Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Eur J Public Health. 2022 Oct 3;32(5):684-689. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckac122.
Does increased female participation in the social and political life of a country improve health? Social participation may improve health because it ensures that the concerns of all people are heard by key decision-makers. More specifically, when women's social participation increases this may lead to health gains because women are more likely to vote for leaders and lobby for policies that will enhance the health of everyone. This article tries to examine whether female participation is correlated with measures of health inequality.
We draw on data from the World Health Organization Health Equity Status Report initiative and the Varieties of Democracy project to assess whether health is better and health inequalities are smaller in countries where female political representation is greater.
We find consistent evidence that greater female political representation is associated with lower geographical inequalities in infant mortality, smaller inequalities in self-reported health (for both women and men) and fewer disability-adjusted life-years lost for women and men. Finally, we find that greater female political representation is not only correlated with better health for men and women but is also correlated with a smaller gap between men and women because men seem to experience better health in such contexts.
Greater female political representation is associated with better health for everyone and smaller inequalities.
女性更多地参与国家的社会和政治生活是否会改善健康状况？社会参与可能会改善健康状况，因为它确保了所有利益相关者的关切都能被决策者听到。更具体地说，当女性的社会参与度增加时，这可能会带来健康收益，因为女性更有可能投票支持那些能够提升所有人健康的领导人，并游说制定相关政策。本文试图检验女性参与度是否与健康不平等的衡量标准相关。
我们借鉴了世界卫生组织健康公平状况报告倡议和民主多样性项目的数据，以评估女性政治代表比例较高的国家，其健康状况是否更好，健康不平等程度是否更小。
我们发现了一致的证据表明，女性政治代表比例越高，婴儿死亡率的地域不平等程度越低，自我报告的健康状况（无论是女性还是男性）不平等程度越低，女性和男性因残疾而丧失的健康调整生命年数也越少。最后，我们发现，女性政治代表比例的增加不仅与男性和女性的健康状况改善有关，而且与两性之间的差距缩小有关，因为在这种情况下，男性的健康状况似乎也有所改善。
女性政治代表比例越高，所有人的健康状况就越好，不平等程度就越低。
