A ‘hilarious’ video: The ‘double day’ and symptoms of a heart attack in women

In the video, we see a 30-something woman getting herself and her two young children ready for the day ahead. The scene is presented as a ‘typical’ morning in the life of your average (middle-class, white), nuclear family. We see a mom in the video taking on a dizzying array of chores and child care tasks simultaneously – doing laundry, preparing breakfast, putting together lunches for kids and husband, all while dressing herself and preparing for her own work day. Somewhere in the commotion hubby walks into the kitchen, asks his wife if she’s okay (to which she says yes), and strolls out with lunch in hand without lifting a finger (so far as we can tell). The chaotic scene escalates when we see her drop a plate as she experiences increasing shortness of breath, pain in her chest, arm, and jaw, dizziness, and weakness (symptoms of a heart attack). As her two kids pick up their school bags and leave to meet the car pool outside to go to school, her son hands his mom her smart phone with a list of heart attack symptoms which exactly match those she is experiencing at the moment. Upon this realization, she calls 911 saying “I’m sorry to bother you, but, I think I’m having a little heart attack” and lists several symptoms she is experiencing, to which the person on the other end of the phone confirms that yes, this is a very real possibility (oddly enough to the woman’s surprise), and says an ambulance will be there in a few minutes. Upon hearing this news, the woman looks around the kitchen at the mess of toys on the floor, etc., and asks “Can you make it ten??” And so ends the scene in the kitchen, after which we see the woman at the hospital sitting on a bed, looking as prim and proper as ever, with her husband beside her using a stethoscope to listen to her heart beat (well, eventually, first he puts it on her breast… because he, and perhaps many a husband, does not know where the heart is actually located??)

As I said before, I do not dispute that this video does an excellent job of depicting a realistic enactment of one woman’s experience of a heart attack; nor do I dispute that this video provides an accurate depiction of what a typical morning is for many white, middle class women married to a partner of the opposite sex – the ‘double day’ in which women work full time and are also responsible for childcare and the majority of housework is well documented in research and known very well by women. Thus, the video presents itself in a way that is accessible in that many women probably identify with and recognize familiar aspects of their own family’s typical, chaotic morning (though most likely this video is not nearly as palatable to women from different social locations and socioeconomic levels).

For me, this video is not as humourous as it is sad to see this woman struggle to keep it all together through an impossible number of tasks to complete every morning (for herself and everyone else in her family). This scene evokes the dialogue around the question “can women have it all?” that has been going around the internets for some time now. “Women having it all” is presented as a more or less attainable/desirable arrangement where a woman astutely balances a large amount of responsibilities at home and at work as an ideal for which to strive. Many women’s own recognition of similar circumstances in their own lives goes a long way to show how little things have changed for women within the home, even as hours spent working outside of the home for women have increased. In one person’s view, “women aren’t having it all – we’re doing it all”. Furthermore, as Jessica Valenti puts it, women are pressured to be a ‘mom first’ and a ‘person second’, and anytime a woman resists the saintly martyr role expected of her by elevating the importance of her own well-being to that of her children and/or spouse she is looked down upon very negatively by many people close to her and by many members of larger society. The quest to be ‘supermom’ is taken very seriously by many women because we are told that we are ALWAYS to be ‘mother’s first’ and that this is the most important job we have and that we will be failures as mothers if we do not always put being a mom first in our lives. As Jessica Valenti puts it, women are expected to define themselves not as individuals in their own right but instead solely in relation to other people (as a wife, mother, daughter, etc.). In addition, as one author points out, it is fine to discuss the hardships you face as a mother, but it is completely unacceptable to critique the larger social structures women have been conditioned to buy into which breed expectations for a motherhood comprised of impossible standards and rife with anxiety. In fact, research shows that rates of depression in women who work the ‘double day’ and who work to fulfill the role of ‘supermom’ are higher than women who can make accommodations so as to not take on overwhelming amounts of work inside and outside of the home.

Despite well established social risk factors, the risk factors for heart attacks emphasized often for women usually include things like unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, and smoking, and for some reason seem to ignore altogether social factors which contribute disproportionately to poor health in women. Higher burdens of housework and childcare (due in large part to a lack of affordable childcare), a lower level of eligibility for unemployment benefits due to lower rates of full-time work, lower paying jobs overall, and greater workplace discrimination on average in comparison with men are all cited as contributing to poorer overall health in women. At the same time, these inequalities are cited as impacting the health of people of all sexes and/or genders, and the provision of living wages and affordable housing are emphasized as required changes for the improved health of all individuals. It is also important to note particularly harmful intersections of oppression between gender and race where people of colour experience disproportionate negative health effects due to lower socioeconomic status, and this includes new Canadians. In my opinion, preventative public health campaigns need to emphasize the social determinants of health and mental health so people may better understand how social structures in our society impact the quality of our everyday lives, patterns of interactions with other people, experiences within major systems (e.g. education, healthcare), and with institutions (e.g. within marriage, government). Sex and/or gender are huge parts of the social determinants of health and mental health, and heart disease is cited as being very much preventable, so it is a shame that people are not being made more aware of many significant (though obviously value laden) social factors. An important additional point to consider is that the video depicts a woman most likely in her 30s having a heart attack (the protagonist is played by Elizabeth Banks who herself is 39), when in fact the highest rates of heart disease occur for women between the ages of 45 and 64 (1 in 8) and this number jumps to 1 in 4 for women over the age of 65. For me, this highlights who or which groups of women are considered by society as ‘worthwhile’ and most important to “save” – namely white, middle-class, relatively young (compared with groups of women at higher risk for heart disease), married women who are also mothers. Interesting. I think it’s also safe to assume that the protagonist in the video will return to her (unchanged) role within the family upon her discharge from the hospital. Again, this sends the message that it is her heart that needs fixing…. not the social structures and roles which contribute to poorer health in women in the first place.

As a final point, it is important to note that when asked about their ideal work/life balance, the majority of women and men desire an equal arrangement where work inside and outside of the home is shared. However, when asked about their preferred ‘fallback positions’, that is if an equal division of labour is not possible, men tend towards a preference for traditional gender roles while women tend towards preferring divorce and working and raising children on their own. Overall, I feel that women (and all people for that matter) should be able to work towards building a fulfilling life in all areas (e.g. work, family, passions and hobbies outside of these, etc.) with a level of balance they can live comfortably and happily in, and of course these lives can look quite different from one another depending on what suits individual people. We should also be demanding the supports necessary (childcare policy, wages, spousal, family, etc.) to pursue fulfillment in work and family life. I believe this opens up not only women’s freedom to put more emphasis on their work life outside of the home while maintaining a fair balance of work inside the home, but also makes conditions more favourable for men who wish to strike a similar balance and who perhaps wish to be more involved in family life and take on a fair share of household work (speaking in terms of opposite-sex partnerships).

Being armed with this knowledge is helpful during moments when I hear people espouse the fallacy that feminism is ‘irrelevant’ today as men and women have achieved equality (duh!). Judging by what has been covered here, I think it’s undeniably clear that feminism and analyses of population health that include gender as lens continue to be a critical piece of the puzzle.