Notions of gender have significantly informed the development of Essay

Notions of gender have significantly informed the development of health policy and of health care practice. critically discuss - Essay Example This paper illustrates how notions of gender have significantly contributed to the development of health policy and the development of health care. Health policy is aimed at being a vessel for discussion and exploration of issues in the health system. In particular, it is intended to promoting communication between the health policy and legislators, system researchers, professionals and decision makers who are concerned with development and implementation of health systems and reforms in health care. These policies and reforms are being made in an ever increasing pace and policy makers are forced to look over to other countries to find solutions to their own problems. The commitment of health policy is to ensure that there is international dialogue that makes sure that policies are put into practice based on specific issues and goals as well as in the particular situations (Walsh, 2004:146). Looking back at history, there was a growing strength of women’s movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. This growth challenged the ‘medicalisation’ of bodies of women and the structure of women’s medical health needs as dissimilar from their own priorities and experiences. The women’s movement went ahead and questioned the myth that male partners or doctors had better knowledge about their bodies than the women themselves knew (David 2008). This represented the women experiences in sexual, physical, mental and reproductive health needs. Based on the social, economic and political forces that influenced heath, they analysed their experiences and searched for the connections between class, race and gender-based coercion and the way they affected the women (Graham, 2009:146). According to David (2008), there was evolution of the concepts of gender and gender analysis from feminist point of view that emphasised the cultural and social nature of most of the differences between women and men. This is