A Socio-Legal Gender Perspective Through a Case-Study on Robotic Peripartum Depression Screening

Abstract:
Mental health disorders are usually gendered, with more women being diagnosed with depression for example. This elicits guidelines on how to diagnose mental health according to symptoms common to women, which in turn normalises those practices. This creates legal norms which are reflected when screening for such conditions; however, they require scrutiny, especially as they become formalised in organisational logics, healthcare structures or design, since those conditions should not be viewed as “women-only” issues. This scrutiny is offered in this presentation by focusing on Peripartum Depression (PPD) and a new technology envisioned to be embedded in healthcare, through socially assistive robots (SARs). PPD is a mental health condition which is said to affect women from the time of conception up to two years after giving birth. The condition is one that resembles major depressive disorder, but difficult to detect due to the stigma associated around PPD. In our previous study looking at automating PPD screening through SARs, we found ourselves and our participants wanting to mirror current practices – which are actually very gendered, especially as partners can suffer from PPD. This is key as SARs are robots designed to interact with humans, and thus somewhat mimic human norms within a specific context to be accepted by the user(s). This led to problematic gendered design implications for the robot in our study, including: (1) that predominantly the screening tool should be for pregnant women and (2) that the robot should be more feminine as it seems more caring and resembles the user. In line with these findings, this paper scrutinises how gendered norms inform the design of robotic technologies, with a basis in socio-legal theory on gender. The aim is to bring a perspective on how Sociology of Law and gender could help challenge such a problematic yet sensitive issue, and be used a theoretical framework to observe, study and challenge those norms in order to shed a critical light on gendered healthcare norms.