The Gender Gap in Health Care
" Although women are special, we are not a special population ", said Martha Gulati, a cardiologist specializing in women's heart health. When one reads this comment, its meaning and intention might not be immediately clear. One usually assumes that being considered as a 'special population' can only be beneficial because it ensures that specific issues that only women face are given adequate attention. I only recently realized that it can also have a downside. If women are viewed as a "special population" requiring separate focus or intervention, it can sometimes lead to neglect in broader or more universal programs that should apply to all people, regardless of gender. For example, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. The medical field did not fully acknowledge that women experience different symptoms of the disease compared to men until 1999. This is just one such case. Some studies show that women h...