---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 09:58:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Nancy Krieger <[log in to unmask]>
To: Spirit of 1848 <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: nancy krieger <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: new report available on gender & women's health (fwd)
fyi ...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 09:37:00 -0500 (EST)
From: Rochelle Tucker <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: new report available
Hi all-
A new report regarding sex and gender in the soon to be established
Canadian Institue for Health Research has just been released. You can
dowload a copy from the following website: www.bccewh.bc.ca
CIHR 2000: Sex, Gender and Women's Health
ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the issues of sex, gender and womens health in
health research. The advent of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research
(CIHR) planned for April, 2000 offers a tremendous opportunity for Canada
to reorient its health research system to include sex, gender and womens
health in a more systematic and effective manner. It will also foster the
integration of basic biomedical, applied clinical, health systems and
social and cultural dimensions of health research in a new research
environment. Both of these directions will contribute to the
transformation of the substance and process of health research in Canada.
Clearly addressing and including sex, gender and womens health in this
plan from the outset will position Canadian health research in the
forefront internationally. Most importantly, it will improve the quality
of science in the health research field and decrease knowledge gaps
related to the impact of sex and gender in human health and in particular,
womens health. This paper distinguishes between sex and gender as concepts
and articulates the interactive relationships between sex and gender that
affect health. Several examples are offered to illustrate this complex and
dynamic relationship. Second, the field of womens health is examined and
defined and the vast knowledge gaps in this area articulated. Several
examples are detailed to illustrate the extent of what we do not yet know.
The rationale for extending and developing the field of womens health
research is described. Women constitute 52 per cent of the Canadian
population and cut across all age groups, life stages and population
health groups. Women are affected by most disease categories and are
affected by biomedical processes and research in as yet unknown ways.
The impact of improving womens health is felt on women, families and
communities as women form the vast majority of the managers of family
health and perform most of the formal and informal caregiving in Canada.
Canada has been a leader in international fora to improve the human rights
of women. In this vein, Canada has signed several documents to improve
womens health and to establish mechanisms to ascertain the effects of sex
and gender within its national machinery. Domestically, the Womens Health
Strategy announced by the Health Minister, the Honourable Allan Rock, in
March 1999 articulated Canadas recognition of the need in this field.
Several bodies including the Medical Research Council of Canada have
identified the need for distinct research on women. The field of womens
health research in Canada is strong and growing. Several Chairs and
Centres of Excellence are devoted to womens health research and several
hundred researchers identify as womens health researchers.
This paper examines three operational options for developing womens health
research further in the context of the CIHR. We conclude that a Womens
Health Research Institute, with an integrated and educative gender
mainstreaming component would accomplish the dual goals of addressing
knowledge gaps in womens health research and including the important
variables of sex and gender across Institutes of the CIHR. Finally, a
conceptual model of a Womens Health Research Institute and a second model
depicting the CIHR illustrates these conclusions.
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