Gender, Culture & Health
In this course, we examine psychological and socio-cultural aspects of health, illness, and healthcare through the lens of gender and its intersecting social identities, including ethnicity, sexuality, class, age, and disability. Beginning with the understanding that health and illness are not only physiological, but also simultaneously psychological and social experiences, we examine how gendered meanings and intersecting social positions form and transform the body, influencing health and illness. We consider major illnesses, including unique and shared diseases affecting women and men, while addressing central topics in health psychology including stress and coping; health practices and health risk; and healthcare delivery. We examine gendered assumptions that often guide biomedical and psychological approaches to health and illness, and explore alternative approaches to theory, research, and practice that account for and address difference and inequity.