ABSTRACT

The current (postfeminist) gender order comprises a highly complex coexistence of old and new norms and expectations, freedom and constraints, within a neoliberal social order underpinned by individualism and involving a shift in gender performance by men and women.

Health, illness and disease at different points in the life course can be used as a vehicle to illuminate structural and cultural inequalities that persist despite several decades of progressive reform in western countries. This collection brings together a number of key researchers, both established and new to the field, and based across North America, Australia, the UK and Europe, and comprises both empirical and theoretical work. Drawing on a wide range of disciplinary fields, including medical sociology, medical anthropology, nursing, gender studies, sociology of risk and age studies, all authors use heath, well-being, illness and disease as a lens through which to explore the complexities and inequalities associated with late modernity.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students of age studies, medical sociology and anthropology, gender studies, healthcare and nursing.

chapter |23 pages

Embodying the gender regime

Health, illness and disease across the life course

chapter 1|14 pages

Embodying gender in the everyday

Exploring space, body-scrutiny and safety

chapter 2|15 pages

Unscrambling risk, contesting expertise

The case of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine

chapter 4|18 pages

Contested chronic conditions fused with medical uncertainty

Gendered perspectives

chapter 5|17 pages

Reclaiming menopause

chapter 6|15 pages

Beyond lipstick and woodwork

Why gender matters when living with dementia

chapter 7|15 pages

‘Men are not women’

Biomedicine and the (hetero)sexing of ageing bodies

chapter 8|12 pages

Toward an intersectional approach to health in later life

Incorporating age relations

chapter 9|12 pages

Reproducing gender and smoking