Introduction: Exploring Women’s Health — Differences, Discourses and Disciplines

Abstract

While many women, especially in the developed world, are living longer, reviews of recent research, notably that of the World Health Organization’s Gender and Health Working Group (Doyal et al., 1998), have clearly demonstrated how women are subject to health inequalities conditioned by wider socio-economic inequalities: mental stress and poverty linked to their care roles (Barnett and Marshall, 1991; Bartley et al., 1992; Belle, 1990); restricted access to health services or to health policy decision-making (Brems and Griffiths, 1993; Doyal, 1985; Gijsbers van Wijk et al., 1996; Standing, 1997; Timyan et al., 1993); health problems relating to reproductive systems (Germain et al., 1992) and women’s preponderance in the ageing population (WHO, 1996). Enabling women’s health, therefore, raises multi-layered issues which cannot be solved simply by focusing on the individualized interventions which characterize a purely medical approach. What is also required is a means to understand and act on the multifactorial context which influences the health of women’s minds and bodies.

So we can see that gender inequalities in access to a wide range of resources have a significant impact on the health of women. Though they have a longer average life expectancy than men, they do not necessarily lead healthier lives. And most importantly, a considerable amount of the illness they experience can be traced back in one way or another to the nature of their daily lives and should therefore be preventable through public policy.

(Doyal, 2000: p. 939)