Importance of Gender and Equity in Public Health

IMPORTANCE OF GENDER AND EQUITY IN PUBLIC HEALTH
INTRODUCTION:-
Gender is a social construct-that is,a society ‘s assumptions about the way a man or women should look and behave.Traditional gender roles encompass the activities ,responsibilities,and decision making power that a society has historically assigned to man and woman within public and private spaces.The specifics may differ across societies ,but no society assigns equal power or status to men and women. Equity is generally regarded as a state of fairness and justness.It requires that specific needs of particular groups are considered separately and acted upon accordingly.
Concept of gender equity recognize that men and women have different needs and power structures and that these differences should be identified and addressed in a manner that rectifies imbalance,so that equitable outcomes are produced.
VARIOUS GENDER EQUITY ISSUES IN OUR SOCIETY: - Even today, traditional attitude towards gender remain surprisingly strong and prevalent.Boys and young man continue to be socialized to be tough and strong,to appear in control and to take risks.This creates dangerous behaviours such as fast driving and cigarette smoking.Men often speak about their bodies as if they were machines and think about illness in terms of failure of a particular body part. Traditinal gender roles are a driving force behind women s lower economic status,low literacy and education,poorer health outcomes,and greater exposure to gender based violence.A girl may be forced to leave school because her family does not believe that women need to be educated. Resulting in the condition that men are at high risk of dying prematurely from occupational accidents or diseases but also at special risk through homicide,traffic accidents and dangerous sports.National and international data show that men experience higher mortality and lower life expectancy round the world.On the other hand it also puts disastrous impact on health and life style of women.
IMPORTANCE OF GENDER EQUITY IN HEALTH SYSTEM:- Gender equity is also important while discussing various health matters.Women ‘s health is no way more or less important than man ‘s health,but it is different.Men have different health needs,are affected differently by various diseases and illness,and access services in different patterns and for different reasons.It is important not to directly compare male and female health ,but it is clear that men ‘s and women ‘s health issues are closely intertwined. Data on mortality ,morbidity and use of health services reveal some important differences in health experiences between men and women.Health system can make important contributions to gender by addressing gender in variety of ways. ADRESSING GENDER EQUITY THROUGH HEALTH SYSTEM:-
POLICY APPROACHES:-
Policy approaches include legislation,organizational processes and information gathering.
• Regulatory Approaches
• Organizational Approaches
• Informational Approaches All approaches need to be evaluated in terms of their possible benefits,costs and the barriers.
IMPLICATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING Considering gender equity when developing policy,programs and practice,whe meet goals of ‘healthier people and fairer access’.
Specifically this should produce better health outcomes for women and men by
• Producing better targeted programmes
• Facilitating more effective use of resources
• Encouraging more sensitive practice
• Enabling people to use services efficetively
SUMMARY:-
What this discussion has tried to do is to pin down some of the essential elements by pointing out what we are aiming for.Equity does not mean that everyone should have the same health status.Gender in equities can be avoided through various policies in our health system.