The Framing of Women and Health Disparities: A Critical Look at Race, Gender, and Class from the Perspectives of Grassroots Health Communicators

ABSTRACT

As women’s health has received significant political and media attention recently, I proposed an expanded structural theory of women’s communication about health. Women’s health communication and critical race and systemic racism research framed this study. I interviewed 15 communicators and community health workers from grass-roots organizations focused on women’s health to learn of their challenges of communicating with women from communities experiencing health disparities. Findings suggest that communicators face difficulties in developing meaningful messaging for publics because of disjunctures between medical and community frames, issues in searching for health among women’s many priorities, Whiteness discourses imposed on publics’ experiences, and practices of correcting for power differentials. A structural theory of women’s health communication, then, consists of tenets around geographic, research/funding, academic/industry, and social hierarchies. Six frames suggesting racial biases about women and health disparities are also defined. This study also includes practical solutions in education, publishing, and policy change for addressing structural challenges.

Notes

¹ Researching gender distinctions in health/medicine is not “gender research,” per se; rather, the fact that gender is considered in this research is coincidental, or scientifically anomalous. It could more aptly be considered sex-based health research, as the research is examining that population strictly because of the biological presentations of a disease. But it is not gender research, and in particular, not about the essence of women and their basic needs.

² Contact the author for details on how researcher objectivity was managed, as the author was a volunteer for this organization. In short, threats to validity were reduced by writing reflective notes, triangulating the sample participants, and minimizing discussion about the advocacy group.

³ The role of the CHW is to establish rapport effectively with a community because of a common background she shares with community members. Furthermore, PH/HC agencies have identified CHWs addressing structural challenges of accessing health care particularly because of their unique abilities to gain trust among communities.

⁴ Contact the author for more details on challenges in recruiting from grass-roots organizations.

⁵ I received an internal grant from my university to provide incentives to participants.

⁶ This is the name of a card that consumers use to access their subsidized health care benefits program in the county where the research was conducted.

⁷ While this article addresses the structural factors of communicating with women, an article complementary to this study suggests specific messaging that grass-roots communicators use in their campaigns with women. Data show that empowerment, resilience, and common bond messaging are often used.

⁸ See Vardeman-Winter (2011) for some field-tested solutions to confronting racial differences in communication.