The Gender Health Gap: On the History of the Female Body

Items regularly appear in the media about the ‘gender health gap’; the difference between men and women in medical treatments. For instance, we now know that the female heart functions differently to the male heart, and that GPs refer men to specialists more often than women. Health researchers often state that they don’t fully understand where these differences originate and why the problem is so persistent.

In this public lecture, historians Rina Knoeff and Karen Hollewand discuss the issue and argue that we can only solve the gender health gap by also looking at the cultural and historical roots of the problem. Paradoxically, it appears that the activist call for equal opportunities has led in many cases to disregard of the female body.

About the speakers
Dr. Karen Hollewand, Assistant Professor Cultural Heritage, Identity and Early Modern History, University of Groningen
Prof. Rina Knoeff, Professor of Health and Humanities, University of Groningen