Attention to weight from a gender perspective has substantially increased in the last forty-five years after the publication of Susie Orbach’s book Fat is a Feminist Issue (1978). Since then, numerous studies have shown differences in the degree of stigmatization and discrimination suffered by obese people based on gender (Sobal, 2001; Fikkan and Rothblum, 2011; and Norman and Moola, 2017). Such stigma reaches the clinical setting because, according to certain studies, even though only 55% of patients with obesity are diagnosed as such (Cooper et al., 2021), women are diagnosed with obesity more frequently than men in equality of weight and related factors. In fact, these same specialists tend to encourage their female patients to lose weight more commonly and receive more nutrition advice compared to men (Bertakis and Azari, 2005; Fikkan and Rothblum, 2011). Because of this situation, it is not surprising that women are more likely to seek and participate in weight loss interventions and programs in clinical and research settings. Moreover, studies in the US also show that, of the bariatric surgeries performed over the last ten years, only 22% were on men and the remaining 78% on women. These differences, however, are not due to the degree of interest of each gender in undergoing the intervention, but rather to differences in detection, diagnosis, and counseling by medical care, as well as to the differences in health awareness and existing perceptions of obesity among genders (Cooper et al., 2021).
So, does it all come down to gender? Not exactly. For instance, even though men with obesity show higher weight loss than women, such differences disappear when the percentage of weight loss is compared (Cooper et al., 2021). Also, according to global data from the latest WHO report (2021), in 2016, 11% of men and 15% of women were obese. However, this global trend is far from being uniform throughout the territory. In regions of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a higher prevalence of obesity in women compared to men and in individuals with higher socioeconomic status compared to those with lower. Conversely, in Europe or USA this prevalence is reversed, finding a higher prevalence of obesity in people with lower socioeconomic status and with no gender difference in general terms.
So, are there gender differences in issues related to obesity? Or are the differences only explained by other factors, such as the context? Again, we should not lose sight that obesity, a multifactorial phenomenon, is shaped by multiple factors within which, but not in isolation, is also gender (Sobal, 2001; Cooper et al., 2021). Once its influence has been verified, the need to include a gender perspective in the study of obesity is essential. Such inclusion will generate more effective programs and treatments for helping people with obesity in a more appropriate way.
References
Bertakis, K. D., and Azari, R. (2005). The impact of obesity on primary care visits. Obesity research, 13(9), 1615-1623.
Cooper, A. J., Gupta, S. R., Moustafa, A. F., and Chao, A. M. (2021). Sex/Gender Differences in Obesity Prevalence, Comorbidities, and Treatment. Current obesity reports, 10(4), 458–466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-021-00453-x
Fikkan, J. L., and Rothblum, E. D. (2012). Is fat a feminist issue? Exploring the gendered nature of weight bias. Sex Roles, 66, 575-592.
Moola, F. J., and Norman, M. E. (2017). On judgement day: Anorexic and obese women’s phenomenological experience of the body, food and eating. Feminism & Psychology, 27(3), 259-279.
Sobal, J. (2001). Social and cultural influences on obesity. International textbook of obesity, 305-322.
World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight. https:// www.who. int/ news- room/ fact- sheets/ detail/ obesity- and- overweight. Published 2021. Accessed January 31, 2023
About the author
Paula García is a psychologist researcher. She has a Master’s Degree in Neuroscience from Universitat de Barcelona and another one in Methodology from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.
Currently, she is working at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research in Barcelona, Spain, involved in the SOCRATES project. Her main fields of interest lie in statistics, cognition and new technologies.