Abstract
The health care system often affects men and women differently. Health care occupations and professions are sex segregated, with men constituting a majority of physicians and women predominating in occupations that are less prestigious and poorly paid. Gender also affects medical encounters. There is evidence that male and female patients are treated differently and that there are tensions in physician–patient relationships. Women patients are less likely than men to be treated aggressively for heart disease, kidney disease, and AIDS. Women physicians are more likely to order preventive screening and to adopt more collaborative styles of communication with patients. Treatment of women's medical problems has varied historically and cross-culturally. In Europe and America, the reproductive phases in the female life course—childbirth, menstruation, and menopause—have been medicalized, a trend typically accompanied by the growth of medical technologies, some of which have adversely affected women's health. Recent research on gender and health care has moved away from an exclusive focus on gender and toward a focus on the intersection of gender with race, class, and other forms of inequality.
Published Version
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