Abstract
The story of how and why medical sociology and feminism came together, How They parted, and how They Might Be Brought back together can be told through changing conceptualizations of the relationship between sex and gender. When medical sociologists use the term 'gender' in reference to women's health it Typically connotes potential or actual Disadvantage - the same Often now Applies to the growing body of men's health research - but the Reasons Why and how this Disadvantage comes about are Often murky. All Too Often research Focuses only on a cluster of proximate causes, be They Quantitatively or qualitatively defined, and the relationship between gender and health loose its structural moorings. Without synthesis moorings we are left with similarities and differences in women's and men's health status and similarities and differences in Their experience of health and illness for Which We have no real explanation beyond a generalized sense that they are related to women's and men's positioning within society. As what has conventionally been thought of as 'biological sex' and 'social gender' become less fixed and more fluid, the traditional distinctions between male and female experience are breaking down and being reconfigured in new, more complex and highly problematic ways with significant implications for patterns of health and illness and health for the qualitative experience of individuals. To fully understand prosthesis changes medical sociology and feminism need to be Brought closer together.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 24-34 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Femina Politica |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |