IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i21p7902-d436457.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘As Long as It Comes off as a Cigarette Ad, Not a Civil Rights Message’: Gender, Inequality and the Commercial Determinants of Health

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah E. Hill

    (Global Health Policy Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9LD, UK
    Members of the SPECTRUM Consortium (Shaping Public Health Policies to Reduce Inequalities and Harm), UK.)

  • Sharon Friel

    (Menzies Centre for Health Governance, School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University, Canberra ACT0200, Australia
    Members of the SPECTRUM Consortium (Shaping Public Health Policies to Reduce Inequalities and Harm), UK.)

Abstract

Scholarship on the commercial determinants of health (CDoH) has sought to understand the multiple ways corporate policies, practices and products affect population health. At the same time, gender is recognised as a key determinant of health and an important axis of health inequalities. To date, there has been limited attention paid to the ways in which the CDoH engage with and impact on gender inequalities and health. This review seeks to address this gap by examining evidence on the practices and strategies of two industries—tobacco and alcohol—and their interaction with gender, with a particular focus on women. We first describe the practices by which these industries engage with women in their marketing and corporate social responsibility activities, reinforcing problematic gender norms and stereotypes that harm women and girls. We then examine how tobacco and alcohol companies contribute to gender inequalities through a range of strategies intended to protect their market freedoms and privileged position in society. By reinforcing gender inequalities at multiple levels, CDoH undermine the health of women and girls and exacerbate global health inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah E. Hill & Sharon Friel, 2020. "‘As Long as It Comes off as a Cigarette Ad, Not a Civil Rights Message’: Gender, Inequality and the Commercial Determinants of Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-19, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7902-:d:436457
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7902/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7902/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Courtenay, Will H., 2000. "Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's well-being: a theory of gender and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(10), pages 1385-1401, May.
    2. Selda Ulucanlar & Gary J Fooks & Anna B Gilmore, 2016. "The Policy Dystopia Model: An Interpretive Analysis of Tobacco Industry Political Activity," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Babor, T.F. & Robaina, K., 2013. "Public health, academic medicine, and the alcohol industry's corporate social responsibility activities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(2), pages 206-214.
    4. Gary J Fooks & Anna B Gilmore, 2013. "Corporate Philanthropy, Political Influence, and Health Policy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-11, November.
    5. Lourdes Beneria, 1999. "Globalization, Gender And The Davos Man," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 61-83.
    6. Esser, M.B. & Jernigan, D.H., 2015. "Multinational alcohol market development and public health: Diageo in India," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(11), pages 2220-2227.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fran Baum & Connie Musolino & Hailay Abrha Gesesew & Jennie Popay, 2021. "New Perspective on Why Women Live Longer Than Men: An Exploration of Power, Gender, Social Determinants, and Capitals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Anna Matheson & Jacquie Kidd & Heather Came, 2021. "Women, Patriarchy and Health Inequalities: The Urgent Need to Reorient Our Systems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-4, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tess Legg & Jenny Hatchard & Anna B Gilmore, 2021. "The Science for Profit Model—How and why corporations influence science and the use of science in policy and practice," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-24, June.
    2. Sánchez-Sandoval, Yolanda & Aragón, Claudia & Verdugo, Laura, 2022. "Future expectations of adolescents in Residential Care: The role of self-perceptions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Linda Hancock & Natalie Ralph & Florentine Petronella Martino, 2018. "Applying Corporate Political Activity (CPA) analysis to Australian gambling industry submissions against regulation of television sports betting advertising," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-21, October.
    4. Pollitt, Amanda M. & Donnelly, Rachel & Mernitz, Sara E. & Umberson, Debra, 2020. "Differences in how spouses influence each other's alcohol use in same- and different-sex marriages: A daily diary study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    5. Melander, Stina, 2023. "Different logics of pain: the gendered dimension of chronic pain in a relational setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    6. Wiklund, Maria & Bengs, Carita & Malmgren-Olsson, Eva-Britt & Öhman, Ann, 2010. "Young women facing multiple and intersecting stressors of modernity, gender orders and youth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(9), pages 1567-1575, November.
    7. Parker, Rhiannon & Larkin, Theresa & Cockburn, Jon, 2017. "A visual analysis of gender bias in contemporary anatomy textbooks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 106-113.
    8. Valente, Thomas W. & Pitts, Stephanie & Wipfli, Heather & Vega Yon, George G., 2019. "Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 188-197.
    9. Michelle Calvarese, 2015. "The Effect of Gender on Stress Factors: An Exploratory Study among University Students," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-8, November.
    10. Oliffe, John, 2005. "Constructions of masculinity following prostatectomy-induced impotence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 2249-2259, May.
    11. Madsen, Julian & Jobson, Laura & Slewa-Younan, Shameran & Li, Haoxiang & King, Kylie, 2024. "Mental health literacy among Arab men living in high-income Western countries: A systematic review and narrative synthesis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    12. Hatcher, Abigail M. & Gibbs, Andrew & McBride, Ruari-Santiago & Rebombo, Dumisani & Khumalo, Mzwakhe & Christofides, Nicola J., 2022. "Gendered syndemic of intimate partner violence, alcohol misuse, and HIV risk among peri-urban, heterosexual men in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    13. Månsdotter, Anna & Lundin, Andreas, 2010. "How do masculinity, paternity leave, and mortality associate? -A study of fathers in the Swedish parental & child cohort of 1988/89," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 576-583, August.
    14. Dahlin, Johanna & Härkönen, Juho, 2013. "Cross-national differences in the gender gap in subjective health in Europe: Does country-level gender equality matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 24-28.
    15. Leslie D. Williams & Alastair van Heerden & Xolani Ntinga & Georgios K. Nikolopoulos & Dimitrios Paraskevis & Samuel R. Friedman, 2023. "Pilot Testing Two Versions of a Social Network Intervention to Increase HIV Testing and Case-finding among Men in South Africa’s Generalized HIV Epidemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Daniele Pennesi, 2020. "Identity and information acquisition," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 610, Collegio Carlo Alberto, revised 2021.
    17. Emslie, Carol & Browne, Susan & MacLeod, Una & Rozmovits, Linda & Mitchell, Elizabeth & Ziebland, Sue, 2009. "'Getting through' not 'going under': A qualitative study of gender and spousal support after diagnosis with colorectal cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1169-1175, March.
    18. Morioka, Rika, 2014. "Gender difference in the health risk perception of radiation from Fukushima in Japan: The role of hegemonic masculinity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 105-112.
    19. Lemaster, Philip & Strough, JoNell, 2014. "Beyond Mars and Venus: Understanding gender differences in financial risk tolerance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 148-160.
    20. Urbatsch, R., 2020. "Do expert surveys underrate lower-income countries?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7902-:d:436457. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.