Gender, health, care and place: Living in rural and remote communities

The intersection between gender, health, care and place has garnered increasing attention in the international health services and policy literatures. This has largely been dominated by concerns about the provision of healthcare in rural and remote communities. In these discussions of how to provide equitable access to care, the consideration of gender and women’s health in particular is necessary to complete the picture of health needs, service provision and utilization. It is also clear from a growing literature that rural/remote living is an important determinant of health in numerous ways. This not only includes limited access to healthcare services and information and limited community services and infrastructure, but also a lack of anonymity in rural/remote communities coupled with the invisibility of rural/remote women’s concerns to researchers and policy-makers, limited employment options - for women in particular - low incomes and sometimes high costs for food and transportation, rural-specific occupational health effects, and a need for healthcare that is sensitive to diverse rural cultures and to women’s particular needs (Sutherns et al., 2007). Very little, however, is written about the cumulative impact of and interplay between these various place-related determinants on women’s and men’s health.