The Imposition of a Coerced Autonomy: Suicidal “Bad Girls,” Human Service Professionals, and Gender Bias

Abstract

Through a thematic analysis of four cases of suicide by young women identified from the National Coronial Information System, I apply a gendered lens to understanding the ways in which human service professionals’ expectations of feminine behavior, led them to view these young women as “bad girls” and imposed a disempowering “coerced autonomy” framework onto them. In this framework, the girls were held responsible for factors that caused their distress but were denied self-determination in their diagnosis and/or treatment. I aim to broaden our understanding of how gendered expectations can have fatal consequences.