Gender and the 10/90 gap in health research.

Currently, less than 10% of current global funding for research is spent on diseases that afflict more than 90% of the population. This is referred to as the 10/90 gap in health research, and efforts to close it are mounting as part of the wider equity agenda in health. Increasingly it is being recognized that gender issues must be central to these efforts, 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 experienced 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 inequalities in access to a range of resources also have a major impact on health. Women are more likely to experience problems resulting from domestic