The increasing proportion of women in the medical profession has been followed keenly both by conservative and feminist observers during the past three decades. Statistics both in Europe and in the United States tend to confirm that women work mainly in niches of the health care system or medical specialties characterized by relatively low earnings or prestige. The segregation of medical work has become increasingly recognized as a sign of inequality between female and male members of the medical profession.
Medicine as a social organization is not a universal structure: Health care systems vary in the extent to which physicians work in the private or public sector and in the extent to which they have as a corporate body been able to influence their numbers and the character of their work. The aim of this book is not only to review and to provide an account of women's position in medicine but also to provide an analytical framework. The text revolves around three key issues that illuminate this argument: numbers, medical practice, and feminist agendas of women physicians. The issues are addressed in all the chapters but highlighted as central analytical themes in a cross-cultural context.
Challenging previous studies of the medical profession, which have assumed for the most part a gender-neutral stance, Riska's text provides a unique focus. "Medical Careers and Feminist Agendas" presents a comprehensive, cross-national analysis of the current status of women in three societies where the economics of medical practice vary considerably: a market society, a welfare state, and a formerly communist society in transition. Aimed at a wide audience, this book will be useful for years to come in medical sociology, the sociology of professions, and women's studies. Its historical breadth, current data, and trenchant probing will furnish practitioners and policy-makers alike with a needed analytical tool.
"Elianne Riska" is Academy Professor of the Academy of Finland, and von Willebrand-Fahlbeck Professor of Sociology at bo Academi University, Finland. She was formerly assistant and then associate professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. Her earlier published work includes "Gender, Work, and Medicine" and "Gendered Moods."

Although tranquillizers are prescribed to almost twice as many women as men, very little gender-based research has been carried out in the area. Referring extensively to studies on long term users of psychotropics and aided by an analysis of drug advertising, Gendered Moods offers a sensitive analysis of the gendered character of psychotropic drug use and concludes that women are particularly susceptible to being channelled into a state of dependency through the regular prescribing of mood-altering drugs.
A critical review of previous research is also included and current debates on social scientific perspectives relating to drug users and providers are explored. Gendered Moods will provide a much needed introduction to a neglected area of study in a field of growing importance.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203418662

Tranquillisers are prescribed to almost twice as many women as men, yet very little gender-based research has been carried out on the social context of their use.
Gendered Moods offers the first feminist analysis of the gendered character of psychotropic drug use, based on studies of long-term psychotropic drug users and the content of drug advertising. The authors argue that gender differences in psychotropic drug use are manifestations of the gendered construction of society as a whole, and that, as a result, women are particularly susceptible to being channelled into a state of dependency on prescribed drugs.
Exploring current social scientific debates relating to drug users and providers, Gendered Moods also provides a critical review of previous research. It is a much needed introduction to a neglected area of study.

Are men truly marked by their personality to fall victim to coronary heart disease (CHD)? Far from being immutable, medical categorizations of men prone to heart attacks rely heavily on cultural stereotypes of masculinity. So argues this book, which explores the social construction of one of men's major health problems in modern American medicine. Elianne Riska traces the course of sociological and gender theory on men and masculinities and argues that we must look beyond the middle-class male paradigm to consider the nuances of race, class, and sexual orientation. Applying a sociology-of-knowledge framework to the scientific literature on high CHD rates among men, the author examines various personality theories that have been deployed over time. Her genealogical approach traces the scientific discovery of and the measurement techniques for mapping at-risk personality types: Type A, the "hardy man," and the John Henry or "race man." The book analyzes the three psychological categories and argues that they each describe a category of men who occupy specific social positions. Using data on men's high death rates from CHD, the author illuminates contemporary thinking on how changes in the economic and social order influence men's health.

Are men truly marked by their personality to fall victim to coronary heart disease (CHD)? Far from being immutable, medical categorizations of men prone to heart attacks rely heavily on cultural stereotypes of masculinity. So argues this book, which explores the social construction of one of men's major health problems in modern American medicine. Elianne Riska traces the course of sociological and gender theory on men and masculinities and argues that we must look beyond the middle-class male paradigm to consider the nuances of race, class, and sexual orientation. Applying a sociology-of-knowledge framework to the scientific literature on high CHD rates among men, the author examines various personality theories that have been deployed over time. Her genealogical approach traces the scientific discovery of and the measurement techniques for mapping at-risk personality types: Type A, the 'hardy man,' and the John Henry or 'race man.' The book analyzes the three psychological categories and argues that they each describe a category of men who occupy specific social positions. Using data on men's high death rates from CHD, the author illuminates contemporary thinking on how changes in the economic and social order influence men's health.