Why gender and women's health?
The term “gender” includes both masculinity and femininity, not just one or the other. Why, then, is it the Gender, Women and Health Department?
Across continents and cultures, established gender norms and values mean that women typically control less power and fewer resources than men. Not surprisingly, this often gives men an advantage - in the economic, political, and educational arenas, but also with regard to health and health care.
Certainly, there are instances where gender differences hurt men’s health – as, for example, when greater risk-taking among young men leads to higher accident rates, or higher levels of violence between men leads to greater death and disability. But, by and large, many health professionals believe that gender inequalities have led to a systematic devaluing and neglect of women’s health.
Two consequences result:
1) Women’s health is often in need of advocates to bring it up to par with men’s, and
2) Any organization devoted to examining and correcting gender inequalities in health will, in practice, find itself acting as just such an advocate.
For these reasons, even though gender has as much to do with men as it does with women, the WHO department devoted to gender and health also has a special role as an advocate for women’s health.