Gendered configurations of diabetes: from rules to exceptions

Abstract

Diabetes type 2 is a growing public health problem worldwide resulting in substantial costs both to the public purse and to individual health and wellbeing. The disease has long been associated with sexual and reproductive health problems, but otherwise, there has been little attention to the way gender might shape the experience of diabetes. Diabetes prevention and management place heavy emphasis on ‘lifestyle’ which foregrounds several gendered domains of social life. This study investigates how gender influences the experience of living with diabetes type 2 in a sample of 119 adults with diabetes. Employing Connell's relational perspective on gender, this article shows that the management of chronic illness entails structures of production, power, cathexis, and symbols through which the experience of living with this chronic condition simultaneously reflects and produces dominant and more marginal forms of femininity and masculinity. We conclude with suggestions for how the findings might assist service providers to improve diabetes care.