ABSTRACT
What makes women different? 25 Family, home and expectations 26 Women’s place in society 27 Women and poverty 28 Black and ethnic minority women 30 Finding ways to reach women 30 Summary of key points 34 References 34
Making people aware of their ability to make healthy choices is problematic. There are a number of different approaches to trying to help people change their behaviour and make healthier choices. It is worth identifying the two main approaches to promoting healthy behaviours before looking specifically at the impact of gender on the ability to make healthy choices. The first approach is the health education model. Traditionally this model has concentrated on changing individual behaviour. The second main approach to changing behaviour is the health promotion model, which differs from health education models by looking beyond the individual and placing health in a sociopolitical framework (Whitehead and Russell 2004). There is increasing recognition that a person’s health and health choices are affected by factors such as education, income, employment, environment, access to health services and social support (Wurst et al. 2002).
