"Failing mothers", "bad girls", "drama queens" and "attention-seekers": femininity and gender norms in responses to young women's suicidality

<p>Young women are the most suicidal population in Australia yet suicide research, policy, and practice construct suicide as a male problem. While the suicide rate among young women is increasing, suicide research, policy and practice in Australia largely ignores them. This thesis-by-publication critically examines how suicide is constructed as a male problem and how this affects research, policy and practice. Using the sociological autopsy method, I review coronial case files of young women (aged under 25 years) who died by suicide in Australia in 2014-2017. Applying feminist frameworks of intersectionality and hegemonic femininity, I analyse the responses of friends, family, and human service professionals to suicidal women and identify the ways their perceptions and expectations of femininity influence their responses. I examine the ways these ideas about femininity are reproduced by investigators after these women have died. I do this across three journal articles:</p> <p>1. "She was feeling overwhelmed at home caring for her children": Expectations of 'intensive motherhood' as a risk factor for young women's suicide.</p> <p>2. The imposition of a coerced autonomy: Suicidal 'bad girls', human service professionals, and gender bias.</p> <p>3. 'Drama queens' and 'attention-seekers': characterisations of femininity and responses to women who communicate their intent to suicide</p> <p>Through revealing negative tropes about women whose behaviour does not meet social ideals, this thesis provides critical insights into how norms of femininity can have fatal consequences for some young suicidal women.</p>