Gender justice and the health care system

In Part One of my dissertation, I develop a framework of gender justice that I argue should guide policy-making. To date, there is no agreed upon theory of justice for addressing gender inequities, inequalities, and differences between the two sexes. I then derive questions that can be asked of public policies to evaluate their ability to realize justice for women. In Part Two, I apply this framework to health care policies. I view many health care policies as gendered policies and examine the gendered implications of policy changes and reform proposals. I evaluate the recent changes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the inclusion of women in medical and drug research. My analysis reveals that the newly enacted policies at the NIH, and to a lesser degree at the FDA, are positive improvements for women and have achieved many important aspects of gender justice. I also apply the framework to the Health Security Act and find that if it, or a similar reform proposal, were passed, health care for women would greatly be improved and gender justice would be enriched.