PHE101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Cardiovascular Disease, Social Inequality, Social Forces
Document Summary
Week 10: gender as a social determinant of health: define gender and sexuality, sex is biological and refers to the reproductive differences between male, female, and intersex. However women experience greater morbidity and are over- represented in health statistics (white, 2013). Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men. Gender norms vary from society to society and can be changed (who, n. d). It is distinct from sex, which is a biologically determined and fixed set of characteristics for men and women (interagency. Norms of gender influence access to and control over resources needed for optimal health. These resources include economic, social, political, information and education, and internal resources. They play an important role in exposure to risk factors; a person"s access to and use of health services; and nutrition, care and education.
