Publications on women, health and gender in Spain (1990-2005)

BACKGROUND: The studies on women, gender and health are increasingly more frequent in Spain. This research is aimed at ascertaining the topics dealt with in these publications, the disciplines studying said topics, the sex of the leading author and whether these topics have been approached from a gender-related standpoint. METHODS: A search was conducted for published studies in Biomedicine, Sociology, Nursing, Anthropology and Psychology databases. The main key words used were women or gender] and health] and Spain]. Original articles, reviews and monographic studies, both national and international, published within the 1990-2005 period were included. The variables taken into consideration were the topic of study, field of expertise, gender focus and sex of those publishing the work. A total of 298 works were included. RESULTS: The topics dealt with the most were sexual and reproductive health (39.2%) and mental health (12.4%). A total of 58.7% of the works were authored by a woman as the leading author and 47.3% had no gender focus. A total of 85.3% of the publications on sexual and reproductive health do not incorporate the gender standpoint, whilst 94.1% of the works on productive and reproductive work did however include this standpoint. A total of 80.4% of the works in Biomedicine have no gender focus. CONCLUSIONS: Even though they are scarce, the works having a gender focus are signed mostly by women as the leading authors. In the material studied, women's health continues to be confined to reproduction, it being necessary for other factors having a direct bearing on women's health to be included.