Interviewee: Anahita Seraji | Authors/Editors: Romina Garcia de leon, Shayda Swann (Blog Co-coordinators)
Published: June 7th, 2024
Can you tell us more about your research?
My research focuses on women's generalized fear of men. This research addresses the #NotAllMen and #YesAllWomen debate that transpired a few years ago. While #NotAllMen argued that most men do not want to hurt women and hence, men should not be a source of fear, the #YesAllWomen contended that women still experience a generalized fear towards all men. My research used behavioural learning principles such as fear conditioning, stimulus generalization, and operant conditioning to address three main questions. 1. Why do women become fearful of men? 2. Why are women's fears generalized towards all men? and 3. How does the patriarchy use women’s fears to reinforce their role in society? My third question highlights the limitations of fear reduction strategies to reduce women’s fear of men. These strategies often normalize women's fears instead of actually addressing the root cause as they emphasize behavioural guidelines to prevent women from being harmed by men. These include wearing less provocative clothing, not venturing out late at night and always carrying a whistle.
How did you get involved in this field of research?
I was inspired by personal experience. While living on campus as an undergraduate student, I began hearing more stories of women's experiences with men. I also experienced getting cat-called. Furthermore, I was always passionate about Feminism, Psychology, and Women's Health. One day, at the end of a Psychology class, I was reminiscing on these experiences and it dawned on me that women have been conditioned to behave according to societal expectations. Our fears are used to control and force us into this prescribed social role within the patriarchy. This was the beginning of my pursuit in this area. I hope my work can inform men and women about the power dynamic that is at play, empower women to change the narrative and help men become aware of their impact in changing societal perceptions of women.
What research projects are you working on now?
Currently, I hope to segue into research on intra-uterine device (IUD) pain management. I volunteer with Access BC, a group in British Columbia whose primary goal is to reduce the barriers to accessing birth control. Last April, we were successful in getting women access to free prescriptions. This was a huge win for us. I am really happy to have been a part of the advocacy group. However, I understand that although IUDs are available, we still have many women who are hesitant to get an IUD because of inadequate pain management. I hope that my future research can find ways to mitigate pain by implementing appropriate pain management during the IUD insertion and removal. This is one way we can start taking women's pain in healthcare seriously. We should stop brushing it aside with undermining comments such as ‘This only takes 10 minutes’ or ‘You'll be fine, you can give birth, this is nothing’. We don't need to continue these practices especially if we can administer medications to make the process tolerable.
What impact do you hope to see with your research?
I hope my research inspires others to make a difference by engaging in Women’s Health research. Ultimately, I would like my research to cause systemic change by changing policy, similar to the contraceptive work I did last April. The older I get and the more time I spend engaging in the field, the more I am dismayed at the state of women's healthcare. I think it is time that we make changes on a larger scale so that no woman has to worry about dealing with excessive fear or pain. I hope that my work can contribute to that.