Understanding Women’s Pain: What a Gender Lens Adds to Qualitative Pain Research

Women are more likely to live with chronic pain. In trying to understand causes and experiences of women's pain, researchers tend to focus more on the biological (sex) rather than the social (gender). The social aspects of experience include norms and roles (like caregiving, for example). Sometimes when researchers aim to consider gender in their research, the emphasis tends to be on sex. There is a risk to not including the social aspects (i.e., gender) of chronic pain among women. This session will focus on gendered approaches to chronic pain among women in order to highlight how gendered aspects of the pain experience can help to address pain inequities. 

Learning Objectives:

1. recognize the difference between sex and gender

2. discuss how gender-based approaches to chronic pain can produce unique and socially relevant findings

3. recognize how gender-based approaches to pain and chronic pain can assist in the development of…