Gender norms as health harms: reclaiming a life course perspective on sexual and reproductive health and rights

Abstract

Despite their demographic significance and the lifetime impact of gender disparities on their health and rights, women considered older than reproductive age are excluded from most investments in global public health. While development policies linking human rights with access to sexual and reproductive healthcare have yielded progress towards improving the status of women and girls, older women have not benefited from these initiatives. Yet as women grow older, they experience a range of health conditions rooted in their reproductive biology - from ageing with fistula, to cervical and breast cancers. Current approaches to global women's health ignore these serious conditions, harming older women through the perpetuation of gender norms that construe women's health through a narrow reproductive lens. Meanwhile, older women are generally absent from global ageing discourse, which lacks a gender perspective, creating a dual invisibility as the field of global women's health presumes ageing women are accounted for. Reclaiming the sexual rights framework suggested by the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action, we call for the revision of global health policies to incorporate a life course approach to women's health as a matter of human rights.

Perspectiva de género en la relación entre profesionales del área de la salud con usuarios y usuarias: Una revisión de la literatura

“…Los sistemas crean y recrean desigualdades teniendo en cuenta los aspectos sociales, políticos, culturales, personales e históricos de cada una de ellas. En el sistema biomédico se acentúan estos aspectos, a través de la medicalización, falta de autonomía en los procesos de saludenfermedad y otras formas de violencia institucionalizada, las que se presentan como forma de control social hacia quienes no se enmarcan en el prototipo androcéntrico y hegemónico de quién ejerce el poder (Gomes & Couto, 2014;Linardelli, 2015;Tasa-Vinyals et al 2015;Pitter, 2016;Cassiano et al 2016;Crockett & Cooper, 2016;Zacher, 2015).…”

“…En tanto, en otros ámbitos de la salud y la vida en sociedad "el cuerpo de las mujeres es un estereotipo «construido» socialmente, centrado en la maternidad" (Urrea, 2014, p. 194); gran parte de los estudios e investigaciones realizados en los últimos años en cuanto a mujeres y salud refieren principalmente a los procesos relativos a la atención del parto y están de acuerdo en la existencia de un encasillamiento y estereotipo femenino vinculado a la maternidad y a los cuidados de la progenie (Urrea, 2014;Panisello & Pastor, 2015;Tajer et al, 2015;Crockett & Cooper, 2016;Triuzzi, 2017), transformándole "en un lugar de subordinación para las mujeres" (Triuzzi, 2017, p. 101), así se invisibiliza a aquellas otras mujeres que se encuentran fuera de la edad reproductiva dado que en la salud femenina se enfatiza la maternidad (Crockett & Cooper, 2016).…”

Love (and) ageing well: A qualitative study of sexual health in the context of ageing well among women aged 50 and over

“… 21 Menopause and the end of fertility leaves women aged 50+ neglected in a health care agenda framed through a lens of reproductive function. 22 , 23 Thus, gender-responsive SH research which interrogates the social landscape of ageing 23 has been identified as a priority area for scholarship. 23 , 24 …”

Gynecological morbidity and treatment-seeking among older adult (aged 45–59) women in India

“…Nevertheless, concerns about older people’s SRH and rights (a) continue to be a taboo topic and (b) of little interest to researchers and professionals in the healthcare field. Despite the widespread agreement, the life course approach to addressing SRH and rights has received minimal attention [ 14 – 17 ]. Moreover, as India moves closer to Universal Health Coverage, it is important to assess if policy initiatives to broaden women’s health beyond maternal health and family planning have increased women’s service utilization.…”