Importance of a Gender-Specific Health Policy |
김영택, 정진주 |
한국여성정책연구원 |
젠더 관점의 보건정책의 중요성: 미국의 사례 |
김영택, 정진주 |
한국여성정책연구원 |
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Abstract |
Objective The United States has carried out a gender-specific health policy by setting up ‘Officeof Women’s Health (OWH)’ inside United States Department of Health and Human Services. Withacknowledgement of difference between men and women in terms of biological and sociologicalperspectives in a whole life cycle, OWH in the United States has played a key role of improvingwomen’s health condition for more than 20 years. However, Korea narrowly focused on improvementof women’s health only during a pregnancy period. As a result, we have faced problems ofwomen’s health which could have been significantly improved with the health policy of the UnitedStates. Therefore, this study is to introduce the most current health policy for women in theUnited States and to review the past studies on women’s health in Korea to address better healthpolicy for women in Korea.
Methods The study introduced the health policy for women in the United States through the contentsof the most current web sites by United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Also, the study reviewed and analyzed past studies on women’s health published by Korean Women’sDevelopment Institute.
Results Office of Women’s Health in the United States has carried out the health policy for womenwith acknowledgement of health difference between men and women in terms of biological andsociological perspectives. In addition, past studies indicated women’s health problems that couldhave been prevented in Korea with the gender-specific health policy.
Conclusion This study addressed the importance of gender-perspective health policy and suggestedthat establishing ‘Office of Women’s Health’ like the United States could be better forwomen’s health in Korea. |
Key Words:
office of women’s health in the United States, gender-perspective health policy, genderspecific medicine, etc |
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