1. Gender inequalities in 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?