Theoretical and conceptual approaches for a feminist epidemiology

Abstract

Introduction. Epidemiology as a theoretical-methodological tool in the analysis of health-disease and care processes has, as heir to the biomedical sciences, a patriarchal character that makes experiences invisible and favors the current economic system on which all inequalities are based. In this context, a look from feminist epistemologies is necessary to rethink health research, taking as a premise the ethical and political positioning for social transformation. Objectives. To raise the possibility of a feminist epidemiology through the critical tradition, social medicine, and feminist epistemologies. Methodology. The relevance of a feminist critique of the construction of knowledge in health and epidemiology to address the social determination of health-disease processes in the context of neoliberal capitalism is presented. Discussion. Hegemonic epidemiology maintains a scheme of monocausal explanations that limits the understanding of health-disease processes, especially related to women's experiences. Moving from concepts such as economic income to the precariousness of life, proposed by feminist thinkers, gives epidemiology a new meaning. Conclusions. Making evident the political intention of the research, taking as a source the individual experiences under a materialistic view that makes visible the structures and unequal power relations, as well as retaking conceptual and methodological baggage from the social sciences is enriching for epidemiological practice; in general, a feminist proposal makes the analysis of health-disease processes more complex to escape from the risk approach characteristic of biomedicine.