Abstract
Background
Race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status are the three most prominent factors
to predict health outcomes. Despite the fact that persistent health inequalities are
found between groups, we know little about how the interrelatedness of these social
positions influences the health of older adults.
Purpose
In this study, we apply a feminist intersectional approach to the study of health
inequalities, treating social variables as multiplicative rather than additive to
capture the mutually constitutive dimensions of race/ethnicity, gender, and education.
Methods
This paper makes use of data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project,
a nationally representative sample of 3,005 community-dwelling U.S. adults aged 57
to 85 years old, to explore intersections of race, gender, and education. We use a
combination of stratified analysis with an interaction term to test multiplicative
effects.
Results
First, our findings confirm that Black women with less than a high school education
have the poorest self-rated health. Second, at the bivariate level, we find highly
educated White men are not the converse of lower educated Black women. Third, at the
multivariate level, we find being Black and female has an effect on health beyond
those already accounted for by race and gender.
Conclusion
This research demonstrates the explanatory power of an intersectionality approach
to deepen understanding of the overlapping, simultaneous production of health inequalities
by race, class, and gender.
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Biography
Susan W. Hinze, PhD, is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Women's and Gender Studies at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Her research interests include the influence of patient race/ethnicity, social class and gender on physician decision-making, and the gendered career and family paths of physicians.
Biography
Jielu Lin, MS, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Her main area of interest is age and the life course, with a focus on how cumulative dis/advantage processes shape the pattern of individual health trajectories.
Biography
Tanetta Andersson, MA, is a doctoral candidate and instructor in the Department of Sociology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Her research interests are rooted in the nexus between race, class, and gender statuses, inequality, and life chances (education and health).
Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 10, 2011
Accepted:
August 3,
2011
Received in revised form:
August 2,
2011
Received:
October 20,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
