Making men's health policy relevant for the 21st century.

The Australian government has stated its intention to develop a National Men’s Health Policy (NMHP) in 2009. This policy (we are told) will focus on reducing the barriers men experience in accessing health services, tackling widespread reticence among men to seek treatment, improving male-friendly health services, and raising awareness of preventable health problems that affect men.1 The Consultation papers provided to date for this policy3 refer to the concept of gender equity in somewhat simplistic terms as Saunders and Peerson (2009 in this issue) point out. The achievement of gender equity is fundamentally about overcoming the social inequities that result from hegemonic dominance of men over women and its health consequences. The background papers and final report of the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) as well as the final report of the CSDH itself, are instructive in this regard.2,3,4