Universal Access for All? Gender Bias in Health Policy: Reflections from the Chilean Case

Dr. Jasmine Gideon, Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London

Recent rhetoric in global health policy debates has shifted away from an emphasis on targeted provision of services and is currently advocating the importance of universal access to health care. Yet much of this debate has been gender-blind and contains an implicit assumption that if coverage of services is improved, women and men will benefit equally. Drawing on the case of Chile, this paper will consider how this may not always be the case and will also look at how health policy has served to reinforce gendered roles and responsibilities.

Biography:

Jasmine Gideon is a Lecturer in Development Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her recent research is on gender and social protection in Chile and her work on informal workers' access to health care has been published in Global Social Policy and Bulletin of Latin American Research. Other research interests include gender and social and economic rights and looking at health sector reform from a gender perspective. Recent publications include ‘Counting the Cost of Privatised Provision: Women, Rights and Neo-Liberal Health Reforms in Chile’, IDS Bulletin, December 2008 and ‘Reclaiming Feminism: Gender and Neoliberalism, co-edited with Andrea Cornwall and Kalpana Wilson, Special Issue of IDS Bulletin 2008, 39 (6).

Organiser: Bloomsbury Gender Network hosted by the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies

Contact email: rs94@soas.ac.uk