The Feminization of Health

• 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