Birth Control/Eugenics
Eugenics
is a social philosophy that advocates genetic improvement of human population. The
idea encourages breeding and reproduction by fit people, and discourages
reproduction an even advocates sterilization of people with less desired traits
or negative traits or unfit people. The application of the principle of
eugenics can be traced in ancient Greek societies and modern eugenics movement
re-emerged in United Kingdom and spread to other parts of Europe and America. The
idea has been politicized and many countries have adopted the principle to
improve genetic qualities and health of their citizens.
As
measures of birth control Pills were developed during 1920s, and subsequently
came use of condoms. Even Margaret Sanger advocated use of pills in support of
eugenics, the methods of adopting the most common techniques, namely pills and
condoms are highly discriminating towards female. Any contraceptive use
disturbs the normal rhythm of child bearing by females as it is crucial for a
woman to be within the ideal child-bearing age in order to deliver the new born
without being subjected to age-related risks. Even continuous use of pills may
medically damage health and mental wellbeing of a woman. But men are not
subjected to such deprivation and even spared of swallowing pills. Birth
control techniques are highly gender sensitive that discriminate against women.
Biological Determinism
Biological
determinism follows from the overlapping of two separate concepts; sex and
gender. While sex denotes males and
females on the basis of physical features, sex organs, chromosomes, and
hormones, gender denotes males and females on the basis of social factors,
namely social position, behaviour, power, and identity. This segregation was
made by the feminist ideologues to counter the philosophy of biological determinism
that is biology is the destiny.
It
has been argued by biological determinists that metabolic state determines the
sociological, psychological, and behavioral traits of human beings. Propagators
of biological determinism argue that in male metabolism kinetic energy is
released and in female metabolism potential energy is stored. Thus women
conserve energy that makes them passive, conservative, slow, and uninterested
in social activities including politics. On the other hand, males break-down
the protein and release heat that make them energetic, active, and interested
in social matters including politics. On the basis of this difference of
metabolism between males and females, biological determinists not only
differentiate between men and women on the basis of behaviours but also try to
justify the structure of the society that deprive women from enjoying equal
political rights with men. They argue that biologically women are incapable of
taking political responsibilities and it would be futile to confer them
political rights, as men should enjoy, as they are pathologically
did-interested in political activities.
Social Determinants of Health
Social
determinants of health (SDOH) are certain social and economic conditions of
individuals and their distribution among the population. Income, wealth, power,
food security, intake of nutrition are the social determinants of health. It is
argued that social determinants have greater influence on the risk of disease
or accidental death than individual factors like behavioral risks and genetics.
Discrimination
on the basis gender in social determinants is no less pronounced. Social
factors such as childhood development, schooling or lack of it and degree of
participation in public life on the part of women determine how far they are
aware of health problems and their remedial measures. It is as clear as
day-light that sub-ordination of women by men on almost all societies in the
world determines respective roles of men and women in domestic and public life
although the degree of such sub-ordination in between countries and regions
within the same country.
It is seen from empirical studies that
educational level of mothers and their degree of autonomy have positive
correlation with nutrition status of the family. In Latin American, and African
countries boys are seen to have greater access to nutrition than girls on the
presumption that boys are the future bread-earners for the family. Studies show
gender discrimination in food and healthcare allocation in many Latin American
countries.
The Hegemony of Biomedicine
Biomedical
health care system enjoys hegemonic position in developed as well as developing
societies. Hegemony of biomedicines has affected the complementary or
alternative medicine (CAM) to a great extent. Hegemony of biomedicine is the
result of medicalisation that includes de-socialization of diseases and
explaining social phenomenon in medical terms.
Studies show that there have been
differences in treatment of men and women in different areas clinical and
academic medicines.
In
mainstream biomedical treatment sector, gender is intertwined with biological
sex. But gender is wider in connotation than biological sex. In biomedicines
life conditions, financial autonomy, positions and influence in society in the
lines of masculinity and femininity are to be considered in matters of
professional encounters and theorizing medical conditions of men and women. Hence
lack of awareness of gender aspects on the part of medical practitioners can
lead to gender discrimination in administering biomedical treatment.
Differences between men and women as regards investigation and treatment are
found by many studies. In treatment of ailments like coronary heart disease,
HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease and others investigation and treatment show negative
bias for women. On the other hand, negative bias for men is reported in
treatment of migraine and depression.
It is also evidenced that apart from
gender discrimination in investigation and treatment in biomedicine, gender
bias also exists in medical education, career as medical practitioner, and
medical research.
Health and Intersectionality
Intersectionality
is a feminist concept that focuses on the intersection of different oppressed
groups of people. The identities of human beings determined by history and
other social relations give rise to their oppression. Some feminist scholars
define intersectionality as a process by which social status, race, and gender
of people lead to their inferior social status.
Gender identities of human beings are highly
responsible in determining vulnerability to health diseases. It is well
documented that men are less likely to seek medical advice as compared to
women. The reason behind such behaviour is the hegemony of masculinity and the
notion that men are stronger than women. Expressing physical or emotional
weakness is dichotomous to the concept of masculinity. A study by London School
of Economics shows that masculinity cannot fully justify such behavior of men
but culture and race also play role in shaping this behaviour.
Gender bias can also be noticed in the
services provided by the health service. Research undertaken by World Health
Organization shows that doctors are more inclined to treat depression in women
than in men. But this cannot be preceded by assumption that men are more prone
to depression as compared to women. Women are more prone to depression and men
are more likely to encounter substance-abuse problems. World Health
Organization opines that women’s vulnerability to social and economic shock
places women at risk of depression.
Social Model of Disability
The
social model of disability says that disability is created by the structure of
society rather than personal impairment. It explores ways of removing barriers
for the disabled so that they can live lives equally as able persons. Feminist
thinkers have pointed out that social model of disability is open to gender
bias. They argue that disabled men and disabled women often enjoy different
social status. Many socially disabled feminist writers have long discarded the
notion that socially disabled women are doubly oppressed than disabled men
because patriarchy operates in conjunction.
Disabled
people are identified with people without gender. Thus gender has little to do
with social disability. But in reality the image of social disability cab be
intensified with gender identities like disabled women have a sense of
passivity and helplessness where as disabled men can create corrupted
masculinity. The images of helplessness and corrupted masculinity have real
implications in education, employment, personal relationships, etc. The gender
bias of social disability shows sustained patterns of differences between men
and women. It is found that more women than men fall in the category of
disabled persons. It is so because large proportions of elderly people are
elderly women with disabilities. While disabled persons are poor but it is
documented that disabled women are poorer than disabled men.
Privatization of Health Care
Rapid
privatization of healthcare has resulted in hospitals focusing on the urban
educated women with financial means. Overall healthcare services for women
remain inferior as compared to that for men. In addition to that corporate
healthcare services are more and more privatized in which only urban women are
targeted and rural women with severe health issues are neglected by the
privatized healthcare sector. Privatization of healthcare services has
transformed public institutions to commodity-base institutions. Works have been
taken away from professional staff to low-paid casual staff.
Privatization
of healthcare services has given rise to new kind of gender discrimination. Women
constitute high percentages of paid and unpaid staff and are also most frequent
recipients of healthcare services. Most of the nursing, dietary, and
housekeeping staff are women who have lost jobs due to restructuring of
healthcare business. As the healthcare services moves from public to private
domain, it ceases to remain an insured service.
Privatization is the
major part of reform of healthcare services and governments are saving money at
the cost of women both as patients as well as service providers. Privatization
of healthcare has resulted in fall in access to healthcare for rural women, and
reduced income and job opportunities for women in the healthcare sector
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