Abstract
Men’s health and well-being is a recent arrival on the international public policy and health scene, following in the wake of the women’s health movement and the emergence of policy-making related to gender equity. To date, policy and research into men’s health have proceeded on the basis that the object of their discussions and inquiries is self-evident: populations comprise males and females. Corresponding with this division are two differentiated arenas of health and health service experience that are specific to each sex: women’s health and men’s health. This chapter proposes, however, that this common-sense understanding is limited as a foundation for understanding the health and well-being of men. It oversimplifies and misrepresents the issues involved.
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Key reading
Courtenay, W. (2002) ‘A Global Perspective on the Field of Men’s Health: An Editorial’, International Journal of Men’s Health, 1 (1), 1–13.
Roy, K. and A. Chaudhari (2008) ‘Influence of Socioeconomic Status, Wealth and Financial Empowerment on Gender Differences in Health and Healthcare Utilization in Later Life: Evidence from India’, Social Science & Medicine, 66 (9), 1951–62.
Saurel-Cubizolles, M. J., J. F. Chastang, G. Menvielle, A. Leclerc and D. Luce for the EDISC Group (2009) ‘Social Inequalities in Mortality by Cause among Men and Women in France’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 63 (3), 197–202.
Schofield, T., R. Connell, L. Walker and J. F. Wood (2000) ‘Understanding Men’s Health and Illness: A Gender-relations Approach to Policy, Research, and Practice’, Journal of American College Health, 48 (6), 247–56.
Acknowledgement
Table 14.1 is reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press Australia from J. Gernor (ed.), Second Opinion: An Introduction to Health Sociology, Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2009: www.oup.com.au
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© 2010 Toni Schofield
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Schofield, T. (2010). Men’s Health and Well-being. In: Kuhlmann, E., Annandale, E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Healthcare. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230290334_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230290334_15
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