Gender inequalities exist in health outcomes. Women generally live longer than men but have higher rates of illness. This complex picture is explained by biological, social, and structural factors. Biologically, male and female bodies differ but cannot fully explain changing gaps over time and place. Socially, gender roles shape health behaviors, work, care responsibilities, and medical experiences. Structurally, women often face disadvantage due to unequal power, resources, and the feminization of poverty.

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
25
Males
Females
20
• Consultations
15
with an NHS GP 10
by sex and age 5
2001/02
0
0-4 5-15 16-44 45-64 65-74 75 and over

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?