Societal Preconditions and Women's Health

In ensuring quality life, health occupies priority especially for women. It is important because their biological conditions and societal preconditions affect the overall health practices. The social preconditions are by way of their social status and position, and other specific cultural practices of the society. From a social structural perspective gender roles have been identified as major determinants of health status (Doyal, 1995). Cancer is a major cause of death in South Asian women (Bhopal and Rankin, 1996) and there is a low uptake of screening tests. The paper addresses the impact of culture in addressing the health seeking behaviour of women and the distinct phases in health seeking behaviour through Thaddeus and Maine (1990) model. It explores the socio-cultural processes that influence women's decision making at each phase. The study findings indicate women pay less attention to their own body and health as it is viewed as self-centered and hesitate to discuss reproductive health issues for fear of jeopardizing the social status. In addition, financial constraints, dependency, lack of time and the sacrificial nature of women for which they are used to, intervene in accessing health care.