Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2008
"He will ask why the child gets sick so often": the gendered dynamics of intra-household bargaining over healthcare for children with fever in the Volta Region of Ghana.
This paper explores the gendered dynamics of intra-household bargaining around treatment seeking for children with fever revealed through two qualitative research studies in the Volta Region of Ghana, and discusses the influence of different gender and health discourses on the likely policy implications drawn from such findings. Methods used included focus group discussions, in-depth and critical incidence interviews, and Participatory Learning and Action methods. ⋯ Most studies that have considered gender in relation to malaria have done so within a narrow biomedical approach to health that focuses only on the outcomes of gender relations in terms of the (non-)utilisation of allopathic healthcare. However, we argue that a 'gender transformatory' approach, which aims to promote women's empowerment, needs to include but go beyond this model, to consider broader potential outcomes of intra-household bargaining for women's and men's interests, including their livelihoods and 'bargaining positions'.