Gender Stereotypes and Women's Health in Buea Municipality

Women’s health is not only critical for women but for their families and communities at large. The importance of and focus on women’s health is reflected on the different national and international development agendas. However, the social construction of gender and the eventual development of gender stereotypes directly and/or indirectly affects the health of women. This paper focuses on gender stereotypes and women’s health in the Buea Municipality of the South West Region of Cameroon. Through a stratified convenient sampling prsscedure to select 108 women, the paper uses the Harvard Analytical Framework and Leveque’s Conceptual Framework of Access to Health to interrogate the theme and with the help of a questionnaire. Different gender stereotypes were identified that put the woman as responsible for care and family well-being no matter her condition. This proved to affect their health through stress, ill health, self-medication, mental health challenges etc.