Abstract
The intersection between gender, health, care and place has garnered increasing attention in the international health services and policy literatures. This has largely been dominated by concerns about the provision of healthcare in rural and remote communities. In these discussions of how to provide equitable access to care, the consideration of gender and women’s health in particular is necessary to complete the picture of health needs, service provision and utilization. It is also clear from a growing literature that rural/remote living is an important determinant of health in numerous ways. This not only includes limited access to healthcare services and information and limited community services and infrastructure, but also a lack of anonymity in rural/remote communities coupled with the invisibility of rural/remote women’s concerns to researchers and policy-makers, limited employment options — for women in particular — low incomes and sometimes high costs for food and transportation, rural-specific occupational health effects, and a need for healthcare that is sensitive to diverse rural cultures and to women’s particular needs (Sutherns et al., 2007). Very little, however, is written about the cumulative impact of and interplay between these various place-related determinants on women’s and men’s health.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Key reading
Bourgeault, I. L., R. Sutherns, M. Haworth-Brockman, C. Dallaire and C. Neis (2006) ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Access, Quality and Satisfaction among Women Living in Rural and Remote Communities in Canada’, Research in the Sociology of Health Care, 24, 175–202.
Donald, E., M. D. Pathman, T. R. Konrad, R. Dann and G. Koch (2004) ‘Retention of Primary Care Physicians in Rural Health Professional Shortage Areas’, American Journal of Public Health, 94 (10), 1723–9.
Smith, K., J. Humphreys and M. Wilson (2008) ‘Addressing the Health Disadvantage of Rural Populations: How Does Epidemiological Evidence Inform Rural Health Policies and Research?’, Australian Journal of Rural Health, 16 (2), 56–66.
Wong, S.T. and Regan, S. (2009) ‘Patient Perspectives on Primary Health Care in Rural Communities: Effects of Geography on Access, Continuity and Efficiency’, Journal of Rural Remote Health, 9 (1), Project # 1189, 1–12.
Allan, D., S. Waskiewich, K. Stajduhar and D. Bidgood (2009) ‘Use of Palliative Care Services in a Semirural Program in British Columbia’, Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 14 (1), 10–15.
Arpalotai, A. (2005) ‘A Web of Support for Rural Girls: A School/Community Healthcare Partnership’, Canadian Woman Studies, 24 (4), 153–9.
Armstrong, P., C. Amaratunga, J. Bernier, K. Grant, A. Pederson and K. Willson (2002) Exposing Privatization: Women and Health Care Reform in Canada (Aurora: Garamond Press).
Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (2004) Australia’s Health: the Ninth Biennial Health Report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (Canberra: AIHW).
Barnes, N. D. and M. Bern-Klug (1999) ‘Income Characteristics of Rural Older Women and Implications for Health Status’, Journal of Women & Aging, 11 (1), 27–37.
Bourgeault, I. L., R. Sutherns, M. Haworth-Brockman, C. Dallaire, K. White and J. Winkup (2005) The Impact of Restructuring on Rural, Remote and Northern Women’s Health [2002– 2004] (Ottawa: National Research Steering Committee on Rural and Remote Women’s Health [NRSC] and National Centres of Excellent in Women’s Health [CEWH]), at: www.cewh-cesf.ca/en/resources/rural_remote/index.html, accessed 15 September 2009.
Bourgeault, I. L., R. Sutherns, M. Haworth-Brockman, C. Dallaire and C. Neis (2006) ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Access, Quality and Satisfaction among Women Living in Rural and Remote Communities in Canada’, Research in the Sociology of Health Care, 24, 175–202.
Brown, W. J., A. F. Young and J. E. Byles (1999) ‘Tyranny of Distance? The Health of Mid-age Women Living in Five Geographical Areas of Australia’, Australian Journal of Rural Health, 7 (3), 148–54.
CIHI — Canadian Institute for Health Information (2006) How Healthy are Rural Canadians? An Assessment of Their Health Status and Health Determinants (Ottawa: Canadian Institute for Health Information).
Cloke, P. (1994) ‘(En)culturing Political Geography: A Life in the Day of a Rural Geographer’, in P. Cloke, M. Doel, D. Matless, M. Phillips and N. Thrift (eds), Writing the Rural: Five Cultural Geographies (London: Paul Chapman), 149–90.
Contant, J. (2006) ‘Safety Cuts’, Occupational Health and Safety Canada, 22 (5), 30–2, 34–5.
Cox, J. (1999) ‘Rural Poverty, Deprivation and Health’, in J. Cox and I. Mungall (eds), Rural Healthcare (Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press), 115–20.
Curran, V. and J. Rourke (2004) ‘The Role of Medical Education in the Recruitment and Retention of Rural Physicians’, Medical Teacher, 26 (3), 265–72.
Crosato, K. E and B. Leipert (2006) ‘Rural Women Caregivers in Canada’, Rural and Remote Health, 6, Project # 520, 1–11, at: www.rrh.org.au, accessed 2 June 2009.
Donald, E., M. D. Pathman, T. R. Konrad, R. Dann and G. Koch (2004) ‘Retention of Primary Care Physicians in Rural Health Professional Shortage Areas’, American Journal of Public Health, 94 (10), 1723–9.
Dolan, H. and D. Thien (2008) ‘Relations of Care: A Framework for Placing Women and Health in Rural Communities’, Canadian Journal of Public Health, 99, S38–S42.
Dooley, J., N. St Pierre-Hansen and J. Guilfoyle (2009) ‘Rural and Remote Obstetric Care Close to Home: Program Description, Evaluation and Discussion of Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre Obstetrics’, Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 14 (2), 75–9.
Fuller, T. and S. O’Leary (2008) ‘The Impact of Access to Transportation on the Lives of Rural Women’, RWMC Library, Rural Women Making Change, University of Guelph, 12 May 2009, at: www.rwmc.uoguelph.ca/document.php?d=181, accessed 19 May 2009.
Giles, S. and A. Giles (2008) ‘Industrious, Submissive, and Free of Diseases: 156 Years of Physicians in Liidlii Kue/Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories’, Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 13 (3), 111–20.
Goerzten, J. (2005) ‘The Four-legged Kitchen Stool: Recruitment and Retention of Rural Family Physicians’, Canadian Family Physician, 51 (Sep), 1181–3, 1184–6.
Harvey, D. J. (2007) ‘Understanding Australian Rural Women’s Ways of Achieving Health and Wellbeing — A Metasynthesis of the Literature’, Rural and Remote Health, 7 (online), Project # 823, 1–12, at: www.rrh.org.au, accessed 22 June 2009.
Hunsberger, M., A. Baumann, J. Blythe and M. Crea (2009) ‘Sustaining the Rural Workforce: Nursing Perspectives on Worklife Challenges’, Journal of Rural Health, 25 (1), 17–25.
Johns, N. andJ. Havelock (2006) ‘Rural Women’s Action Workshop: Carlyle, Saskatchewan’, Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, Project #127, at: www.uwinnipeg.ca/admin/vh_external/pwhce/pdf/ruralCarlyle.pdf, accessed 21 Feb 2010.
Johnson, N. (2004) ‘“What’s Hot in Women’s Health?” Reproductive Choice is Not a Reality in Rural and Remote Regions’, Canadian Women’s Health Network, 6/7 (4/1), 14–16.
Kobetz, E., M. Daniel and J. A. Earp (2003) ‘Neighborhood Poverty and Self-reported Health among Low-income, Rural Women, 50 Years and Older’, Health & Place, 95 (3), 264–271.
Kornelsen, J., S. Moola and S. Grzybowski (2009) ‘Does Distance Matter? Increased Induction Rates for Rural Women Who Have to Travel for Intrapartum Care’, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 31 (1), 21–7.
Leipert, B. D. and J. A. George (2008) ‘Determinants of Rural Women’s Health: A Qualitative Study in Southwestern Ontario’, The Journal of Rural Health, 24 (2), 210–18.
Leipert, B. D., D. Matsui, J. Wagner and M. J. Rieder (2008) ‘Rural Women and Pharmacologic Therapy: Needs and Issues in Rural Canada’, Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 13 (4), 171–9.
Leipert, B. D. and L. Reutter (1998) ‘Women’s Health and Community Health Nursing Practice in Geographically Isolated Settings: A Canadian Perspective’, Health Care for Women International, 19 (6), 575–88.
Leipert, B. D. and L. Reutter (2005a) ‘Developing Resilience: How Women Maintain Their Health in Northern Geographically Isolated Settings’, Qualitative Health Research, 15 (1), 49–65.
Leipert, B. D. and L. Reutter (2005b) ‘Women’s Health in Northern British Columbia: The Role of Geography and Gender’, Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 10 (4), 241–54.
MacLeod, M. L. P., J. C. Kulig, N. J. Stewart, J. R. Pitblado and M. Knock (2004) ‘The Nature of Nursing Practice in Rural, Remote Canada’, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 100 (6), 7–31.
Murdoch, J. and A. C. Pratt (1993) ‘Rural Studies: Modernism, Postmodernism and the Post-Rural’, The Journal of Rural Studies, 9 (4), 411–27.
Nagarajan, K. V. (2004) ‘Rural and Remote Community Health Care in Canada: Beyond the Kirby Panel Report, The Romanow Report and the Federal Budget Of 2003’, Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 9 (4), 245–51.
Pampalon, R. (2005) ‘Does Living in Rural Areas Make a Difference for Health in Québec?’, Health & Place, 12 (4), 421–35.
Pong, R. W., M. DesMeules and C. Lagacé (2009) ‘Rural-Urban Disparities in Health: How Does Canada Fare and How Does Canada Compare with Australia?’, Australian Journal of Rural Health, 17 (1), 58–64.
Reid, A., I. Gravin-Gublins and I. Carroll (2001) Results of the 2001 National Family Physician Workforce (Weighted Data), The Janus Project (Mississauga, Ontario: College of Family Physicians of Canada).
Richmond, C. and N. Ross (2009) ‘The Determinants of First Nation and Inuit Health: A Critical Population Health Approach’, Health & Place, 15 (2), 403–11.
Ryan-Nicholls, K. D. (2004) ‘Health and Sustainability of Rural Communities’, Rural and Remote Health, 4, 1–11, at: www.rrh.org.au, accessed 3 July 2009.
Smith, K., J. Humphreys and M. Wilson (2008) ‘Addressing the Health Disadvantage of Rural Populations: How Does Epidemiological Evidence Inform Rural Health Policies and Research?’, Australian Journal of Rural Health, 16 (2), 56–66.
Statistics Canada (2001) Canada: Population Urban and Rural, by Province and Territory, at: www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo62a-eng.htm, accessed 20 July 2009.
Sutherns, R. (2004) ‘Adding Women’s Voices to the Call for Sustainable Rural Maternity Care’, Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 9 (4), 239–44.
Sutherns, R. (2005) ‘So Close Yet So Far: Rurality as a Determinant of Women’s Health’, Canadian Women Studies, 24 (4), 117–22.
Sutherns, R. and I. L. Bourgeault (2008) ‘Accessing Maternity Care in Rural Canada: There’s More to the Story than Distance to a Doctor’, Health Care for Women International, 29 (8), 863–83.
Sutherns, R., M. McCallum and M. Haworth-Brockman (2007) ‘A Thematic Bibliography and Literature Review of Rural, Remote and Northern Women’s Health in Canada 2003–2006’, Resources for Feminist Research, 32 (3/4), 142–78.
Wathen, N. and R. Harris (2007) ‘“I Try to Take Care of It Myself”. How Rural Women Search for Health Information’, Qualitative Health Research, 17 (5), 639–51.
Whitzman, C (2006) ‘At the Intersection of Invisibilities: Canadian Women, Homelessness and Health Outside the “Big City”’, The Journal of Gender, Place and Culture, 13 (4), 383–99.
Wong, S. T. and S. Regan (2009) ‘Patient Perspectives on Primary Health Care in Rural Communities: Effects of Geography on Access, Continuity and Efficiency’, Journal of Rural Remote Health, 9 (1), Project # 1189, 1–12.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bourgeault, I.L., Sutherns, R. (2012). Gender, Health, Care and Place: Living in Rural and Remote Communities. In: Kuhlmann, E., Annandale, E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Healthcare. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295408_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295408_20
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-01514-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29540-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)