Gender, health, and society

Lectures: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This interdisciplinary course will introduce students to gender as a theoretical concept and examine its relation to health, including public health practice, epidemiologic research, health policy, and clinical application. The focus will include global, domestic, and historical perspectives, using the following examples: cardiovascular disease, hormone therapy, pregnancy, birth, sexually transmitted infections, abortion, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, contraceptives, and mental health. We will draw on different disciplines, conceptual frameworks, and methodologic approaches in order to understand gender in relation to health while also considering other social determinants of health, including social class and race.

For more information on the activities listed in the table above, please see the Assignments section.

No full texts are required for this course. However, the following text has many chapters of required reading:

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sex / Gender: Biology in a Social World. Routledge, 2012. ISBN: 9780415881463. [Preview with Google Books]

Additional readings can be found in the table of the Readings section.

Please ensure you've reviewed Academic Integrity at MIT: A Handbook for Students.

The Writing and Communication Center at MIT offers free one-on-one professional advice about all types of writing and oral presentations.

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