Gender and the 10/90 gap in health research.

since women comprise the majority of the world’s poor. The health of these women is affected not just by their poverty and by failures to meet many of their sex-related (i.e. biological) and reproductive health needs, but also by the wider gender (i.e. social) inequalities that continue to shape their lives. Men’s health can also be negatively affected by their masculinity, with the poorest often at the greatest risk. Health researchers will need to take these factors just as seriously as more widely accepted determinants of health such as race, class, and ethnicity.There are marked differences in the patterns of health and illness experi-enced by women and men, the most obvious stemming from their biological differences. Some relate directly to the male or female reproductive systems, with women being at particular risk in this respect. However, there are also broader genetic, hormonal and metabolic differences between the sexes (1), with men being more susceptible to many infectious diseases and women more likely to develop auto-immune problems. The socially constructed variations in the daily lives of women and men also have a major effect on their health (2). Gender differences in living and working conditions and in the nature of male and female roles mean that men and women exhibit different risks of developing some health problems. Gender inequali-ties in access to a range of resources also have a major impact on health.Women are more likely to experi-ence problems resulting from domestic