Maureen McHugh, professor of Psychology, Indiana University-Pennsylvania, will speak on “What Do Women Want? The Medicalization of Women’s Sexuality Versus A New View.” The talk will be Thursday, April 18th at 3:30 p.m. in the College of Business Complex, Special Events Center. A reception will follow the event.
Dr. McHugh argues for a woman-centered perspective on women’s sexual desires and problems.This presentation will critique the medicalization of women’s sexual “dysfunction” and introduce a “New View” of women’s sexual problems. In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have focused on women’s sexuality and provoked a competitive commercial hunt for “the female Viagra.” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association medical classification system for sexual dysfunction also distorts sexual problems by over-attributing them to physiological functions for both women and men. But women’s sexual problems differ from men’s in basic ways which are not being examined or addressed. A pill, patch or surgery cannot adequately address the sexual problems commonly experienced by women in the U.S.
McHugh has published extensively in the areas of gender differences, feminist methods, and violence against women. Her work has been acknowledged by the Distinguished Publication Award of the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP) and is included in textbooks, anthologies and handbooks. As a site visitor for the American Psychological Association (APA), she is an advocate for the inclusion of diversity and gender in graduate education, and is currently the Chair of the APA Task Force on Inclusion of Gender and Sexuality in graduate training.
Co-sponsored by the Women’s Studies Center, the Department of Psychology’s Professional Counseling Program, and the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine’s Office of Women in Medicine and Science.
