People often use the phrase, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you,” as a means to justify telling white lies. However, not knowing something in the context of health information, especially for women, can hurt you. It is dangerous and can be fatal.
Hello, I’m Dr. Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs, instructor of Health Communication at Southeast Missouri State University. Being in a situation where our health is at risk is scary enough, but not having the proper information is absolutely terrifying.
The British Medical Journal reported gender inequalities in the allocation of resources, such as income, education, healthcare, and nutrition, are strongly associated with poor health. Sex based biological factors interact with inequalities based on gender, age, income, race, disability, ethnicity, class, and environment in shaping women’s exposure to health risks, experience of ill health, access to health services, and health outcomes. These disparities have ripple effects that are felt for generations.
Data on gender bias in healthcare compiled by the BBC discovered that diagnostic delays cause 80,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. This suggests we need better health education to teach patients how to advocate for themselves in health settings. When people become self-advocates, they are much more likely to ask questions or offer input regarding their health.
As the International Council on Women’s Health Issues wrote, “The health of women and girls determines the health and well-being of our modern world.”
Resources:
• https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180523-how-gender-bias-affects-your-healthcare
• https://www.mcgilltribune.com/sci-tech/sick-and-tired-how-the-medical-field-neglects-womens-health-03232021/
• https://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h4147
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3703826/
Gates, M. (2019). The moment of lift: How empowering women changes the world. Macmillan Publishing.
Content for this segment was created by Kendall Tracey as part of a project for SC301: Foundations of Health Communication, taught by Dr. Clubbs. Kendall is a Spanish and Health Communication double major with a minor in French who will be graduating from Southeast in May 2022. Her future plans include working as a medical interpreter for Spanish, French, German, and American Sign Language (ASL), as well as receiving her master's degree in Library and Information Sciences.
