Over the years, feminist criticisms and debates rethink the way of understanding patriarchy, opening the door to consider it as a system of oppression that not only affects feminized women and bodies, but also other groups. This system has created, for example, a mandate of masculinity under the premise of men as “strong sex”, those in charge of providing, those in whom the power rests and denies any action and reaction that holds vulnerability. In Rita Segato’s words, when we talk about violence against women, “it is not a war of women against men but against patriarchy, which is not a culture, it is a universal political order.”
Patriarchal order and mandate has not only conditioned the relations between men and women, but the way of acting each person with their reality. The way in which we access the care and health services has also been limited by the way in which we have trained as people socially. From feminist health criticism it is considered that medicine and health systems have been built from a male perspective, excluding female experiences in health plans, manufacturing medications without sufficient research on their consequences in women’s bodies. In addition, many specific conditions of women are minimized or erroneously classified as emotional reactions.
In addition, societies have commissioned women to care, leaving them in charge of home and family care, generating an oversight of their own health to meet the needs of other people. In our country, gender inequalities regarding access to health and time and work dedicated to the care of other people are serious problems, which are highly invisible.
According to the National Survey for the Inegi Care System, in Mexico there are 31.7 million people responsible for providing care, 75.1% of them are women and dedicate, on average, 38.9 hours a week to care tasks. 39.1% of them feel tired, 16.3% depressed, 12.7% have seen their physical health deteriorate and 5.3% have developed some disease.
The social construction of masculinity has influenced less preventive care in the health of men. In particular, prostate cancer represents a critical case: despite having timely detection tests, cultural and social barriers persist that limit their use. The stigma associated with these procedures, as well as feelings of shame or fear of diagnosis, have been identified as factors that dissuade men to go to regular medical reviews. This situation is worrisome, since in 2023 prostate cancer was the main cause of cancer death in men in Mexico, with a rate of 95.8 per 100,000 (INEGI).
