Project description
Unveiling the relationship between gender and health inequalities in Europe
Gender and health inequalities exist worldwide. In the EU, the move towards gender equality is proceeding at a snail’s pace. As for differences in health status, these exist both between and within EU member states. The EU-funded GENDHI project will investigate the current situation to explain how gender intersects with other social hierarchies (social class and race/ethnicity) to produce social inequalities in health. Researchers will consider how (un)healthy bodies are socially constructed and how health-seeking behaviours and patterns of care are shaped by gender. The project will develop a triangulation analysis based on quantitative analysis and qualitative data from family monographies, interviews, patients and doctors. The focus will be on hypertension and myocardial infarction as well as depression, Alzheimer’s disease and colorectal cancer.
Objective
"In all European countries, social inequalities in health remain pervasive. Much research has identified a number of social stratifiers of health while others have specified the role of the health care system in contributing to the evolution of health inequalities. However, gender, as a social relation of power between men and women, is rarely considered as a key determinant of health inequalities, and when it is, theoretical frameworks are rarely relevant. Furthermore, while social science studies generally ignore biological processes, sex differences in biomedical research are often interpreted as biologically irreducible.
Our objective is to document and explain how gender intersects with other social hierarchies (social class and race/ethnicity) to produce social inequalities in health from early childhood to late adulthood. Adopting a life course perspective, we will examine two complementary research questions 1)""gendered embodied health"" or how (un)healthy bodies are socially constructed, and 2) ""gendered health care cascade"" or how health-seeking behaviours and patterns of care are shaped by gender. Within this framework, we focus on hypertension and myocardial infarction, depression, Alzheimer’s disease and colorectal cancer.
Our approach is resolutely multidisciplinary, associating social sciences and epidemiology, in close collaboration with clinicians. We develop triangulation analysis based on (i) secondary quantitative analysis of six large cross-sectional and cohort survey including biological markers and (ii) family monographies, interviews with youth, patients and health professionals and ethnographic observations of medical visits.
The multiple working meetings to develop this project has firmed our conviction over the strength, innovative value and feasibility of this multidisciplinary, multi-method and multi-pathology project supported by four experienced researchers who are leaders in their field and internationally recognised.
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Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologydementiaalzheimer
- social sciencessociologyanthropologyethnology
- social sciencessociologysocial issuessocial inequalities
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologycolorectal cancer
- social sciencessociologyanthropologyscience and technology studies
Keywords
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-SyG - Synergy grantHost institution
75654 Paris
France