Multidimensional Approaches to Gendered Racial Stratification of Health Trajectories

• In Event: 402 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Paper Session. Intersectionality and Health: The Embodiment and Expression of Multi-dimensional Inequality

Abstract

Central to the discipline of sociology is the study of how ascribed statuses affect life chances. Toward this end, gender, racial/ethnic and age inequalities in health have been well-documented. However, few studies have examined how these dimensions of stratification intersect to impact health trajectories. The conventional, unidimensional approach to studying the social stratification of health has been to examine how an individual’s position in a single status hierarchy impacts well-being. In other words, previous studies have tended to examine the health consequences of gender, race/ethnicity, and age separately. Other studies have assumed that these characteristics have additive effects, which may obscure their multiplicative role in the production of health inequality. This study extends previous research examining how the simultaneous processes of gender inequality, racial/ethnic inequality, and aging impact health trajectories in mid- to late-life. We draw on multidimensional stratification and life course perspectives, as well as panel data from the Health and Retirement Survey and growth curve models to better understand the diversity of health experiences among non-Hispanic Blacks, non-Hispanic Whites and Mexican Americans between the ages of 51 and 77. We examine group differences in several commonly-used indicators of population health including self-rated health, life-threatening chronic conditions, and functional limitations. Findings from this study provide strong support for intersectionality, double jeopardy and aging-as-leveler hypotheses. By integrating multidimensional and life course approaches to study health inequality, we aim to provide a better understanding of the joint and long-term health consequences of gendered racial inequality.

Authors

• Tyson H. Brown, Vanderbilt University

• Taylor Hargrove, Vanderbilt University