Producing Gender Effects on Involuntary Mental Hospitalization

Abstract

This study examines how considerations of a candidate patient's gender influence involuntary mental hospitalization decisions. Based upon fieldwork done in mental health and legal settings, I describe the dynamics of the commitment decision-making process. I argue that effects of gender do not derive from a candidate patient's gender per se. Rather, gender's meaning and influence is established rhetorically during commitment proceedings. I conceptualize gender and its meaning as products of specific situations and occasions, and not as a fixed qualities of individuals. My analysis demonstrates how gender effects are produced through the descriptive activity of commitment proceedings.