State-Level Sexism and Gender Disparities in Health Care Access and Quality in the United States.

Publisher: Sage Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0103130 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2150-6000 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00221465 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Health Soc Behav Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage
Original Publication: 1967-1981: Albany, N.Y. : American Sociological Association

Health Services Accessibility* ; Sexism*; Employment ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; United States

In this investigation, we examined the associations between state-level structural sexism-a multidimensional index of gender inequities across economic, political, and cultural domains of the gender system-and health care access and quality among women and men in the United States. We linked administrative data gauging state-level gender gaps in pay, employment, poverty, political representation, and policy protections to individual-level data on health care availability, affordability, and quality from the national Consumer Survey of Health Care Access (2014-2019; N = 24,250). Results show that higher state-level sexism is associated with greater inability to access needed health care and more barriers to affording care for women but not for men. Furthermore, contrary to our hypothesis, women residing in states with higher state-level sexism report better quality of care than women in states with lower levels of sexism. These findings implicate state-level sexism in perpetuating gender disparities in health care.

Keywords: United States; gender inequity; health care access; state policy; structural sexism

Date Created: 20211119 Date Completed: 20220420 Latest Revision: 20220420

20240105

10.1177/00221465211058153

34794351