Stratification Of Women’s Health: Challenges Faced By Women In Canadian Society

Women’s Health Strategy as a framework to address major challenges and Beijing platform’s principles

Discuss about the Health Strategy and Beijing Platform’s Principles.

The Women’s Health Strategy is largely considered to be as a framework in an integrated form that is used for addressing the major challenges as well as the Beijing platform’s principles. In my point of view, health movement of women has played a pivotal role in raising the awareness regarding the need for a strategy that is outlined. Whilst women have experienced poorer health compared to men, it has been found that there has been a variation in the pattern of gender differences. Thus I believe women have lower mortality and they have depression, distress, chronic illness of higher level as well as the psychiatric disorders. However, it has been found that the extent of gender differences and the stratification in health differ in accordance with the situations or the symptoms or the life cycle phase (Chagomoka, et al., 2016). According to my opinion, there is female excess throughout the life span for the distress and it is less apparent. On top of that it can be reversed for a several physical symptoms as well as the conditions. From my point of view after it has been observed regarding the social structures of inequality, in order to state the thesis statement it can be said that there is stratification of health among women.

There have been many actual reasons of the health inequalities and socialization is one of them. In this regard, it needs to be mentioned that these reasons or causes are related to each other while at the same time they are complex. Along with this, the health inequalities are also connected to the biological as well as the genetic dissimilarities. There are variables in terms of social norms that were recognized as the source which are normally categorized into the psycho-social, the structural and behavioural determinants.

Regarding the social structures of inequality, it has been found that the there is stratification of health among women (Donetto & Maben, 2015). The term stratification in society refers to the hierarchy and the discrimination that emerges between two or groups due to the differential location and the conflict of interests. There have been plethoras of studies that have demonstrated that the health status of a person in Canada is contingent on the structural factors of social support. There are certain lifestyle behaviours that are related to health and illness. A healthy lifestyle has the potential to prevent illness like weight put on, diabetes, and high blood pressure as well the early mortality (Henderson & Redshaw, 2017). According to “WHO: Women’s health an ‘urgent priority’ – CNN.com”, (2018), the root cause of almost all disease is unhealthy lifestyle. To be more specific, nowadays, people live a fast paced life and to do this, they lose balance which is causes the most serious dieses like even cancer. Not only the busy life schedule but also the consumption of alcohol and smoking has been observed at a higher rate especially among the youth, which imposes threat on their health. It is seen that most of the women all over the world these days are diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) which causes long term health issues like heart conditions (“WHO: Women’s health an ‘urgent priority’ – CNN.com”, 2018).

Gender differences in health: Lower mortality, higher levels of depression, distress, chronic illness and psychiatric disorders among women

It has been found that regarding the social factors, scholars have posed two general hypotheses which indicate increased level of health issues are reported by women in the Canadian society owing to the reduced level of access to the social as well as the material situation of life that strengthen the health. Women experience greater stress owing to the responsibilities posed by their marital role and later on the maternal duties. Double day labour has been identified as one of the chief causes for the deterioration of the health of women. most women of present days, barely get some time to take care of themselves as they remain overburdened with workloads of workplace as well as of household works. Thus it is seen that arthritis and osteoporosis are the most common health issues that women suffers these days more (“WHO: Women’s health an ‘urgent priority’ – CNN.com”, 2018). In addition to this, ulcer and heart disease are also very much common among women. As per the report of World Health Organization, most of the women due to stress and over burden of work compromise with their food habits and with daily routine. As a result they do not get proper sound sleep, do not get food in a timely manner and neglects health issues which later causes serious health issues. As reported by World Health Organization, women of the developing countries face more health issues due to unhealthy lifestyle. The health This I observed in the case of Aunt Anne who experienced extreme stress due to her falling health and concomitant mental stress. On talking with her I was informed that she is overburdened with household work. She told me that she did not receive any support from her husband in managing the household work (McCaman, 2016). Ccredible information are available regarding not only this type of issues like stress, addictions towards several things, depression and eating disorders but also regarding some general topics like exercise, good nutrition, heart health and so on. At the same time it has also been advised that some measures such as having sensible meals, elimination of post-dinner snacks and including more physical activities in daily-life routine and so on are useful measures in order to keep the health issues in control including weight gain.

Thus in respect to the previous discussion, it will be right to assert that the patients are required to be more aware that there are differences between men and women in terms of the capacity of metabolizing a number of drugs. However, there are some different medicines, for which the metabolism rate can be slower while in other cases, the rate are faster. Therefore it is essential that the female patients are informed beforehand regarding proper dosage of drugs that are taken by them. However, the social behaviour as well as norms in the human society is found to be playing a vital role in the anthropology, encompassing the range of phenomena that are transmitted through social learning in human societies. In the present discussion about Aunt Annie who belongs to the Canadian culture has a specific kind of human behavior, social practices expressive forms.

Social structures of inequality and their impact on women’s health

A sense of culture has been considered the degree as an individual’s attribute to which they have a specific level of sophistication have been cultivated in manners, arts, education and even science (Glenn, et al., 2015). It has been sometimes seen that the level sophistication in terms of cultural aspects are considered to differentiate civilization from societies that are less complex. Thus this type of hierarchical perspectives regarding culture can be found in differentiation based on class among the affluent class of society and the lower strata of the society, renowned culture, differentiated by the access in a stratified form to cultural capital.  The Social stratification that has an impact on the health of the women  is a type of social differentiation through which a society segregates its human beings into the level of socioeconomic that is based on the parameter of income, occupation, societal status or other factors in terms of social aspects (Honikman, Fawcus, & Meintjes, 2015) Aunt Annie in the present case has been the victim who has been neglected by the society and there has been no botheration regarding her health. Therefore it can e said that one of that one of the prevalent as well as pervasive social aspects that are used by people in order to make differentiations of social aspects among the individuals.

Thus it needs to be mentioned that gender discriminations are seen in caste based as well as economic system of stratification. Expectations of social role often develop gender lines within the society. Aunt Annie has been working for her household all alone neglecting her health along with her physical and mental needs is a clear evidence of the issue in the society hat is taking place and has been taken place throughout (Sibley, et al., 2014).

Thus to conclude it is apt to assert that it is justified as it has been observed regarding the social structures of inequality, that the there is stratification of health among women. The term stratification in society refers to the hierarchy and the discrimination that emerges between two or groups due to the differential location and the conflict of interests, especially in the Canadian society in the present case. The only solution to the issue is to conduct various eye opening programmes to make the crowd aware of the issues and act accordingly.

References

Chagomoka, T., Drescher, A., Glaser, R., Marschner, B., Schlesinger, J., & Nyandoro, G. (2016). Women’s dietary diversity scores and childhood anthropometric measurements as indices of nutrition insecurity along the urban–rural continuum in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Food & nutrition research, 60(1), 29425.

Donetto, S., & Maben, J. (2015). ‘These places are like a godsend’: a qualitative analysis of parents’ experiences of health visiting outside the home and of children’s centres services. Health expectations, 18(6), 2559-2569.

Glenn, B. A., Tsui, J., Singhal, R., Sanchez, L., Nonzee, N. J., Chang, L. C., … & Bastani, R. (2015). Factors associated with HPV awareness among mothers of low-income ethnic minority adolescent girls in Los Angeles. Vaccine, 33(2), 289-293.

Henderson, J., & Redshaw, M. (2017). Change over time in women’s views and experiences of maternity care in England, 1995–2014: A comparison using survey data. Midwifery, 44, 35-40.

Honikman, S., Fawcus, S., & Meintjes, I. (2015). Abuse in South African maternity settings is a disgrace: Potential solutions to the problem. SAMJ: South African Medical Journal, 105(4), 284-286.

McCaman, E. A. (2016). Encouraging Innovation in Preventive Health Technology: A Spotlight on Women’s Health. Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, 22(1).

Sibley, L. M., Spangler, S. A., Barry, D., Tesfaye, S., Desta, B. F., & Gobezayehu, A. G. (2014). A regional comparison of distribution strategies and women’s awareness, receipt, and use of misoprostol to prevent postpartum hemorrhage in rural Amhara and Oromiya regions of Ethiopia. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 59(s1).

WHO: Women’s health an ‘urgent priority’ – CNN.com. (2018). Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/11/women.health/index.html

Truiett-Theodorson, R., Tuck, S., Bowie, J. V., Summers, A. C., & Kelber-Kaye, J. (2015). Building effective partnerships to improve birth outcomes by reducing obesity: The B’more Fit for healthy babies coalition of Baltimore. Evaluation and program planning, 51, 53-58.