Chloe E. Bird (left) is a Senior Sociologist with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, and Professor of Sociology at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School. She is also Associate Editor of Women's Health Issues and Chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Among the honors bestowed on her work is the 1995 Elliot Freidson Award from that section of the ASA Patricia P. Rieker (right) is Adjunct Professor at Boston University, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Emeritus Professor at Simmons College. She is also an evaluation research consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has worked with the Research Triangle Institute, the national office of the American Cancer Society and National Women's Resource Center, and SAMHSA
Review
"What a valuable book! Bird and Rieker, two of the nation's premier thinkers on health policy, have sifted through the mountains of research on gender and health, and separated the stereotypic from the statistically relevant. As America finally confronts its health care crisis, this will be the primer for policymakers, and a significant contribution to the national conversation." - Michael Kimmel, SUNY Stony Brook
Summary
Gender and Health is the first book to examine how men's and women's lives and their physiology contribute to differences in their health. In a thoughtful synthesis of diverse literatures, the authors demonstrate that modern societies' health problems ultimately involve a combination of policies, personal behavior, and choice. The book is designed for researchers, policymakers, and others who seek to understand how the choices of individuals, families, communities, and governments contribute to health. It can inform men and women at each of these levels how to better integrate health implications into their everyday decisions and actions.
Table of Contents
1. Gender differences in health: are they biological, social or both?
2. Gender and barriers to health: constrained choice in everyday decisions
3. National social policies and constrained choice
4. The impact of community on health
5. Priorities and expectations: men's and women's work, family life and health
6. Gender and individual health choices
7. Opportunities for change.
