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The Feminization of Health

Lee, Ellie J. and Frayn, Elizabeth (2008) The Feminization of Health. In: Wainwright, David, ed. A Sociology of Health. Sage, London, pp. 115-133. ISBN 978-1-4129-2158-9. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:25240)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
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Abstract

• The past 20 years has seen the emergence of a ‘new paradigm’ of health, at the centre of which is the idea that ‘prevention is better than cure’

• Contemporary health concerns are often ‘gendered’. The emergence of campaigns about ‘men’s health’ is a notable development of recent years

• There is a striking contrast between feminist constructions of the problem

of women’s health in the 1970s, and the contemporary problem of gender and health

• In the context of the ‘new paradigm’, ‘masculinity’ has come to be defined as a barrier to health. ‘Feminine’ attitudes such as a willingness to consider oneself vulnerable and ‘at risk’, and to seek help have, in turn, been validated as desirable characteristics for both men and women

• Contemporary gendered health concerns have much less to do with evidence-based developments in science and medicine, than with developments in the spheres of politics and society

• The practical outcome of the feminization of health is that men and well as women may become more anxious and worried about their health, for little discernable benefit

Item Type: Book section
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Ellie Lee
Date Deposited: 09 Aug 2010 16:09 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:03 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/25240 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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