Connecting gender, space and place: are there gender differences in the relationships between the social environment and health-related behaviours?

Neighbourhood of residence may influence the health of men and women in
different ways. For example, stronger associations among men than among women in life expectancy and area deprivation have been noted in England (Raleigh and Kiri 1997), the United States (Singh and Siahpush 2006) and Canada (Auger et al. 2010). Wider area differences in self-rated health over time have been observed among men compared to women ( Ellaway et al. 2012 ). Neighbourhood social fragmentation appears to be more strongly related to women’s mental health than that of men ( Ivory et al. 2011 ). Findings such as these suggest that there may be gender differences in the social meanings and experience of place; in differential exposure, vulnerability or sensitivity to social and physical environments (Ellaway et al. 2001 ; Stafford et al. 2005 b) and in the health-related responses of men and women (van Praag et al. 2009 ). In this chapter we will briefly review the literature on gender differences in perceptions of the neighbourhood.