Gender and Women's Health

Overview

Students specialising in Gender and Women’s Health will be acquiring knowledge about contemporary gender and women’s health issues and current discussions and debates in the field. Key concepts applied include inequity and inequality, intersectionality, social theory, feminist theory and the social determinants of health. Students can apply to undertake a Research Project in Gender & Women’s Health in which they may either use qualitative or quantitative social research methods or epidemiological approaches to examine health problems through a gendered lens. Supervision is available for projects that examine how gender shapes health outcomes and/or relate to a range of women’s health issues. This includes but is not limited to projects in the areas of social epidemiology, global women’s health, maternal health, violence against women and the health of women from specific population groups such as migrant women or women with disabilities. The specialisation will provide students with the tools to explain and measure the ways in which gender affects heath, including how women's and men's positions in society shape health outcomes across the life course and intersections between gender and other social categories such as socio-economic position, Indigeneity, sexuality, geography and ethnicity. On completion, students will have the capacity to develop equitable public health strategies that take into account the complexities of gender and its interaction with other categories of social inequality and to apply a critical gender lens to public health research and policy. This specialisation provides professional education for graduates who work or intend to work as researchers, clinicians, educators, advocates, policy makers or health promotion practitioners in the expanding fields of gender and women's health. The roles following this specialisation are many and varied. Examples include Research Management, Policy and Advocacy, Research Fellowships or Assistant, Principal Strategic Advisor, Policy Manager/Officer, Health Promotion Manager/Officer and Epidemiologist (if taken in conjunction with the Epidemiology specialisation).

Last updated: 24 January 2023