Breaking the Bias in Women’s Health

[摘要] In March, as I write this briefing, we markInternational Women’s Day. This year’s themeis ‘breaking the bias’; and is an opportunity toreflect on gender inequalities. Gender bias isengrained in society and indeed in health care,where a historically patriarchal infrastructurehas underserved women. As the World HealthOrganization (WHO) notes:‘The health of women and girls is of particularconcern because, in many societies, they aredisadvantaged by discrimination rooted insociocultural factors.’1Disrupting our own biases is no easy task,especially if that bias is unconscious. Partof addressing knowledge-based gender biasin health care requires research, not onlyon female-specific issues, but also researchthat explicitly examines the gender differencesin symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment forgeneral health conditions.

[学科分类] 卫生学