Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choices and Social Policies

by Chloe E. Bird, Patricia P. Rieker

Gender and Health is the first book to examine how men’s and women’s lives and their physiology contribute to differences in their health. In a thoughtful synthesis of diverse literatures, the authors demonstrate that modern societies’ health problems ultimately involve a combination of policies, personal behavior, and choice. The book is designed for researchers, policymakers, and others who seek to understand how the choices of individuals, families, communities, and governments contribute to health. It can inform men and women at each of these levels how to better integrate health implications into their everyday decisions and actions.

Genres: Nonfiction

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2008

About the author

Chloe E. Bird, PhD, is a senior sociologist with the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Santa Monica, California. She is also Professor of Sociology at Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research examines gender and racial/ethnic differences in the physical and mental health of individuals and in the health care they receive. She is particularly interested in how neighborhood characteristics—from their socioeconomic composition and degree of economic segregation to their air quality and walkability—might contribute to these gender and racial/ethnic health differences.
Dr. Bird is Associate Editor of Women’s Health Issues, and has been Chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). She has published extensively in a wide range of journals, and has co-authored numerous book chapters and reports. Among the honors bestowed on her work is the 1995 Elliot Freidson Award from the Medical Sociology Section of the ASA.
In 2006, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded her a month-long collaborative residency at its Bellagio Center in Italy to research and write chapters of Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choice and Social Policies.
Dr. Bird is married to Dr. Allen Fremont, a physician, sociologist, and health services researcher at RAND. They have two very lively young sons.

Reviews

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My coauthor Pat and I learned a great deal while researching and writing this book. Its the compilation of almost 10 years of work. We were recently interviewed by the Sloan Foundation's Work and Family Network about our experiences writing this book. interview
Gender and Health was reviewed in both JAMA and in The New England Journal of Medicine NEJM link . Chloe

[Patricia Rieker]

I am the coauthor.