Men's health and women's health–deadly enemies or strategic allies

Abstract

The women's and men's health movements in developed societies have had distinct but related histories, including periods of suspicion and occasionally explicit opposition. Nevertheless, they have a number of interests in common, suggesting the potential for strategic alliances. This article uses international literature, and Australia as a case study, to review the potential for gender collaboration, and to identify possible obstacles that must be dealt with if joint action is to be effective. It suggests that strategic alliances around common interests can contribute to population health.

Women on men’s sexual health and sexually transmitted infection testing: a gender relations analysis

“…Likewise, Schippers’s (2007) and Lyons’s (2009) eloquent assertion that the development and empirical testing of femininity frameworks will advance health and gender relations research also influenced our study design. The current study provides empirical and theory‐based insights for an emergent gender and health literature intent on demonstrating the intricate connections between men’s and women’s health rather than perpetuating a competing victim discourse (Broom 2009).…”

Gay men and intimate partner violence: a gender analysis

“…Responding to interview questions about how women and men victims of IPV compare, participants drew on humanitarian ideals to suggest than no‐one should be victim of IPV. This positioning avoided what Broom () labels a competing victim discourse; yet there were also assertions that the lack of men‐centred services imposed additional challenges for realising a way out, as a 57‐year‐old man suggested:

With women … they're taken care of more, they are seen as more vulnerable and in need of more help … but we do too. For men it's just the same … we're all human … we all have feelings … we get beat, they get beat.

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Psychosocial Oncology Supports for Men

“…Even more, when integrating a "gender relations" approach, this gender-aware research can avoid a "competing victims discourse" that would position men's and women's health as separate or vying. Instead, it can examine how dynamic gender relations might constrain and/or facilitate health opportunities and illness responses between and among groups of men and women (Schofield, Connell, Walker, Wood, & Butland, 2000) and pursue understandings and responses benefitting both women and men (Broom, 2009;Oliffe, Kelly, Bottorff, Johnson, & Wong, 2011), thus avoiding efforts that address the health needs of one group in a way that perpetuates inequalities or brings harm to another (e.g., privileging men's needs over women's or groups of men over other men).…”