{"id":5487,"date":"2021-06-29T15:00:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T15:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5487"},"modified":"2021-06-29T15:00:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T15:00:45","slug":"why-is-there-such-a-gender-gap-in-covid-19-vaccination-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5487","title":{"rendered":"Why Is There Such A Gender Gap In COVID-19 Vaccination Rates?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#vaccination-demographic\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>&nbsp;that nearly 9.5 million more women than men have been vaccinated in the U.S.,<a href=\"https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/why-is-there-such-a-gender-gap-in-covid-19-vaccination-rates\/#fn-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a>&nbsp;and in the 42 states<a href=\"https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/why-is-there-such-a-gender-gap-in-covid-19-vaccination-rates\/#fn-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a>&nbsp;that collect gender data, a greater share of women are getting the vaccine as well. The magnitude of the gender gap varies from state to state but has hovered just below 10 percentage points on average over the past month.&#8221;<br>&#8230;<br>&#8220;The simplest explanation for the vaccine gender gap is that women got a head start. Among older Americans, who had early access to the vaccine, women outnumber men&#8221;<br>&#8230;<br>&#8220;those early restrictions on who could get the vaccine are gone now. The numbers remain imbalanced, however, so other factors must be contributing to the disparity as well.&#8221;<br>&#8230;<br>&#8220;COVID-19&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/17383784\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">isn\u2019t the only health matter that men<\/a>&nbsp;are less likely to be proactive about. Compared with women, they tend to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/20456194\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">see a doctor less often and use harmful substances<\/a>&nbsp;like alcohol and illicit drugs more often; men also tend to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/15053018\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eat less fiber and fruit<\/a>, and they are even less likely to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC4475428\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">use sunscreen<\/a>&nbsp;when compared to women. According to Dr. Jonathan Metzl, director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University, men\u2019s shorter lifespans are the result of the cumulative effects of poor health decisions, not physiology. \u201cThere\u2019s no real biological reason that men die earlier,\u201d said Metzl. \u201cThe things that make you a successful, cool, tough man in America are also inversely related to health and longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers are nearly unanimous in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.apa.org\/about\/policy\/boys-men-practice-guidelines.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their assertion<\/a>&nbsp;that traditional masculinity \u2014 the idea that men should be self-reliant, physically tough and emotionally stoic \u2014 is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0037261\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a risk factor<\/a>&nbsp;for men\u2019s health. James Mahalik, an expert on masculinity and health outcomes at Boston College, studies how traditional masculinity gets in the way of health-promoting behaviors. His lab\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/1359105321990793\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">research<\/a>&nbsp;on mask-wearing indicates that men who conform to traditional masculine norms have lower levels of empathy toward people who are vulnerable to COVID-19, and they are less likely to trust the scientific community. Mahalik suspects the same is true for their views about the vaccine.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;women are typically held responsible for the health of others in ways that men are not: \u201cWomen know that if members of their family become sick, they\u2019re the ones who will be responsible for caregiving.\u201d Although vaccine distributors don\u2019t track the gender of people who schedule vaccine appointments for family members,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/women-making-vaccination-appointments-covid\/2021\/03\/19\/fb4d5330-8679-11eb-bfdf-4d36dab83a6d_story.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sociologists are concerned<\/a>&nbsp;that women are taking on the brunt of this work \u2014 an extension of what has been called women\u2019s \u201csecond shift.\u201d Women\u2019s greater responsibility for maintaining not just their own health but the health of others makes Reich suspect that women are more likely to be in contact with health services and seek out health-related information. Social expectations that women care for others and vigilantly monitor their reproductive health demand it of them.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;gender differences in susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation: Early in the pandemic, men \u2014 particularly those who identified as conservatives \u2014 were\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/politics-and-gender\/article\/gender-differences-in-covid19-conspiracy-theory-beliefs\/11E1C0AA1837CFA7E3926F5E9AF30782\" target=\"_blank\">more likely than women<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to COVID-19 conspiracy theories.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/why-is-there-such-a-gender-gap-in-covid-19-vaccination-rates\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/why-is-there-such-a-gender-gap-in-covid-19-vaccination-rates\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nearly 9.5 million more women than men have been vaccinated in the U.S.,1 and in the 42 states2 that collect gender data, a greater share of women are getting the vaccine as well. The magnitude of the gender gap varies from state to state but has hovered just below 10 percentage points on average over the past month.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The simplest explanation for the vaccine gender gap is that women got a head start. Among older Americans, who had early access to the vaccine, women outnumber men&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;those early restrictions on who could get the vaccine are gone now. The numbers remain imbalanced, however, so other factors must be contributing to the disparity as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;COVID-19 isn\u2019t the only health matter that men are less likely to be proactive about. Compared with women, they tend to see a doctor less often and use harmful substances like alcohol and illicit drugs more often; men also tend to eat less fiber and fruit, and they are even less likely to use sunscreen when compared to women. According to Dr. Jonathan Metzl, director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University, men\u2019s shorter lifespans are the result of the cumulative effects of poor health decisions, not physiology. \u201cThere\u2019s no real biological reason that men die earlier,\u201d said Metzl. \u201cThe things that make you a successful, cool, tough man in America are also inversely related to health and longevity.\u201d<br \/>\nResearchers are nearly unanimous in their assertion that traditional masculinity \u2014 the idea that men should be self-reliant, physically tough and emotionally stoic \u2014 is a risk factor for men\u2019s health. James Mahalik, an expert on masculinity and health outcomes at Boston College, studies how traditional masculinity gets in the way of health-promoting behaviors. His lab\u2019s research on mask-wearing indicates that men who conform to traditional masculine norms have lower levels of empathy toward people who are vulnerable to COVID-19, and they are less likely to trust the scientific community. Mahalik suspects the same is true for their views about the vaccine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;women are typically held responsible for the health of others in ways that men are not: \u201cWomen know that if members of their family become sick, they\u2019re the ones who will be responsible for caregiving.\u201d Although vaccine distributors don\u2019t track the gender of people who schedule vaccine appointments for family members, sociologists are concerned that women are taking on the brunt of this work \u2014 an extension of what has been called women\u2019s \u201csecond shift.\u201d Women\u2019s greater responsibility for maintaining not just their own health but the health of others makes Reich suspect that women are more likely to be in contact with health services and seek out health-related information. Social expectations that women care for others and vigilantly monitor their reproductive health demand it of them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;gender differences in susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation: Early in the pandemic, men \u2014 particularly those who identified as conservatives \u2014 were more likely than women to subscribe to COVID-19 conspiracy theories.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[588,409,483,421,925,410],"class_list":["post-5487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-corona","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-gender","tag-vaccine","tag-vaccines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5488,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5487\/revisions\/5488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}