With discussion of gender roles, perceptions, and inequalities trauma is bound to be a part of the conversation.
Even in our discussion of Nisa, the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, trauma of weaning experienced by young children was a topic of conversation. Although a gender-neutral trauma found among !Kung children, it illustrates the point that trauma is a common phenomenon and often a topic in our class.
With so much trauma, how does the world carry on? The answer is resiliency.
It appears that resiliency has both biological and social factors and this is an interesting article titled Women live longer than men even during severe famines and epidemics by Zarulli et al. The authors examined longevity and mortality of populations that experienced severe epidemics or famines as well as populations of slaves. They found that even in areas with overall high mortality rates, women outlive men.
Additionally, I know some students are still finalizing paper topics and gender and resiliency (although it would need to be narrowed) could be an interesting topic.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/01/03/1701535115
—Kari C.