Gender and health
- Gender and care cutting edge pack
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Providing care can be both a source of fulfilment and a major burden. For women and girls in particular, their socially prescribed role as carers can undermine their rights and limit their opportunities, capabilities and choices - posing a fundamental obstacle to gender equality and well-being.
This Cutting Edge Pack from BRIDGE assesses how it might be possible to move towards a world in which individuals and society recognise and value the importance of different forms of care, but without reinforcing care work as something that only women can or should do. The pack discusses why care is such an important issue for development work and social justice activism, especially in the face of emerging ‘care crises’ such as ageing populations and the HIV pandemic.
Gender refers to those characteristics of women and men that are socially and culturally determined; whereas sex refers to biological differences between women and men. Gender combines powerfully with other health determinants, such as poverty, age, ethnicity and other markers of social exclusion, to produce particular patterns of inequity, or unfair differences. The case for taking gender inequity seriously in health policy, planning and delivery encompasses rights based, effectiveness and sustainability arguments. The goals of gender equity and poverty eradication are interlinked and often interdependent.
Gender shapes vulnerability to illness and ability to protect and maintain health. For instance, high HIV prevalence rates amongst young women in sub-Saharan Africa reflect the multiple challenges girls and young women face in negotiating sexual relationships. Gender affects access to health services and the quality of care received. For example, shockingly high rates of maternal mortality remain in part due to the barriers many poor women face in accessing relevant services. In many contexts, this is exacerbated by limited availability of quality services to meet women’s needs. Gender also affects burdens of ill-health, as women and girls frequently carry out the caring role at household and community levels.
There is an urgent need for action within and beyond the health sector. Gender and health interactions are part of a broader context of institutionalised gender inequity in social and economic relationships, which goes beyond the provision of health services. The Millennium Development Goals recognise that access to education and decision-making at all levels, and to financial resources strongly affects the health status of women.
Recommended reading
- Taking action to improve women’s health through gender equality and women’s empowerment
- C. Grown; G. Rao Gupta; R. Pande / The Lancet, 2005
- Recommended reading
- This Lancet article outlines how the persistent disadvantages experienced by women act as barriers to improved health status. The authors argue that long-term and sustained improvements in women’s hea...
- Gender manual: a practical guide for development policy makers and practitioners
- H. Derbyshire / Department for International Development, UK, 2002
- This gender manual is designed to help non-gender specialists in recognising and addressing gender issues in their work. The intention is to demystify gender, make the concept and practice of gender “...
- Gender and health: a technical paper
- Women's Health and Development Programme, WHO, 1998
- Studies on health differences between men and women tend to emphasise biological factors as determinant. Instead, this technical paper, written by the Gender and Women’s Health Department at the World...
Latest Additions
- Case studies: Bangladesh women's groups
- Action on Disability and Development, 2012
- In Bangladesh women do not have the same level of protection from human rights violations as men, for disabled women the situation is even worse and they continue to experience severe deprivation and ...
- Brief on the global campaign to engage men as caregiving partners to promote better maternal health and sexual and reproductive health, reduce gender-based violence and promote child development and economic empowerment for women
- Instituto PROMUNDO, 2012
- Of all the topics discussed in engaging men in gender equality, the issue of men and caregiving, including men’s involvement in maternal health, remains conspicuously absent and underexplored. Indeed,...
- Mainstreaming gender perspective in the national health programmes: the challenges ahead
- L.K. Piang / 2010
- Poverty and ill health affect both men and women. However, the problems get compounded for women for many reasons like lack of resources, decisionmaking, etc... This paper examines some of the Nationa...
- Delivering as One on Violence against Women: From Intent to Action
- United Nations Population Fund , 2010
- This report summarizes the proceedings and recommendations of the “Delivering as One on Violence against Women: From Intent to Action” Global Consultation that was held on 3-4 November 201...
- Female sex workers use of sexual health services in Nepal
- L. Ghimire;W.C.S. Smith;E.R.V. Teijlingen / BioMed Central, 2011
- Statistics indicate that more than half of the women with sexually transmitted infections in Nepal sought sexual health services. This study explores female sex workers (FSWs) use of sexual health ...





