Women's status and the health of women and men: a view from the States

State of the Art in Research on Equity in Health

“…Carles Muntaner et al (2002) found that five char-acteristics of welfare states and low economic inequality were associated with better life expectancy, self-rated health, birth weight distributions, and age-and cause-specific mortality in sixteen wealthy countries. Ichiro Kawachi et al (1999) found that indices of women's political and economic status were associated with lower female and male mortality rates as well as activity limitations in the fifty states.…”

Women's empowerment and violent death among women and men in Europe: an ecological study

“…Thus, research on gender inequality, whether measured by political participation, economic autonomy or reproductive rights [20][21][22], suggests that women's relative lack of power adversely affects their well-being [23]. Moreover, gender inequality is detrimental to the dominant or hegemonic male group.…”

Reaching for health : The Australian women's health movement and public policy

“…Such arguments fit with the findings of earlier studies. For example, Kawachi et al (1999) studied men and women across the 50 American States and found that both smaller wage gaps between the sexes and higher levels of women's political participation were 'strikingly correlated' with lower female and male morbidity and mortality. Status, the authors conclude, reflects 'more general underlying structural processes associated with material deprivation and income inequality'.…”