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The Psychology of Gender and Health Conceptual and Applied Global Concerns M Pilar Sanchez Lopez Ebook Full Chapter
The Psychology of Gender and Health Conceptual and Applied Global Concerns M Pilar Sanchez Lopez Ebook Full Chapter
THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF GENDER AND
HEALTH
CONCEPTUAL AND
APPLIED GLOBAL
CONCERNS
Edited by
M. Pilar Sánchez-López
Rosa M. Limiñana-Gras
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Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience
broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment
may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating
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ISBN: 978-0-12-803864-2
Cover Image: Hygeia, the daughter of the god of medicine, Asclepius. Hygeia was the goddess/
personification of health and prevention of illness, cleanliness, and hygiene. She was represented as a
young woman feeding a large snake coiled around her body. The snake was a beneficial and enlightening
character in cultures of old. An animal between two worlds, it was able to live underground and to shed
its skin. For Greeks, descent into the underworld (below consciousness and what is visible) is essential
in obtaining a cure—one must descend to see what is happening there, to find the cure, with a fresh skin.
Like the snake. Applying the gender perspective to health is also a descent, in some ways, below what
is visible. We obtain a “fresh skin”, that enables us to better understand the importance of gender as a
determining factor for health, and the need to include gender-related variables in order to correctly assess
the set of causes that produce differences in health. Hygeia feeding a snake is particularly associated with
the aim of this book.
Contents
Contributorsix
Forewordxi
LONDA SCHIEBINGER
Determinants of Health 2
The Sex/Gender System 4
The Gender Perspective in Health: Integration of Sex and Gender
in the Analysis and Research of Health 10
Incorporation of the Gender Perspective to Interventions in Health 29
Book Preview 38
References43
I
CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES FOR GENDER
AND HEALTH
2. Gender-Based Perspectives About Women’s and Men’s Health
JUAN F. DÍAZ-MORALES
v
vi CONTENTS
II
CLINICAL AND HEALTH CONTEXTS
6. “He’s More Typically Female Because He’s Not Afraid to
Cry”: Connecting Heterosexual Gender Relations and
Men’s Depression
JOHN L. OLIFFE, MARY T. KELLY, JOAN L. BOTTORFF, JOY L. JOHNSON AND SABRINA T. WONG
14. Epilogue
JOAN C. CHRISLER
Index407
Contributors
ix
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Foreword
Doing research wrong costs lives and money. Ten drugs were recently
withdrawn from the US market because of life-threatening health effects;
eight of these posed greater threats for women. Not only did these drugs
cost billions of Euros to develop, but when they fail, they cause death and
human suffering. We can’t afford to get it wrong (United States General
Accounting Office, 2001).
Doing research right can save lives and money. An analysis of the US
Women’s Health Initiative Hormone Therapy Trial—a large, government-
funded study done in the 1990s—found that for every $1 spent, $140 were
returned. More importantly, the study saved lives; trial results lead to
4.3 million fewer postmenopausal women using combined hormone ther-
apy, which in turn resulted in 76,000 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease,
126,000 fewer breast cancers, and 145,000 more quality-adjusted life years.
Whereas most of the results were positive, the analysis found 263,000 more
osteoporotic fractures (Roth et al., 2014). We need more measures like this of
the actual benefits of sex and gender analysis in health research.
It is crucially important to identify gender bias in health research. But
analysis cannot stop there. We need to turn it around; we need to get it
right from the beginning; we need to harness the creative power of sex
and gender analysis for discovery in biomedicine and health research
(Schiebinger et al., 2011–2016).
Recognizing the importance of sex and gender to human health, grant-
ing agencies across Europe, Canada, and the United States now require
that these variables be included in publicly funded research. Since 1990,
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has required that women be
included in medical research, especially clinical trials. Since 2010, the
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has explicitly called for
sex and gender-based analysis (SGBA) in health research and supports
these requirements with training modules (because these topics still are
not incorporated into most medical school curriculum) (CIHR, 2012;
Mayo School of Continuous Professional Development [MSCPD], 2015).
In 2013, the European Commission required that both sex and gender be
included in Horizon 2020 research, where appropriate to the topic (Euro-
pean Commission, 2013). Finally, in June 2015, the US NIH released guide-
lines emphasizing the importance of sex as a biological variable (SABV) in
preclinical, clinical, and population health studies (Clayton, 2015; Clayton &
Collins, 2014; Collins & Tabak, 2014).
xi
xii FOREWORD
Despite these policy initiatives, the role of “gender” and its crucial interac-
tions with biological sex have generally been neglected in biomedical and
health research. It is now the responsibility of researchers to refine and sharpen
methods, questions, and research priorities. What are the relative contribu-
tions of sex (biological characteristics) versus gender (cultural attitudes and
behaviors) and intersecting social factors to human health? And how do we
study sex and gender, and their interactions in biomedical research?
The Psychology of Gender and Health addresses these questions, focus-
ing in particular on the psychology, economics, and politics of gender
and health in a global context. Sex is defined as being male or female (or
intersex) according to chromosomal complement and biological functions
assigned by chromosomal complement. Whereas biological sex differ-
ences are initiated by genes encoded on the sex chromosomes, all other
factors (eg, autosomal and mitochondrial genes) are believed to be equally
inherited by males and females. Sex, however, exists along a continuum in
which males or females differ on average.
Over the past 25 years, important sex differences in disease have been
identified. Well-known examples include the underlying pathophysiol-
ogy in patterns of women’s and men’s heart disease, where men typi-
cally have a severe pinching off of the coronary artery (that angiography,
the gold standard for diagnosing heart disease, has been developed to
detect), whereas women have a gradual narrowing of the coronary artery
(that angiography typically does not detect). Or we might mention osteo-
porosis in men and women, where men’s disease has historically been
underdiagnosed. Other examples include studies showing that low-dose
aspirin may be protective against cardiovascular disease for men but not
for women, that drugs metabolize differently in women and men, and
that pain differs by sex (Oertelt-Prigione & Regitz-Zagrosek, 2012; Regitz-
Zagrosek, 2012; Schenck-Gustafsson, DeCola, Pfaff & Pisetsky, 2012).
The study of sex differences (and similarities) is well underway with
organizations such as the Organization for the Study of Sex Difference,
devoted to this very question. Gender, by contrast, is less well understood
in health research. In particular, we lack agreed-upon methods for measur-
ing gender in ways that can be analyzed statistically while still preserving
the integrity of the phenomena. Gender refers to sociocultural values and
roles that shape attitudes and behaviors of men, women, and transgender
persons. Social factors often influence biology such that gender becomes
a modifier of biology (or sex). Gender is not only “gender identity” (how
individuals and groups perceive and present themselves). Importantly,
gender includes “gender norms” (spoken and unspoken cultural rules in
the family, workplace, institutional, or global culture that influence indi-
vidual attitudes and behaviors) and “gender relations” (power relations
between individuals of different gender identities); see sidebar (Schiebinger
et al., 2011–2016).
FOREWORD xiii
A N A LY Z I N G G E N D E R — P O I N T S T O
KEEP IN MIND
100
Women
Men
Percent
50
0
0 100
FIGURE 1 Gender does not necessarily match sex. This figure shows the
distribution in men and women with premature acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
Pelletier et al. developed new methodology to analyze gender as a variable in order
to understand the association between gender, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors
among patients with premature ACS. Importantly, they found no sex difference; that
is, being a man or a woman did not predict accurately which patients were likely
to relapse or die within 12 months from diagnosis. The team found, however, that
gender matters. Patients with a higher “femininity” score, regardless whether they
were a man or a woman, were more likely to experience a recurrence of ACS. This
study showed that a man with a high femininity score was more likely to suffer a
recurrence, and a woman with a high masculinity score was not. From Pelletier, R.,
Ditto, B., & Pilote, L. (2015). A composite measure of gender and its association with risk
factors in patients with premature acute coronary syndrome. Psychosomatic Medicine, 77,
517–526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/psy.0000000000000186; Pelletier, R., Ditto, B., &
Pilote, L. (2016). Sex or gender: which predicts outcomes after acute coronary syndrome in
the young? Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 67(2), 127–135. http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2015.10.067. Reproduced with kind permission.
continued
xiv FOREWORD
A N A LY Z I N G G E N D E R — P O I N T S T O
K E E P I N M I N D —(cont’d)
4. I t is important not to overemphasize gender differences, but instead
to analyze and report within (intra-) and between (inter-) group
differences.
5. A “response bias” may exist, for example, when men and women
answer surveys. A gender difference reported may result, at least in part,
from gender differences in responding behavior. Feminine-identified
persons, for example, may be more likely to admit emotionality in
responding to a standard distress scale than men.
6. It is important to consider factors intersecting with sex and gender
(for example, age or socioeconomic status may be more significant
than gender).
Londa Schiebinger
John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science, Stanford University
Director, Gendered Innovations in Science, Health &
Medicine, Engineering, and Environment
References
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). (2012). Sex, gender and health research guide: A
tool for CIHR applicants. Retrieved from http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/32019.html.
Clayton, J. A. (2015). Studying both sexes: a guiding principle for biomedicine. The FASEB
Journal, 30, fj.15–279554. http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.15-279554.
Clayton, J. A., & Collins, F. S. (2014). Policy: NIH to balance sex in cell and animal stud-
ies. Nature, 509(7500), 282–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/509282a.
Collins, F. S., & Tabak, L. A. (2014). Policy: NIH plans to enhance reproducibility. Nature,
505(7485), 612–613. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/505612a.
EUGenMed Public Health Study Group. Sex and gender aspects of risk factors for non-communicable
diseases across Europe, major report in progress.
European Commission. (2013). Fact sheet: Gender equality in horizon 2020. Brussels, December
09. Retrieved from https://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/FactSheet_Gender_0912
13_final_2.pdf.
Mayo School of Continuous Professional Development (MSCPD). (2015). Sex and gender-
based medical education (SGME) summit: A roadmap for curricular innovation. Retrieved from
http://sgbmeducationsummit.com/.
Oertelt-Prigione, S., & Regitz-Zagrosek, V. (Eds.). (2012). Sex and gender aspects in clinical medi-
cine. London: Springer Verlag. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-832-4.
Pelletier, R., Ditto, B., & Pilote, L. (2015). A composite measure of gender and its associa-
tion with risk factors in patients with premature acute coronary syndrome. Psychosomatic
Medicine, 77, 517–526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/psy.0000000000000186.
Pelletier, R., Ditto, B., & Pilote, L. (2016). Sex or gender: which predicts outcomes after acute
coronary syndrome in the young? Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 67(2),
127–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2015.10.067.
Regitz-Zagrosek, V. (Ed.). (2012). Sex and gender differences in pharmacology. Berlin-Heidelberg:
Springer Verlag. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30726-3.
xvi FOREWORD
Roth, J., Etzioni, R., Waters, T., Pettinger, M., Rossouw, J., Anderson, G., et al. (2014). Eco-
nomic return from the women’s health initiative estrogen plus progestin clinical trial: a
modeling study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 160(9), 594–602. http://dx.doi.org/10.7326/
m13-2348.
Schenck-Gustafsson, K., DeCola, P., Pfaff, D., & Pisetsky, D. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of clinical
gender medicine. Basel: Karger. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/isbn.978-3-8055-9930-6.
Schiebinger, L., Klinge, I., Paik, H.Y., Sánchez de Madariaga, I., Schraudner, M., & Stefanick,
M. (Eds.). (2011–2016). Gendered innovations in science, health & medicine, engineering, and
environment (genderedinnovations.stanford.edu). Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/
research/gendered-innovations/.
United States General Accounting Office. (2001). Drug safety: Most drugs withdrawn in recent
years had greater health risks for women. Washington, DC: Government Publishing Office.
C H A P T E R
1
Health From a Gender
Perspective: The State of the Art
M.Pilar Sánchez-López1, Rosa M. Limiñana-Gras2
1Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain; 2University of Murcia,
Murcia, Spain
The complex construct of gender interacts with biological and genetic differences
to create health conditions, situations and problems that are different for women and
men as individuals and as population groups. This interaction, and how it plays out
across different age, ethnic and income groups, should be understood by health pro-
viders and health policy makers. (p. 102) United Nations (1998) Report, Women and
Health, Mainstreaming the Gender Perspective into the Health Sector
The concept of health, as well as the responsibilities toward the tar-
get population of health interventions, has been changing and evolving
in parallel and in response to the historic changes in the sociopolitical
context. Although the biomedical model, referring almost exclusively
to biological factors, is still in force in biotechnological applications
in the field of health, the current conception of health recognizes and
underscores ever more inclusively the relevance of psychological, social,
economic, and political aspects that interact as determinants of health,
emphasizing that the concept of health is not only a scientific issue,
but also social and political, understanding as such the relationships of
power within society.
In this sense, gender, as a central analytical category in health studies,
has contributed to the development of this extensive concept of health,
turning into an increasingly expanding field of research. Its development,
both in the fields of biomedical and of social sciences, will facilitate the
promotion of policies that recognize its magnitude and importance in
public health issues.
This chapter aims to provide readers with a review of the most rel-
evant concepts and developments concerning gender and health, which
will allow correcting gender biases and stereotypes that are common both
DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
and in many different ways, which can range from the unequal degree of
exposure to different risks for men and women to differences in the health
care received.
In order to study the relationships between sex, gender, and health, the
aspects that make up this system must first be clarified. What is gender,
what is sex, how is the sex/gender identity established, and what are rela-
tionships, roles, and stereotypes of gender?
from the sexual orientation (a person can have a feminine identity and
feel attracted to men, to women, to both, or to neither). In the majority of
cases, gender identity develops depending on the social context, which
determines the expression of the gender that is appropriate to the bio-
logical sex. That is, when a person learns to be considered as a woman
or a man, they also learn which behaviors they should express, which
emotions they should have, which relationships they can maintain, which
possibilities are offered, and which kinds of work are more appropriate.
In Chapter 6, a good example is presented regarding the way of thinking
as to how a type of masculinity is constructed (ie, being tough, stoic, and
neglecting self-care, as the authors point out); there may be a clash in the
specific individual with lack of social power to attain these characteris-
tics. This may give rise to depression, for example. Moreover, Chapter 9
centers on the myth of the emotionally defective man, casting doubt on
what at times are assumed to be “classic” male characteristics and insist-
ing on the repercussions brought about by these considerations in mascu-
line therapy. However, it is necessary to note, as reflected in the chapters
of this book, that the complex and permanent interaction of the dual
reality sex/gender in these identity processes does not always allow free
adhesion to gender expectations or standards; on the contrary, most of the
time this occurs with the participation of many factors that are beyond
the individual’s awareness and therefore beyond free choice. The influ-
ence of socially and culturally constructed rules and stereotypes in men’s
and women’s lives and health is as strong as it is invisible (Chrisler, 2013).
Gender, understood as a result of interactions in a specific cultural and
social context and, beyond, its consideration as a stable attribute of the
individual (West & Zimmerman, 1987), is presented as a much more com-
plex and evolving reality in which gender socialization processes are open
and in permanent construction, and in which the decision to “do gender”
is far from a personal choice (See Chapter 3 on the Bird and Rieker frame-
work of Constrained Choice, applied to help explanation of disparities in
health). Gender identity should therefore be analyzed as a cross-sectional
reality, for which analysis requires an interdisciplinary approach and a
questioning of the binary categories that constitute a real threat to psy-
chological development and the access to a broader and more realistic
gender awareness.
the differences and similarities between men and women (Arango, León,
& Viveros, 1995). Gender relations define how people should interact with
others and how others relate to them, depending on their attributed gen-
der, and they should be analyzed within the cultural context in which they
develop.
Gender roles are the form in which a person’s gender identity is
expressed. They are standards of behavior that the social group defines as
appropriate for men and women, and they influence people’s daily lives;
they are the rules that tell them how they should feel, what to expect, what
gestures are correct, how to dress, what they can aspire to, how to express
themselves, and how to relate. From these definitions, the roles of women
and men are described symbolically as expressions of femininity and mas-
culinity, and they are regulated until they become rigid stereotypes that
limit individual behavior and development.
Lastly, stereotypes are the most commonly studied examples of social
categorization (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), and in the formation of all these
identity processes, they hold an important position (Martínez Benlloch,
2007). The concept of stereotype evokes concepts of prejudice and dis-
crimination when its meaning is negative, or a simplification of very sche-
matic characteristics in a more positive sense. In both cases, it is a rigid
and structured set of beliefs that are shared by members of society, refer-
ring to personal characteristics (personality traits, attributions, expecta-
tions, motivations, interests) or typical behaviors of a specific group. They
are “mental shortcuts” based on an abusive use of generalizations and
images that allow the confirmation of some of the subjects’ beliefs and
their adaptation to their environment (Ashmore & del Boca, 1981). They
are internalized in processes of social interaction and they promote the
positive assessment of the ingroup and the justification of the person’s
perceptions of the outgroup. Stereotypes are often based on three main
characteristics: age, sex, and race (Fiske, 1998; Stangor, 2000). As they are
a subjective construction, they include beliefs, expectations, and causal
attributions, which means that stereotyped thoughts do not always coin-
cide with reality, because they are basically mental images proceeding
from high cognitive elaboration.
Table 1.1 summarizes some of the features that have been pointed out
to describe the masculine and feminine stereotypes in current Western
culture (Fernández, 2004; Martínez Benlloch, 2007; Moser, 1989; Sánchez-
López, 2013a).
From the stereotypes about what men and women are like, sexism,
understood as the attitude toward a person or group on the basis of his
or her sex, is constructed. As in any attitude, in sexism three components
are differentiated: (1) the cognitive component, understood as the way in
which the target of the attitude is perceived. It is made up of thoughts,
ideas, beliefs; these are stereotypes; (2) the emotional component, consisting
The Sex/Gender System 9
Adapted from Martínez Benlloch, I. (2007). Actualización de conceptos en perspectiva de género y salud. En
Colomer, C. & Sánchez-López, M.P. (2007). Programa de Formación de Formadores/as en Perspectiva de Género
en Salud: Materiales Didácticos. Madrid: Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo and Sánchez-López, M. P. (2013a). La
salud desde la perspectiva de género: el estado de la cuestión. En M.P. Sánchez López (Ed.), La salud de las mujeres.
Análisis desde la perspectiva de género (pp. 17–40). Madrid: Síntesis.
of feelings or emotions derived from beliefs about the target of the atti-
tude; these are prejudices, marked by ambivalence; that is, by the coexis-
tence of positive feelings and rejection; and (3) the behavioral component
or tendency to act, which is expressed in discrimination.
Usually two types of sexist attitudes are mentioned: the hostile and
the benevolent attitude (Glick & Fiske, 1997, 2001, 2011). Manifestations
of hostile sexism still persist in those cultures that consider dominating
paternalism as valuable, that defend women’s inferiority and the com-
petitive differentiation of gender, that contrast the structural power of
men (which enables them to control the political, economic, religious,
and legal institutions) with the dyadic power of women (based on their
reproductive capacity and dependence relations), and that endorse het-
erosexual hostility, which considers that women’s sexual power is dan-
gerous and manipulative. Men’s hostility has been confirmed in some
studies as an attempt to control women and intimidate them, to keep
them “in their place,” not challenging the authority and power attrib-
uted to men (Jackman, 1999, 2001). As described in Chapter 7, vio-
lence against women is considered a gender-based violence because of
10 1. HEALTH FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE
The distinction between sex and gender and the recognition of their
interaction in individual development are increasingly common in health
studies. However, the importance of this distinction is still not sufficiently
recognized, and both terms still continue to intermesh in some scientific
studies and official documents on health policy (Connell, 2012).
Historically, research and the design of health programs have placed
much more emphasis on the differences between the sexes than on the
complex interaction between sex, gender, and health (Oertelt-Prigione,
Parol, Krohn, Preissner, & Regitz-Zagrosek, 2010). It is known that the
different ways in which men and women fall ill cannot only—or even
often—be explained by genetic differences with a biological foundation
and traditionally attributable to sexual differences. Therefore it is neces-
sary to introduce the concept of gender to explain some differences that
depend on our way of life, our expectations, and other social and cul-
tural aspects. The chapters of this book will go more deeply into different
aspects of these relationships between sex, gender, and health.
Numerous works (eg, Bendelow, Carpenter, Vautier, & Williams, 2002;
Bird & Rieker, 2008; Chrisler, Golden, & Rozee, 2012; Hunt & Annandale,
2011) and all the chapters of this book show how the fact of taking gender
into account helps us to understand how the cultural and social environ-
ment in which the person is immersed can have a major impact on the dif-
ferential exposure of women and men (and of boys and girls) to risks and
accidents, on their access to basic resources to achieve good health, and
on aspects such as the appearance, severity, and frequency of illnesses, as
well as the reactions they provoke, socially and culturally. However, public
THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN HEALTH 11
Likewise, gender roles can exert economic and cultural pressures that
will variously affect women and men’s health; they can influence what
kind of occupation is “appropriate,” depending on whether one is a man
or a woman, or how to divide tasks related to paid and unpaid work,
which in turn can produce different risks and vulnerabilities for men and
for women. In short, they can produce differences in needs, behaviors,
and health-related statuses. For example, as we will see in Chapter 11,
women are normally made responsible for feeding their children in their
first months of life, which, in addition to being an obstacle in their profes-
sional development, can have negative consequences for their health.
Therefore not only sex and gender, but also sex and gender have been
shown to be able to influence the vulnerability or exposure to certain risk
factors, diseases, or health problems, and ultimately to produce inequali-
ties in health (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010). Understanding these factors
that contribute to health inequalities and attempting to resolve them helps
achieve the essential conditions to meet the needs of individuals and
groups in order to reduce or modify harmful and risk behaviors. That is,
understanding is necessary to decrease the barriers and promote health
throughout the life cycle (Blas, Sommerfeld, & Kurup, 2011; Marmot,
2010). An example of this can be found in the different impact exerted
by HIV in men and women depending upon the time of their life cycle
in which they find themselves and varying possibilities provided by an
analysis from the gender perspective in its treatment and prevention, as is
developed in Chapter 10.
Of course, not every health difference between women and men, or boys
and girls, implies gender inequality. This concept is reserved for those dif-
ferences that are unnecessary, avoidable, and unfair. It is often considered
that these differences may be the result of chance or genetic and biological
factors, but they generally arise because people have unequal access to
key factors that influence health, such as income level, level of schooling,
employment, and social support networks, to name only a few. Therefore
to achieve full gender equity in health would not necessarily translate into
equal rates of mortality and morbidity in women and men, for example,
but into the elimination of avoidable differences in opportunities to enjoy
health and not to fall ill, suffer disabilities, or die from preventable causes.
Likewise, gender equity in health does not necessarily imply equal quotas
of resources and services for men and women; equity implies a differential
allocation and reception of resources, according to the particular needs of
each person and in each specific socioeconomic context.
T. F. Millard,
A Comparison of the Armies in China
(Scribner's Magazine, January, 1901).
{133}
"The next picture that engraved itself upon my memory had for
its frame the town of Tong-kew. … On the right bank [of the
Pei-ho] naked children were amusing themselves in the infected
water which covered them to the arm-pits, dancing, shouting,
splashing each other, turning somersaults, and intoxicating
themselves with the pure joy of living. A few yards behind
them lay their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, dead,
unburied, mouldering away. On the left bank, which was also
but a few yards off, was the site of Tongkew: a vast expanse
of smoking rubbish heaps. Not a roof was left standing; hardly
a wall was without a wide breach; formless mounds of baked
mud, charred woodwork, and half-buried clothes were burning or
smouldering still. Here and there a few rootless dwellings
were left, as if to give an idea of what the town had been
before the torch of civilisation set it aflame. Everyone of
these houses, one could see, had been robbed, wrecked, and
wantonly ruined. All the inhabitants who were in the place
when the troops swept through had been swiftly sent to their
last account, but not yet to their final resting-place. Beside
the demolished huts, under the lengthening shadows of the
crumbling walls, on the thresholds of houseless doorways, were
spread out scores, hundreds of mats, pieces of canvas,
fragments of tarpaulin, and wisps of straw, which bulged
suspiciously upwards. At first one wondered what they could
have been put there for. But the clue was soon revealed. In
places where the soldiers had scamped their work, or prey
birds had been busy, a pair of fleshless feet or a plaited
pigtail protruding from the scanty covering satisfied any
curiosity which the passer-by could have felt after having
breathed the nauseating air. Near the motionless plumage of
the tall grass happy children were playing. Hard by an
uncovered corpse a group of Chinamen were carrying out the
orders they had received from the invaders. None of the living
seemed to heed the dead. …
"Fire and sword had put their marks upon this entire country.
The untrampled corn was rotting in the fields, the pastures
were herdless, rootless the ruins of houses, the hamlets
devoid of inhabitants. In all the villages we passed the
desolation was the same. … The streets and houses of
war-blasted cities were also the scenes of harrowing
tragedies, calculated to sear and scar the memory even of the
average man who is not given to 'sickly sentimentality.' In
war they would have passed unnoticed; in times of peace
(hostilities were definitely over) they ought to have been
stopped by drastic measures, if mild means had proved
ineffectual. I speak as an eye-witness when I say, for
example, that over and over again the gutters of the city of
Tungtschau ran red with blood, and I sometimes found it
impossible to go my way without getting my boots bespattered
with human gore. There were few shops, private houses and
courtyards without dead bodies and pools of dark blood. … The
thirst of blood had made men mad. The pettiest and most
despicable whipper-snapper who happened to have seen the light
of day in Europe or Japan had uncontrolled power over the life
and limbs, the body and soul, of the most highly-cultivated
Chinaman in the city. From his decision there was no appeal. A
Chinaman never knew what might betide him an hour hence, if the
European lost his temper. He might lie down to rest after
having worked like a beast of burden for twelve or fourteen
hours only to be suddenly awakened out of his sleep, marched a
few paces from his hard couch, and shot dead.
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He was never told, and probably seldom guessed, the reason
why. I saw an old man and woman who were thus hurriedly
hustled out of existence. Their day's work done they were
walking home, when a fire broke out on a little barge on the
river. They were the only living beings found out of bed at
the time, and in the pockets of the woman a candle and some
matches were stowed away. Nobody, not even the boat-watchman,
had seen them on or near the boat. They were pounced upon,
taken to the river's edge, shot and buried. It was the work of
fifteen minutes or less. …
E. J. Dillon,
The Chinese Wolf and the European Lamb
(Contemporary Review, January, 1901).
"After it was over the generals and staff officers and the
Ministers and other privileged persons returned by the way we
had come through the Forbidden City. Tea was provided by the
Chinese officials in the summer-house of the palace garden,
the quaint beauties of which there was now time to appreciate.
Beautiful stone carvings and magnificent bronzes claimed
attention. The march through had occupied about an hour, and
another was spent sauntering back through the various halls
and courtyards. As the halls were cleared the Chinese
attendants hastily closed the doors behind us with evident
relief at our departure. A few jade ornaments were pocketed by
quick-fingered persons desirous of possessing souvenirs, but
on the whole the understanding that there was to be no looting
was carried out. Arrived at the courtyard where their horses had
been left, the generals and staff officers mounted and rode
out of the palace, and the rest of us followed on foot. The
gates were once more closed and guards were stationed outside
to prevent anyone from entering. The Forbidden City resumed
its normal state, inviolate, undesecrated. The honour of the
civilized world, we were told, had been thus vindicated. But
had it?"
London Times,
Peking Correspondence.
"To this declaration our reply has been made by the following
memorandum:—'The Government of the United States has received
with much satisfaction the reiterated statement that Russia
has no designs of territorial acquisition in China and that,
equally with the other Powers now operating in China, Russia
has sought the safety of her Legation and to help the Chinese
Government to repress the existing troubles. The same purposes
have moved, and will continue to control, the Government of
the United States, and the frank declarations of Russia in
this regard are in accord with those made to the United States
by the other Powers. All the Powers, therefore, having
disclaimed any purpose to acquire any part of China, and now
that the adherence thereto has been renewed since relief
reached Peking, it ought not to be difficult by concurrent
action through negotiations to reach an amicable settlement
with China whereby the treaty rights of all the Powers shall
be secured for the future, the open door assured, the
interests and property of foreign citizens conserved, and full
reparation made for the wrongs and injuries suffered by them.
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