Men’s health across the life course: A gender relational (critical) overview

ABSTRACT

The advances made in incorporating a gender approach into public health policies have stimulated growing interest in the social mechanisms of the study of men’s health. Therefore, a more experiential, gender-based analysis that allows for a better understanding of how ill-health processes and exposure to risk factors are related is required. In this paper, based on a rapid review, we focus on the daily circumstances, critical events and social practices in which masculinities become (re)defined during different stages of the life cycle. Our results highlight the dynamics between workplace and family contexts, calling attention to the impact of the male breadwinner model, which acts as a gendered social structure with implications for other factors (including age, social class, disability and marital status) that characterize the dynamics of life-cycle transitions and the key vulnerabilities that transcend occupational health. These findings lead us to consider the possibility that ill-health processes in males and females are intrinsically interwoven, such that the development of relationships reflects limitations and opportunities for both. Our analysis provides greater insights into explanations for gendered patterning in morbidity and mortality as well as how a gender order instigates social vulnerabilities and inequalities in health.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• men’s health
• masculinities
• life cycle stages
• public health

Acknowledgments

The Gender and human rights programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe for promoting the realization of this review contributing to the analysis that informs the Strategy and the Report on the health and well-being of men in the WHO European Region.

Prof. Claire Somerville (Gender Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) and Prof. Arnd Hofmeister (European Training Consortium in Public Health and Health Promotion) for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

The authors are also grateful for all the comments and suggestions received on earlier drafts of this paper by the Editor and anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Gender Studies.

This paper is part of the thesis of the second author, who is in the Health Sciences PhD program at the University of Alicante.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jorge Marcos-Marcos

Jorge Marcos-Marcos holds a PhD in Gender Studies, an Undergraduate Degree in Social Anthropology and a Master’s Degree in Public Health. At present he is an assistant professor at the University of Alicante (Spain), as well as a member of both the research group in Public Health and the University Institute for Gender Studies Research. His main research lines revolve around gender as a social determinant of health. Specifically, his primary research interests are the study of men´s health and masculinities. He was part of the group of experts invited by the World Health Organization to work on including the gender perspective in the ‘Strategy on the health and well-being of men in the WHO European Region’.

José Tomás Mateos

José Tomás Mateos holds a PhD in Health Sciences. His thesis work addresses the health consequences of the male breadwinner model, based on Connell’s framework about hegemonic masculinity. Previously, his work has looked at the effects in health of structural heteronormativity. He has collaborated on the ‘Strategy on the health and well-being of men in the WHO European Region 2018’.

Àngel Gasch-Gallén

Àngel Gasch-Gallén, PhD Health Sciences, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). His thesis, ‘Risk practices understand gender. Masculinities and risk practices among men who have sex with men’ defended on January 2016 began further research on gender, masculinities, health inequalities and development strategies in vulnerable populations. He is a member of the institutional Research Groups (Spanish Epidemiological Society; Healthcare Group Sector III) and participates in community interventions with people living with HIV; health promotion on gender and sexuality and activities with LGBT associations. He has a Nursing and Socio-Cultural Anthropology Degree and teaches Community Nursing.

Carlos Álvarez-Dardet

Carlos Álvarez-Dardet MD, PhD, is professor of Public Health at the University of Alicante as well as a member of both the public health research group and the University Institute for Gender Studies Research. At present he also is Editor-in-Chief of Gaceta Sanitaria. He is interested in the effect on health of policies and political decisions, at a global, national and local level. He leads the international organization; the Observatory on Public Policies and Health. He was also involved in the development of the ‘Strategy on the health and well-being of men in the WHO European Region 2018’.