Influence of macrosocial policies on women's health and gender inequalities in health

Carme Borrell, Laia Palència, Carles Muntaner, Marcelo Urquía, Davide Malmusi, Patricia O'Campo

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    129 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Gender inequalities in health have been widely described, but few studies have examined the upstream sources of these inequalities in health the objectives of this review are 1) to identify empirical papers that assessed the effect of gender equality policies on gender inequalities in health or on women's health by using between-country (or administrative units within a country) comparisons and 2) to provide an example of published evidence on the effects of a specific policy (parental leave) on women's health. We conducted a literature search covering the period from 1970 to 2012, using several bibliographical databases. We assessed 1,238 abstracts and selected 19 papers that considered gender equality policies, compared several countries or different states in 1 country, and analyzed at least 1 health outcome among women or compared between genders. To illustrate specific policy effects, we also selected articles that assessed associations between parental leave and women's health. Our review partially supports the hypothesis that Nordic social democratic welfare regimes and dual-earner family models best promote women's health. Meanwhile, enforcement of reproductive policies, mainly studied across US states, is associated with better mental health outcomes, although less with other outcomes. Longer paid maternity leave was also generally associated with better mental health and longer duration of breastfeeding.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)31-48
    Number of pages18
    JournalEpidemiologic Reviews
    Volume36
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014 Jan 1

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This research was supported by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013, grant agreement 278173): “Evaluating the impact of structural policies on health inequalities and their social determinants and fostering change (Sophie)” project; and by the Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innova-ción Tecnológica (I+D+I) and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Subdirección General de Evaluación y Fomento de la Inves-tigación (grant PI12/03114).

    Keywords

    • health status
    • public policy
    • sex factors
    • socioeconomic factors
    • women's health

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Epidemiology

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