Ellen Annandale|Kate Hunt
Masculinity, femininity and sex: an exploration of their relative contribution to explaining gender differences in health
MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit|MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
abstract emergence gender major area interest medical sociology 1970s set exciting agenda future research however despite growing literature understanding mechanisms linking gender health advanced little recent years may part due problems conceptualising gender particular despite theoretical advances biological sex sociological gender continue conflated empirical research paper argue sex gender necessarily coincidental gender roles gender role orientations may crosscut sex draw upon recent tradition research gender role orientation psychology assesses level bmasculinity femininity individuals selfconcept identification traditionally masculine feminine characteristics considering range health measures conclude sex malefemale differences traditionally found research gender health may mask association femininity relatively poor health masculinity relatively good health men women