Abstract: As an applied sociologist, I have led research in many areas of women’s health and health disparities ranging from the extent of knowledge gaps in women’s health to social determinants of health and routine aspects of care for diabetes and cardiovascular disease to women’s reproductive health and maternal mortality. I am drawn to persistent gaps in knowledge and in care, which have been long recognized, generally accepted, and frequently ignored. My research questions the assumptions that normalize visible gender, race and socioeconomic disparities. In Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choices and Social Policies, Patricia Rieker and I developed a model that integrates social and biological theories to understand how the contributions of decisions made by families, employers, communities and those at the level of social and economic policy shape the opportunity to pursue a healthy life. Much of my work is designed to assess the effects of constrained choices and social policies on health and, in recognizing the limits of individuals' agency, to point to the roles of other decision-makers. Increasingly, I tailor my work and its dissemination to inform policy and practice. In this presentation, I will share work from a variety of studies and how they build on each other to expose actionable inequality and inequities, identify intervention points, and engage key stakeholders.
Chloe E. Bird (she/her) is a senior sociologist at the RAND Corporation, where she studies women's health and determinants of differences in men's and women's health and health care. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
