Are women especially prone to “burnt toast syndrome”?

February 7, 2013

Curing “burnt toast syndrome”—what Jo Hlder learned about self-care
Author and cancer counselor Jo Hilder blogs from Australia and shares with us this three-word “diagnosis” that she received from her pharmacist. I think it applies especially to women. Women have been expected to care for everyone else’s needs and care for themselves only if and when there is a little time and energy left over. Such an expectation has been part of female socialization— and doubly so in many Christian circles which stress strict gender-role teachings about God’s having created women primarily to help and serve others.  Jo Hilder writes, “I also needed to make my own happiness and comfort a priority as well as that of my family and friends, and stop seeing personal sacrifice and self-denial as noble, or a sign of my love.”