What do you think causes girls/women to have low self esteem?

Question

low esteem/confidence

Answer 1

high demands of society. Peer pressure. Being told your not pretty or good enough.

Answer 2

you get men and women with low self esteem it isnt just one gender. i dont really understand it but the majority of people i have ever met have had high self esteem

Answer 3

Men

Answer 4

I think it has to do with s*x...  We are sexual beings, and being told at a young age that you are not pretty, your fat, your are ugly, your nose is too big, you have a big butt, your not popular, etc, etc, etc., all has to do with not fitting in and being able to attract a mate.  For some reason it shows value when your able to attract many mates.  It's a shame.

Answer 5

It is society's requirements and expectations that girls are usually raised with. They are told to behave in certain ways that are anti human - be quiet, be good, be pretty etc. When girls are raised to be themselves whatever that is, they have more self esteem. Also many people indoctrinate their kids into male-centric religions at very young ages and this is also very self esteem destroying to most girls.

Answer 6

For each person it is different, of course.  But more interesting is the feeding of it and the perpetuating of it.  Most people suffer from a lack of confidence now and then, and even low self esteem.  But the fact that we now label it as almost a disorder, and discuss it so often only legitimizes it.  And no good will or can come from that.  Those young women who are attention seekers will use it as an excuse for their actions.  And do....

Answer 7

Demeaning remarks made by members of her household

Poor parenting (frequent use of negative/punitive language)

Media

Playground bullying

Being exposed to misogynist attitudes

Not enough participation in competitive activities (athletic or other)

I could go on, but I am out of time

Answer 8

I think it's the hundred billion dollars spent every year on advertising to women with the sole purpose of convincing them that:

they are too fat,

they have wrinkles,

their teeth are not white enough,

they have BO,

they have bad breath,

their **** are too small

, their hair is too gray,

they need more cleveage,

their a$$ is either too small or too big,

their hair color has no shine,

their hair has no body or bounce,

their clothes suck,

their husbands are growing disinterested,

if they can't have a career and raise a family and look d**n good doing it they are letting their family down,

they need vitamins,

their laundry isn't white enough

Their s*x life isn't great enough,

they are feeding their family the wrong brand of cereal

their house is not clean enough or germ free enough

Their cleaning products are making their babies and pets sick........Bla, Bla, Bla....

Answer 9

I may not be a woman but I know how to answer this one the things that cause low self esteem is everything around us they see billboards of hot,skinney models and feel like they must look that way and if not they feel ugly.They hear boys and society talking about a nice hot girl with nice curves a nice butt and large b*****s and they hide themselves if they don't have that ideal body that everyone loves then who would love them.Did you know that the barbie dolls that girls play with used to have bigger b***s but they reduceed the size because girls wanted b***s like those so everything we hear and see causes low self esteem even in some boys.

Answer 10

When I was younger, my self esteem faultered quite a bit. It was sad because you would see all these beautiful girls like Hilary Duff back in the earlier 2000's being called FAT on the front of Star magazine. And you'd think "if you think their fat, what the heck am I?!" it would really hurt. And Hilary ended up loosing loads of weight off her already beautiful teenage frame. It was sad. I'm glad we have Demi Moore now on the Disney channel to show our young generation that girls that aren't sticks can be beautiful too. My self esteem is now fine, but looking back on my younger years I remember how terrible it was. And for some young women, their bad self images never go away like I was lucky mine did. Even the most beautiful girls have bad self esteems.

I believe it's a mixture of the media, other girls or boys at their schools, and just something in their mine. It's different for everyone. But it is very sad, just do your part by never calling someone names or making them feel ugly. Make everyone feel beautiful and you're doing your part.

Answer 11

Generally the same factors as in boys/men. There are few repeated s*x differences in risk factors for low self esteem between the genders. The risk factors are:

parental style (less involved, low expectations)

level of positive regard

unrealistic conditions of worth

(There are others, these were the originals as set out by the people who first measured and discussed self worth)

Answer 12

I think our hormones are part of the problem as estrogen makes us less decisive than males. That is not a bad thing though.

We do see the wider picture that males don't plus loads of issues that men can't see and probably never will.

We are not listened to as much as males are but we often tend to defer to them too much instead of challenging them more

Answer 13

The same things that causes boys to have low self-esteem. Not enough encouragement from family, teachers, and friends. Instead they get some form of ridicule from various people on different matters. If your constantly told or it's been insinuated that your not good enough, whether that be in intelligence, or sports, or looks, etc, your gonna feel like c**p and have low self-esteem.

Answer 14

The most damaging to a girls self-esteem is not being with her biological father.

After that, harsh and consistent criticism.

But I don't think low self-esteem is as big a problem as narcissism.

Answer 15

Society has made it impossible for anyone to feel comfortable being themselves.

This goes for men and women.

Answer 16

Being put down all the time instead of built up.