Why and how is gender or age significant when we consider issues of health and illness? How might an understanding of gender or age help doctors in planning health education?
During this essay I am going to answer the question that is noted above, but I will be focusing on the topic of gender. The topics I am going to cover are defining gender, describing the health differences that are faced by people of different genders, and then I will focus on health education issues relating to gender.
Gender and sex have been defined by sociologists as two different things. Sociologists have defined the term ‘sex’ as relating to the biological differences between men and women based on their anatomy, whereas the term ‘gender’ relates to the social and cultural differences that men and women display (Bruce and Yearly 2006). Although the term gender has a biological basis, it is important to note that it is the social and cultural factors that shape the way gender is defined (Connell 2009). These social and cultural factors encompass people’s self representation, their social representation and how they are viewed by others from a sociological point of view (Rocha-Sanchez and Diaz-Loving 2005). These are the definitions for sex and gender that I will be using during the course of this essay.
There are many ways in which men and women’s health can vary, but the topics which I will focus on are the differences in morbidity and mortality between men and women, the diseases that affect men and women differently and finally I will conclude with information on health education. Throughout the essay, I will attempt to explain the health inequalities based on gender (Arber and Thomas 2004).
Morbidity and mortality are interlinking topics...
... middle of paper ...
....
Miles, A. (1991). Women, Health and Medicine, Open University Press.
Nettleton, S. (2006). The Sociology of Health and Illness, Polity Press.
Payne, S. (2006). The Health of Men & Women, Polity.
Popay, J. (1992). 'My Health is all right, but I'm just tired all the time' Women's experience of ill health. Women's Health Matters. H. Roberts, Routledge.
Rocha-Sanchez, T. E. and R. Diaz-Loving (2005). "Culture and Gender: An Idealogical Gap between Males and Females." Anales De Psicologia 21(1): 42-49.
Scambler, G. (2003). Sociology as Applied to Medicine, Saunders.
Veenstra, G. (2011). "Race, gender, class, and sexual orientation: Intersecting axes of inequality and self-rated health in Canada." International Journal for Equity in Health 10(1): 3.
Weitz, R. (2009). The Sociology of Health, Illnes and Healthcare, Cengage Learning.
To begin, I think it is important to analyze the difference between “sex” and “gender”. Up until researching for this paper, I though that the two terms were interchangeable in meaning, rather, they are separate ideas that are connected. According to Mary K. Whelan, a Doctor of Anthropology focusing on gender studies, sex and gender are different. She states, “Western conflation of sex and gender can lead to the impression that biology, and not culture, is responsible for defining gender roles. This is clearly not the case.”. She continues with, “Gender, like kinship, does have a biological referent, but beyond a universal recognition of male and female "packages," different cultures have chosen to associate very different behaviors, interactions, and statuses with men and women. Gender categories are arbitrary constructions of culture, and consequently, gender-appropriate behaviors vary widely from culture to culture.” (23). Gender roles are completely defined by the culture each person lives in. While some may think that another culture is sexist, or dem...
...an, P., Egerter, S., & Williams, D. R. (2011). The social determinants of health: coming
Social determinants of health has been a large topic for many years and can have a positive and negative effect on individuals, families and communities. (World Health Organisation, 2009) The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. Social determinants have many factors and in this essay education will be the main social determinant of health discussed and how this could have an impact on the physical and mental sides of health.
de Vries, and Forger, (2015), use evidence from animal and human anatomies, and environmental influence, to explore the sex differences between males and females and how processes and events occurring in the body are solely due to gender. Berenbaum, and Beltz, (2011), discuss how the hormones associated with puberty and prenatal stages of life, can change the body biologically and be the main factor for individuals behaviour and out comes in their life. van Anders, and Watson, (2006), discuss in depth, several environmental influences and events in life that can have significant influences on our hormones and our biological processes inside our bodies and comparing these between males and females. There are gender differences associated with pain, with females being more vulnerable to pain.
The the book introduces the topic by defining sex and gender. Sex refers to the biology of your body, there are two aspects within this concept: primary sex characteristics and secondary characteristics. Primary characteristic is the genitalia which you are born with. Secondary sex characteristics has to do with the hormones; distribution of male and female hormones. Gender on the other hand is a societal concept that comes along with gender roles; which is when society places roles on how each gender should act. This is where sexist stereotypes such as “girls like pink and boys like blue” come about. Gender roles become impacted by other factors such as: religion, class, race, culture to name only a few. Culture and other aspects alter what is perceived as the norm; some cultures recognize an androgynous gender, while the concept is still taboo in many cultures. This chapter, assesses how patriarchy prevails given the fact that gender roles create an environment meant to benefit males more than
and, the individual's perception of and response to the disease. Whether in sickness or in health age and the progression through life play a large part in our health and our developmental status. The role of age in regard to health is listed below: - Most young adults are in good health and experience few limitations or disabilities. Nearly 71% of adults older than 65 living in a community report their health as excellent, good, or very good. - Health and mobility decline with age especially after age 80. Disease is more common among older adults.
Kevin White pp: 5-8k introduction to sociology of health and illness second edition books.goole.co.uk accessed 11-04-2014
Their research was one of the first to figure out the benefit of gender responsive program principles. Therefore, this article is
From a biological standpoint, men and women are defined purely based on the presence of a Y chromosome and certain bodily structures. Throughout history though, cultural and societal beliefs have cultivated an additional ever-changing definition on what it means to be male or female, which very much stretches beyond the biological perspective. This separate definition has led to the formation of gender roles that are essentially societal expectations for how a man or woman should behave. While there is little evidence supporting the notion that being born a particular sex puts one at greater risk of ill mental health, several studies have been conducted, concluding that gender roles have a much greater hand in one developing mental illness,
Kendal, Diana. "Sex and Gender." Sociology in Our Times 3.Ed. Joanna Cotton. Scarborough: Nelson Thomson, 2004. 339-367
In order to grasp the concept of social construction of gender, it is essential to understand the difference between sex and gender. Biologically, there are only two reproductive genital organs that are determinants of sex: the vagina and the penis. Sex is established solely through biological structures; in other words, genitalia are the basis of sex. Once a sex category is determined, gender, a human categorization socially attached to sex, is assigned based on anatomy. Gender typically references social or cultural differen...
Sex denotes to the bodily and birth features of men and women. Sex is the categorization of people into male and female groups based in biological characteristics. While gender is the cultural or social interpretation of sex; putting people into male behavioral and female expectations groups based on association with biological being a socially characteristics appropriate man or woman. In “The Social Construction of Gender”, “When sociologist refer to the social construction of gender, they are referring to the many different process by which the expectations associated with being a boy or girl are passed through society”. (p.22)
The past shapes the present. Learning about the history of a subject can be key in explaining how and why certain structures and practices exist the way they do now. How the history of medicine has been gendered provides insight in explaining how various aspects of medicine are gender-marked and segregated.
In the operation of the healthcare system, gender plays a central role. Gender discrimination in the healthcare exists either in the field of education, workplace or while attending to the patients. Interestingly, as opposed to other areas where discrimination lies heavily to a particular gender; gender inequality in health happens to both women and men. Gender inequality in the health care service negatively affects the quality of care given and perpetuates patient biases to a gender. Also, the gender disparities in the field of health assists researchers and practitioners to study conditions and their probable manifestations within both sexes.
Sex and gender are terms that are mixed up from day to day and seen as similarities rather than differences. Sex is what distinguishes people from being either male or female. It is the natural or biological variations between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genitals, body hair and internal and external organs. It is the make-up of chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome and women have two X chromosomes, these are responsible for primary characteristics (Fulcher and Scott, 2003). Gender on the other hand refers to the sociological differences between male and female. This is teaching males and females to behave in various ways due to socialisation (Browne, 1998). Example: masculinity and femininity. Girls are supposed to show their femininity by being non-competitive, sensitive, dependent, attractive and placid. If and when some girls don’t succeed in keeping this image they will be referred to as a tomboy. On the other hand, boys show their masculinity through aggression, physical strength...