Impact of Socio-Economic Factors on Health: Gender & Homelessness

This essay delves into the implications of poverty and inequality on health and social care, highlighting social inclusion challenges such as gender inequality and the plight of homeless individuals. It examines how socio-economic factors like poverty, social class, age, and gender contribute to social exclusion, affecting access to education and healthcare. The essay specifically focuses on the health experiences of women and homeless people, discussing gender-based discrimination and the lack of access to essential services for the homeless. It also explores relevant sociological theories, such as feminism, to understand and address these issues, advocating for the empowerment of marginalized groups to foster a more harmonious society. The analysis emphasizes the role of socio-economic factors in shaping health experiences and the need for interventions to bridge the inequality gap.

Poverty and inequality have implications for health
and social care

Social inclusion refers to the process that lead to the challenges faced by societies
such as poverty, gender inequality and other social issues. Health and wellness has become
the major issues for some groups of society. Various types of inequality can be seen in the
societies that include in terms of health and safety access, income, lifestyle and consumption
of food. People are also divided by gender in the society and treated in different ways (Bacher
and et.al., 2018). Social economic factors such as poverty, social class, age, gender are
leading to the social exclusion. People has made classes on the basis of income and living
standards that affect the consumption of their services such as education and health care.
Women have been considered weak by the society and the right of equality in the field of
health and safety has also been discriminated (Duke and Searby, 2019). The same has been
done with the poor people in the society or homeless people as they do not get proper
education to rise themselves in the society and health services are also rarely available to
them.
The aim of this essay is to discuss the consideration of health experiences in different
groups of societies that include gender inequality and homeless people in the society. Impact
of socio-economic factor will also be discussed on the group and the way they have been
treated in terms of health access. The groups are divided on various basis that shows their
level in the society. Respect and treatment are also given according to the living standard of a
person by the society. People are judged by their appearance and it has become the new
normal for the people in the societies. This essay will also shed light on theories related to
these groups and the ways to overcome the impact of socio-economic factors. The
empowerment of these groups will be suggested in order to bring harmony in the society.
Gender inequality has been a major issue in the society for a long time and still
women are discriminated from men in various ways by the society. Women are different from
the other group of society as they have different physical appearances and their do not have
great physical strength as compared to men. It created a line of discrimination on the basis of
gender. In some part of society women are still treated as they are not a part of society. They
do have access in the various field such as the ratio of women in industry sector is that
women represent 39% of the global workforce but accounted for 54% of job losses as of May
2020 (Froehlicher, M., 2021). This inequality also affect their health and illness. Health issues
are faced by women and thee are low facilities specialised for women in the health sectors. In
many areas women are excluded from the education area or from participation in the public
life, it affect their knowledge about health problems and the ways of treating them. It lack of
knowledge lead to various issues on the health and illness in women. In several countries

women still do not get proper facilities and care during pregnancy (Leistritz and Murdock,
2019). However, theories are making people aware and decreasing the gap between women
and other group of societies such as the concept of feminism that rise the demand of equality
of women in the society and it is affecting the society as women are stepping out the
stereotype of inequality and making themselves to participate in public life.
Discrimination on the basis of income has also been a major issue in the society. Poor
people and homeless are very different from other group of society as they have low level of
income. They cannot afford house to live that basic needs such as food and shelter are hardly
managed by these people. In the field of heal and care they do not have any knowledge and
money to get health ad illness services. People of this class, few of whom have finished high
school and majority of them remains uneducated and they have to suffer from lack of medical
care, adequate housing and food, decent clothing, safety, and vocational training. They do not
what is good for health and what is not.
Many homeless people becomes drug addict in order to feel better in their homeless
life and it lead to the major issue of health and illness in these group of society. In the
struggle to find food they remains unaware from the other necessary requirement such as
home and medical care. Homeless people do not get medical treatment and they have to
suffer from health issues without treatment. Majority of homeless people were dead during
the pandemic because they cannot afford the necessary requirement of mask and other
essential medical service to fight Covid-19. Even the death record is not record the actual
number of homeless people as they were not the part of society. Research found that 78% of
homeless people report having physical health condition (Health and Wellbeing, 2021).
In some countries homeless people are seen as untouchable people. Periods that is the
natural bio process in women is still seen as dirt in areas of society. However, efforts are
being taken to protect these groups of society such as efforts are taken by the government to
reduce the number of homeless people. Medical services are provided cost free in the country
of United Kingdom. Various steps are also taken for the edition of these groups. Women are
also being encouraged by the activist and government in order to get them the opportunity to
rise and create equality in the society. These groups of society have to face different
experience as they are treated differently in the society.
Socio-economic factors refers to the economic factors related to the society. It
includes level of education, income, health and lifestyle and quality of living standard. These
factors majorly affect the health of women and homeless people. These factors also shape the
health experience of women. Income and education continue to shape women's health

experience throughout the life (Stuckler and et.al., 2017). Parents usually shape women's
upbringing in a way that they do not tell much about their health issues. The education gap
between both gender is still unequal women are less educated as compared to men that create
the less knowledge about the health issues and women are considered as less capable of doing
physical activities. These mentally of society says women to stay home.
Women are eliminated from the areas of knowledge. It lead to the less experience of
public knowledge and skills related to health and wellness. This is true for women globally,
who are being disproportionately affected through the health, social and economic
consequences of the pandemic (Westbrook and Robinson, 2021). Most front line and
essential workers are women, and it is women who have been losing their sources of income
in the greatest numbers. Health experience of women has shaped their life. Fender inequality
in the society has create a barrier in the health sector for women. Socio-economic factor
created a mentality of women being weak and the harassment of people on women also affect
the health of women. It majorly disturb the woman mentally as they do not talk to other on
such incidents as the society will judge the women's character this lead to the negative
experience of health that has been implemented by the socio-economic factors in the society.
The role of socio-economic factors also affect the health experience of homeless
people as they are treated very differently by the other groups in the society. Homeless people
do get any kind of facilities in the health sector and create a major inequality in the treatment
of society. Majorly of homeless people faces issues of health and they do not get any medical
facility. In order to keep the body healthy, consumption of proper nutrition is necessary but
homeless people cannot afford proper diet and have to face different challenges related to the
health. The health experience of these people is very narrow as they rarely get proper food to
eat. Moreover, the socio-economic factors a major barrier for the homeless people by
dividing the class according to the level of income (Magwood and et.al., 2019).
This group of society has no income that they can use to avail health service to cure
their illness. The bulling of such people also become a new normal in the society. People hurt
homeless people and treat them in a negative way. Homeless people also become in catch of
drugs. The habit of taking drugs lead to the major issue in their health (Clark and et.al.,
2019). The survey found that 28% of homeless people are addicted towards alcohol. The
discrimination of the society on the basis of income create the lowest line for these people.
The services are provided by government in order to provide these people a better health

condition but lack of education keep them unaware of these facilities. The education also
plays an important role in the health experience of homeless people in the country as majority
of these people are uneducated and it make them lack of knowledge about illness and health
care.
Sociology theory refers to the sets of ideas which provide explanation on human
society. These theories help in providing a certain view of society. There are various
sociologist theory which can be applied in the case of implication such as poverty and
inequality on the health and care of individuals (Agüera and et.al., 2017). However these
theories do believe that the perspectives of analysis if based upon analysis of structure of
society as a whole. The theory focus on viewing society as a product of various human
activities the theory believes that the human behaviour is not primarily decided by the
structure of society. To analyse further more the feminism sociology theory can be applied
here.
The Feminism can be applied to explain how gender stereotypes including both men
and women contribute to eating disorders (Castellini and et.al., 2020). Feminism sociology is
the interdisciplinary approach for exploration of relationship between power and gender.
There have been various studies on the concept of relationship between the conflicts in
gender roles with eating disorder attitudes and behaviours. The results of these data described
that there is a strong connection between the eating disorders and gender role conflicts.
Eating disorders are the medical conditions in which a person have abnormal or disturbed
eating habits. It can include restrictive eating, irregular eating, inflexible eating or compulsive
eating habits.
In the society there is a general implication or stereotype that men do not get eating
disorders. It is something which the women deals with. So men having disorders is
completely acceptable (Monterubio and et.al., 2020). If a men is seen as barely eating or not
getting hungry, rather than considering it as an eating disorder, it is states that they are more
picky or they are on diet. The assumption of eating disorder are only applicable on women
and that articular standard of women in society is very critical for people which suffer from
eating disorders. It leads them to fall outside of that stereotype. This imply that men are not
he only category of humans which is stereotyped for non-application of disorders. The queer
women, masculine people and trans- people are the other categories of human in which the
eating disorders gets unnoticed consistently. Through the breakdown of these stereotypes, the

certain kinds of women can allows various sexual identities and genders to be acknowledged
in the survivor-ship and their struggles as well. The major myths regarding gender and eating
disorders involves the factor that femininity is considered as a predictive factor. It means,
people consider that the more a person is feminine regardless of their gender, there are more
chances for getting eating disorder (Frank and et.al., 2021). Simply it states that the society
believes that women get eating disorders because they and to attain a certain level of beauty
through being picky about food. So they adopt extreme behaviours for attaining that ideal fit.
The major assumption in this myth is that eating disorders and weight loss are correlated.
Society believes drive for becoming thin is the factor which causes eating disorders in
women.
However, the assumptions regarding the femininity and eating disorders is just a
research bias associated to gender roles (Kolanowski and Trafialek, 2021). Eating disorders
are more common in women which is why the society assumes that the women inherit the
femininity as a predictive factor. The myth should be broken down and it should be
considered that eating disorder affects people regardless of their genders which are associated
with.
Another myth which is related to feminism and eating disorders is that the straight
men do not struggle with the body image as famine people does (Beresford, 2019). So there is
a tendency of the society to stereotype the women to have eating disorders. So if amen is
having eating disorder they are regarded as bisexual, queer or gay. So it is assumed that
masculine men do not counter diseases such as eating disorders. However, according a survey
it was considered that most of the people who have eating disorders are men who are
heterosexual. The society have made as leans and muscular, so eating disorders cannot be
applicable to them by the society. Homeless people, are considered to have eating disorders
due to lack of access to food. However, women are considered to have eating disorders
inherited. Homeless people suffer more from eating disorders. They do not have access to
hygienic, proper and appropriate meals. So they tend to be more thin than the average people.
So this leads towards enhanced eating disorders (Schnitzer and et.al., 2021).
It have been evident that experiences of homeless people and women could be
overcome through empowerment and/or advocacy, social justice, and anti-oppressive
practices. Issues such as poverty and inequality including eating disorders have implications
for health and social care on various groups such as women and homeless people. Women

empowerment can help in reducing those issues. If women are given enough power and
recognitions and are considered as equal to men in society half of the stereotypes would burst
automatically (Galmiche and et.al., 2019). Through awareness and education to people
regarding health and social care people can be made aware that issues such as eating
disorders are a common problem in humans regardless of the gender a person is associated
with. As the homeless people and women in some societies have limited access to the health
and social care settings the end to have more health issues than the other people. Eating
disorder for example for homeless people is a common issue. The status of shelter creates a
barrier in the access of various health care settings regardless t focus only on the financial
terms. They face oppositions by the doctors and other health and social care practitioners as
well.
Empowerment, advocacy and social justice practices can help in favour for these
chosen groups. For examples in the case of women if they gave proper access to education
and empowerment they can be independent and work for themselves and have better access
to healthcare settings. Various campaigns, educational programs or women rights such as
right to education can help them to progress in medicine, research and science fields. This
will all leas to better and improved health care setting sin women (Cribb, Norris Keiller and
Waters, 2018).
Homeless people on the other hand can use various government settings such as right
to work, right to get employment and create a living for them to have better access to these
services. Social justice can allow them to have jobs and employment regardless of their
shelter status and discrimination. All these can enable homeless people to have better access
to health care setting. Awareness in homeless people can help them in realising that the
government services are free for people and they can avail these services regardless of their
financial and shelter status (O’Brien and et.al., 2017). It will enhance their knowledge and
awareness on these issues. Advocacy and social justice practices can help those people to
have appropriate access to various services.
From the above analysis it can be concluded that social is the process which societies
face various challenges such as inequality, social issues and poverty etc. these issues are
faced by some segments of society more than the others. For example women are considered
to be weak than men, so it is assumed that they tend to have various health diseases as
compared to the men. Same is the case with homeless people. They do not have appropriate

access to health care and social setting. There are various reason behind this such as lack of
education and awareness etc. people are judged on the basis of their appearances, clothes,
status and clothes etc. Discrimination of women and homeless people in society have a long
history. People view homeless people as untouchable. So they are not even provided help.
Socio economic factors such as education, health, lifestyle and income are the major
factors which affect the health and social well-being of women and homeless people. Women
are eliminated from education as they are regarded to perform the household works only.
Homeless people lack education due to their lack of access to funding. There have been many
surveys which predict that due to lack of facilities homeless people get addicted to ill-habits
such as excessive consumption of alcohol. Sociology is the practice in which habits of
individuals are perceived as a whole. Feminism in these societies and cultures is not
conceptualised. Females are considered to have more diseases such as eating disorders as
compared to the masculine men. There are many myths which depict that women inherit
eating disorders or women on purpose develop eating disorders in order to look thin.
However, various practices such as empowerment and/or advocacy, social justice, and anti-
oppressive practices can help in overcoming these issues in society.

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[Online]. Available through <Gender equality in the workplace: going beyond
women on the board | S&P Global (spglobal.com) >
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Together we will end homelessness >