Second Opinion: The best thing men can do for their health is to advocate for equality

International Men’s Health Week runs until Sunday, June 21st. Its purpose is to encourage personal, structural and systemic change and thereby improve men’s health. The theme of the week is “Creating Culture Change: It’s Time to Change the Script”. And that is for sure. It is well past time to change the script.

It is time for all men to start behaving like equal, intelligent, capable human beings, instead of the power-seeking incompetents that some of them are. Some of the big media stories in the past few weeks raise questions about certain men’s ability to be in charge of anything important, let alone occupy positions of huge power.

People have been angered or entertained, depending on their perspective, by tales of incompetent bankers and other financial “leaders”, and corrupt football officials, who are not even a little bit embarrassed about their behaviour.

Men are not inherently less competent or more corrupt than women but something distinctly unpleasant happens when they attain positions of power and influence and are surrounded by other men, with few or no women around to be part of the decision-making process.

Testosterone and power seem to eliminate any sense of decency and fairness. An article in the April 2015 issue of the Leadership Quarterly argues that power interacts with testosterone in predicting corruption, which is highest when leader power and testosterone are both high. Testosterone, when blended with power, produces decisions and actions that are not good for men, women or society as a whole. Inequality and power-imbalances are bad for everyone's health.

Increased health risks

Paradoxically, norms that value male authority, power and privilege increase health risks for men, with those in lower socioeconomic groups the worst affected. Men in Ireland have much worse health, and more chronic health conditions and disabilities, than women. Men are more at risk of ill-health and injury because they work in occupations that carry a higher risk of injury or death.

Most construction workers have muscular-skeletal disorders, such as lumbago, by the time they are 40. Men are 20 times more likely than women to die from work-related accidents. In the 15-24 year age group, the male death rate is three times that of the female rate. A recent study of 310 male farmers' health by the Irish Heart Foundation found that almost half had high blood pressure and raised cholesterol. The majority were overweight or obese, and 81 per cent had four or more cardiovascular risk factors. There is no reason to think that men in other traditionally male occupations, such as construction or transportation, are any healthier.

Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office show that very little has changed in Ireland in the past 10 years as far as equality is concerned. Almost all (98 per cent) of those looking after home and family are women. Twice as many women as men are in part-time jobs. Although two-thirds of those working in education are women, most senior positions are occupied by men. Just one in five healthcare and social-care workers are men. Almost all construction workers (93 per cent) and a majority of farmers (90 per cent) are male. Women earn 16 per cent less than men for work of equal value.

Men’s longer working hours affect their health, preventing them from taking on their fair share of caring roles, and reinforcing gender divisions in families. And then there is childcare, which now costs the same as an average mortgage. Men and women in Ireland will never be equal until families have easy access to high-quality, affordable childcare paid for by taxpayers.

While it is crucial for men to take responsibility for looking after themselves, and Men’s Health Week can help with that, 90 per cent of their health is determined by factors outside their control, and the most important of these is equality.

The best thing men can do for their health is to work with women to create an equal society. A recent report from Think-tank for Action on Social Change (Tasc), Cherishing All Equally: Economic Inequality in Ireland, argues that "more equal societies perform better on a whole range of social indicators such as crime, health and educational attainment". Equality between men and women needs to be the number-one priority for health and society. Nothing less than 50-50 will do. To download the Men's Health Week Toolbox for Action, see mhfi.org/mhw/mhw-2015.html drjackyjones@gmail.com Dr Jacky Jones is a former HSE regional manager of health promotion and a member of the Health Ireland Council.