Illness and the feminine role: A theoretical review

Women in the Western world live longer than men and have lower mortality rates for most causes of death. There is strong evidence that these differences are due to women's constitionally greater resistance to infectious and degenerative disease. However, in sharp contrast to their favorable mortality, women report more physical and mental illness than men, and utilize health services at substantially higher rates. These latter differences are documented with health survey data from the United States and Great Britain. Three explanatory models to account for sex differences in illness experience are considerated: (1) women report more illnes than men because it is culturally more acceptable for them to be ill; (2) the sick role is more compatible with women's other role responsibilities; and (3) women have more illness than men because their assigned social roles are more stressful. Evaluation of these alternative models is based on a review of data from studies of variations in illness among women, and it is concluded that a model looking at illness behavior as a function of the number and character of other role obligations offers the most promise for future research.