Gender and Social Inequities in Health

‘This path-breaking book focuses on how gender is central to an understanding of inequalities in health. Women are more likely to be disadvantaged in terms of power, work status and access to resources in nearly all societies. This book provides a critical analysis of how women's disadvantaged position in different societies, and across various dimensions of their lives has an adverse effect on their health. A key thread is the need to integrate a gender perspective with the hitherto dominant perspective of socio-economic factors having a pivotal impact on health. The book contains chapters from a wide range of eminent authors to illustrate the ways in which socially constructed gender roles lead to differential exposure to risk factors.This clearly written book should be essential reading within the fields of public health, epidemiology and for health policy makers.’Sara Arber, University of Surrey ‘Building on critical analyses of women, gender, and health written over the past 30 years – as sparked by the rise of the international women’s health movement in the 1970s – the present volume represents a step forward in integrating notions of “gender” into contemporary work on “social inequalities in health” focused chiefly on socioeconomic position and health. Particularly salient to researchers focused on social determinants of health, this book is a useful addition to a fast-growing field examining how gender relations and gender inequality, in conjunction with other forms of social inequality, especially involving social class and race/ethnicity, are important determinants of women’s health, population health, and health disparities.’ Nancy Krieger, Associate Professor, Harvard School of Public Health...