This book traces the history of formative, enduring concepts, foundational in the development of the health disciplines. It explores existing literature, and subsequent contested applications. Feminist legacies are discussed with a clear message that early sociological and anthropological theories and debates remain valuable to scholars today. Chapters cover historical events and cultural practices from the standpoint of 'difference'; formulate theories about the emergence of social issues and problems and discuss health and illness in light of cultural values and practices, social conditions, embodiment and emotions. This collection will be of great value to scholars of biomedicine, health and gender.

The once productive association between feminism and the sociology of health and illness has broken down in recent years. In a social world marked by significant social change in men's and women's lives and their health, a gender-based analysis is urgently needed.
This books achieves this by bringing feminist theory and health sociology back together again in an innovative and insightful analysis of gender and health in contemporary society.

The once productive association feminism and the sociology of health and illness has broken down in recent years. In a social world marked by significant social change in men's and women's lives and their health, a gender-based analysis is urgently needed.
This books achieves this by bringing feminist theory and health sociology back together again in an innovative and insightful analysis of gender and health in contemporary society.

Publisher s note:

The publishers would like to confirm that for Volume 1: Theoretical and Methodological Developments and Volume 3: Gender and Healthcare Ellen Annandale was the lead editor and lead author of the introductions. Kate Hunt was the lead editor for Volume 2: Understanding the Patterning of Health by Gender and Volume 4: Gender and Health Behaviours

The order in the printed book did not reflect this distinction, but we are happy to clarify the correct order.

Life expectancy is higher for women than men in almost every country, leading the World Health Organization to suggest that their innate constitution gives women an advantage over men . However, this differential is far greater in some countries (e.g. Japan) than others (e.g. Qatar and Botswana) and rapid changes in the sex differential in life expectancy as seen in the countries of the former Soviet Union in the last decades of the twentieth century can only be explained by social factors. Research on health can thus demonstrate how the ways that different societies (historically and cross-culturally) create differential life chances and opportunities for men and women gets written on people s bodies.

Women s mortality advantage does not translate into better health across all outcomes. For example, women are diagnosed with more depression and more joint pain and associated disability. For many years, it was assumed that the aphorism that women get sicker but men die quicker (the so-called gender paradox ) was an adequate and useful summary for gender differences in health, but recent research shows patterns are far more complex. This complexity poses exciting challenges for research on gender and health. Gender inequalities in health provide a window to understand how the social world gets under the skin and how human health can be improved.

A tradition of research stemming back to at least the 1960s has highlighted the gendered assumptions that are built into the provision of healthcare. This occurs within the community where women generally shoulder the burden of caring for others, and in formal health systems where the division of labour is often highly patriarchal. Gendered assumptions about the kinds of health problems that men and women suffer from, and about the ways that they relate to symptoms of illness, may bias decision-making by service providers, often in ways that are not beneficial to health.

Issues and themes in and around gender and health such as these continue to generate a huge scholarly literature, and this new collection from Routledge s Major Themes in Health and Social Welfare series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to help researchers and students navigate and make sense of it. The collection is made up of four volumes which bring together the best and most influential canonical and cutting-edge research. It draws together key works spanning theoretical developments and empirical research which uses a range of qualitative and quantitative methods. With a full index, and thoughtful introductions, newly written by the editors, Gender and Health traces the progress of research in this field and highlights the challenges for future research. It will be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital and enduring resource.

This book traces the history of formative, enduring concepts, foundational in the development of the health disciplines. It explores existing literature, and subsequent contested applications. Feminist legacies are discussed with a clear message that early sociological and anthropological theories and debates remain valuable to scholars today. Chapters cover historical events and cultural practices from the standpoint of 'difference'; formulate theories about the emergence of social issues and problems and discuss health and illness in light of cultural values and practices, social conditions, embodiment and emotions. This collection will be of great value to scholars of biomedicine, health and gender.