Gendered Drugs and Medicine: Historical and Socio-Cultural Perspectives

Drugs are considered to be healers and harmers, wonder substances and knowledge makers; objects that impact on social hierarchies, health practices and public policies. This book focuses on the ways that gender, race/ethnicity and class, influence the design, standardisation and circulation of drugs throughout several highly medicalised countries. Seventeen authors from eight different countries, both European and non-European, analyse the extent to which the dominant ideas and values surrounding masculinity and femininity shape the research, prescription and use of drugs by women and/or men within particular social and cultural contexts.