The weaker sex? Exploring lay understandings of gender differences in life expectancy: a qualitative study

Carol Emslie; Kate Hunt

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.05.009

The weaker sex? Exploring lay understandings of gender differences in life expectancy: a qualitative study

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Despite increasing interest in gender and health, ‘lay’ perceptions of gender differences in mortality have been neglected. Drawing on semi-structured interview data from 45 men and women in two age cohorts (born in the early 1950s and 1970s) in the UK, we investigated lay explanations for women's longer life expectancy. Our data suggest that respondents were aware of women's increased longevity, but found this difficult to explain. While many accounts were multifactorial, socio-cultural explanations were more common, more detailed and less tentative than biological explanations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	808–816
Number of pages	9
Journal	Social Science and Medicine
Volume	67
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.05.009
Publication status	Published - Sep 2008

Keywords

gender
longevity
men's health
women's health

Documents and Links

10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.05.009

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795360800244X

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