The Social Construction of Health Inequalities: The Case of Italian Women

This chapter focuses on the relationship between women, poverty and health – the latter being a mix of physical, psychological and social well-being – paying special attention to the situation in Italy. This connection is very complex, even though, apart from in a few instances, it has, as yet, been little studied in Italian scientific literature. This relation should be read dynamically, in the light of the link between the burden of caring work; the way in which women are dependent on the time and the paid work of husbands/partners and husbands on the unpaid work of their female partners; gender inequality in the distribution of both material and symbolic resources; and the responses of the welfare system to the difficulties that can arise at the crossover points between these various dimensions (Ruspini, 2001).