Gender inequalities in health

1. Gender inequalitiesin health Week 18 Sociology of Health and Illness

2. Recap • Thought about how health and illness are structured by society • Considered the ‘sick role’, medicalisation, surveillance medicine and ‘lay’ understandings of health • Considered different explanations about the impact of social class on health

3. Outline • Consider the evidence for an association between gender and health • Look at completing explanations • Biological • Social • Structural

4. Gender Differences • Gender differences in health are often related to the maxim: • Women get sicker but men die quicker • Some evidence of this, but complex picture

5. Mortality Difference • In the UK, women generally life longer than men (National Statistics online) • Life expectancy at birth: by sex in the UK

6. Health care usage • More women than men consult their GP National Statistics online • Consultations with an NHS GP by sex and age 2001/02

7. Limiting illness • Other statistics give a different picture National Statistics online • 2001 Census People in private households with a long-term illness

8. Gender differences • What do you think might account for the different levels of gender differences in the 3 areas: • Mortality • Health care usage • Morbidity

9. Explaining Gender Differences • There are 3 different groups of explanations: • Biological • Social Roles • Structural factors

10. Biological Explanations • Biological explanations focus on genetic and physiological differences • Male and female bodies are different • But mortality and morbidity gaps change over time and between places • So this does not see to be a sufficient explanation

11. Social Roles • The construction of normative ideas about masculinity and femininity has implications for health • Different risk behaviours • Alcohol, smoking • Traffic Accidents major case of young male death • Gendered work • Occupational risks, domestic labour, unregulated markets

12. Do you think women and men’s lifestyles and work can account for gendered differences?

13. Social Roles • Social relationships are also gendered • Women’s responsibility for ‘care’ includes maintaining the family’s health • Women’s roles in the family and community • Older single men more vulnerable to isolation

14. Social Roles • Gendered roles in reporting • Women and men are socialised to experience bodily sensations differently • Women say how they feel, men report physical sensations • Men may be more reluctant to seek medical advice

15. Do you think there are gendered differences in the experiences of bodily sensations? • If so, how might this impact on health?

16. Social Roles • Gendered diagnosis • Women and men may get different diagnosis • Psychiatric disorder rather than Chronic Fatigue Syndrome • Differences found in the prescription of drugs • Differences found in treatment

17. Patriarchal medicine? • Women’s bodies are deemed to be inherently pathological • Defined by their unstable reproductive bodies • The medicalisation of menstruation, pregnancy and menopause leads to higher health care usage • Removing appointments related to reproduction evens out the statistics

18. Structural factors • Material circumstances make a different to health outcomes • Differences between men and women • Power and resources in the home can leave women disadvantaged • Feminization of poverty • Differences between women • Intersection with social class

19. Summary • Considered the relationship between gender and health • Gendered roles and relationships have an important impact on health • This intersects with other areas of social disadvantage

20. Next week • Continue to consider health inequalities by focusing on ethnicity • Look at explanations for ethnic differences and experiences of health patterns • What impact does racism have?