Analysis of cultural roles-compare of roles by gender, classor ethnicity in the piece or in the setting of the piece, of the book of ruth (bible)

The Academy recommends that research studies include race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status as explanatory variables only when data relevant to the underlying social mechanisms have been collected and included in the analyses. During recent decades, our understanding of the biological and psychosocial bases of diseases affecting individual children has markedly increased. The capacity to apply newly derived information from molecular and genetic science toward preventive child health care will continue to grow in the coming years. Although biological research is necessary and valid, studies that do not address the importance of social determinants as fundamental causes or contributors to disease and unfulfilled potential limit the scope and impact of research conclusions. (Bowker, 20-23)

In the United States, data on research participants and populations frequently include race, ethnicity, and gender as categorical variables, with the assumption that these variables exert their effects through innate or genetically determined biologic mechanisms. There is a growing body of research that suggests, however, that these variables have strong---and in many areas predominantly---sociological and psychological dimensions. Because data are collected and research questions are formulated in ways that generally do not include the social as well as biological dimensions of these variables it is often difficult to disentangle the biological from the social dimensions. The purpose of this subject review is to highlight the interrelationships among factors such as race, ethnicity, and gender, viewed as social constructs, along with socioeconomic status, and to stimulate appropriate definition and analysis of these variables within any study that proposes mechanisms of disease associated with them. (Bowker, 20-23)

Sex and gender are often used interchangeably, but the former is a biologic characteristic, defined by genetic and anatomic features, whereas the latter is a social characteristic, determined by culturally defined roles and behaviors. Analogous to race/ethnicity, the development of gender is a function of relationships. Ironically, the genetic, physiologic, and behavioral differences between men and women have historically been deemphasised, if not ignored, in research that has extrapolated conclusions based on male populations to women. In recent years, recognition of the importance of considering differences between men and women as a salient independent variable in research led the National Institutes of Health to include women as participants for special consideration in clinical research grant applications, but the focus is primarily on the biological variable, that is, sex, rather than the social variable, gender. (Bowker, 20-23)

Inclusion of both men and women as participants in research studies is certainly a first step in understanding sex and gender differences in health and disease. However, given the health correlates of the differences in the social roles and behaviors of men and women, any differences found are not inevitable expressions of the biological factor. For example, the increased risk of anorexia and bulimia in girls likely reflects perceived social pressures to adhere to culturally prescribed norms for body shape and size. Furthermore, socially defined ...