The Myth of Gender Differences in Health: Social Structural Determinants across Adult Ages in Britain and Finland

Abstract

The orthodoxy that `women are sicker, but men die quicker' has increasingly been questioned. This study examines gender differences in ill-health by adult age groups in Britain and Finland. This is done by including in the analysis employment status and other determinants of gender differences in perceived health and limiting long-standing illness. Comparable representative surveys from both countries in 1994 were analysed using logistic regression analysis. The results of the study revealed that gender differences in ill-health were small in both countries. Differences by age showed no clear pattern. In Britain, however, where there are gender differences in employment participation, adjusting for employment status reversed the initial patterns of gender equality or female excess shown in the results. The female excess among those of working age relates to high morbidity among non-employed women. In Finland, where gender differences in full-time employment participation are small, adjusting for employment status had negligible impacts on the gender differences in health. The article concludes that differences in health by gender are fewer than hitherto thought, but vary between countries and by age, partly because of the different employment roles of women.