progress, and results of the national survey of health and development
Secular changes in standards of bodily attractiveness in womenTests of a reproductive model
International Journal of Eating Disorders
(1998)- et al.
Social and economic trajectories and women's health
DistinctionA social critique of the judgement of taste
(1984)Unbearable weight
(1993)Fasting girlsThe history of anorexia nervosa
(1988)- et al.
Health survey for England 1994
(1996) - Department of Education and Science (1972). Burnham further education committee grading courses. London:...
Gender differences in body image are increasing
Psychological Science
Exposure to the mass media and weight concerns among girls
Pediatrics
Social and economic consequences of overweight in adolescence and young adulthood
The New England Journal of Medicine
The effects of experimental presentation of thin media images on body satisfactionA meta-analytic review
International Journal of Eating Disorders
The influence of childhood weight and socioeconomic status on change in adult body mass index in a British national birth cohort
International Journal of Obesity
Body dissatisfaction and its interrelations with other risk factors for bulimia nervosa in 12 countries
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
Prevalence of dieting among working men and womenThe healthy worker project
Health Psychology
Socioeconomic status and weight control practices among 20- to 45-year-old women
American Journal of Public Health
Cited by (110)
A phenomenological exploration of Indian women's body image within intersecting identities in a globalizing nation
2023, Women's Studies International ForumBody image distortion among Brazilian and Portuguese women with children: A comparative study between the ELSA-Brasil and Generation XXI cohorts
2022, Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :Indeed, higher education levels appear to favor body image distortion towards perceiving oneself as heavier, while less schooling is associated with perceptions of being thinner, a finding that corroborates the conclusions of other studies conducted with women (e.g. Kim et al., 2004). This association could be related to body dissatisfaction issues, which are more common among higher-educated women (McLaren and Kuh, 2004). In Western culture, which encompasses both the Brazilian and Portuguese cohorts, and in which thinness is considered ideal (Pines, 2012), dissatisfaction (which was not the subject of the present study) is often associated with a desire to be thinner or have less weight (Haddad et al., 2019; Hamamoto et al., 2022), possibly influencing the perception of better-educated women towards believing that they are heavier than they really are, as shown in the present results.
The associations of socioeconomic status and financial strain with restrained and emotional eating among 42-year-old women and men
2022, AppetiteCitation Excerpt :The fact that the food-rich environment in affluent societies is combined with beauty ideals that have become increasingly thinner, can expose an individual to body dissatisfaction and restrained eating (Grogan, 2016). A more positive attitude towards healthy eating (Lê et al., 2013), weight management (Wardle & Griffith, 2001) and body dissatisfaction (McLaren & Kuh, 2004) are more prevalent in higher classes, and our study is consistent with these results, associating also restrained eating with higher status. Cultural institutions such as the beauty and diet industries maintain body dissatisfaction and present restrained eating as a desirable activity (Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, & Zoino, 2006).
Educational inequalities in obesity: a multilevel analysis of survey data from cities in Latin America
2022, Public Health Nutrition