Abstract
This commentary provides a brief overview of theory and research that supports the
idea that sexism may be related to the disproportionate negative cardiovascular health
outcomes in women. It describes sexism as a stressor and outlines its association
with a variety of health outcomes as evidence for why sex disparities should be examined
within the context of pervasive inequities. To date, population-based studies have
not explicitly examined the relationship between sexism and cardiovascular disease,
but smaller studies have yielded fairly consistent results. It is suggested that future
research should aim to examine the influence of 2 types of sexism (ie, hostile and
benevolent) and that daily or within-day designs be used to assess cognitive, behavioral
and physiological responses to everyday sexist experiences.
Key Indexing Terms
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Article info
Footnotes
Supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K12HD043451-11).
The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute ofChild Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.
The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
