Strategy on women's health and well-being in the WHO European Region

Although women’s health and well -being  in the WHO European Region is  generally better than elsewhere in the world, this is not necessarily true for all women.  Health inequities among women remain large and unjustifiable, both within and  between countries in the  European Region . This is recognized in the report  Beyond the  mortality advantage , which was discussed at the technical briefing on women’s  health held during the 65th session of the WHO  Regional Committee for Europe in  September 2015.

The  Strategy on women’s health and well -being in the WHO European Region is  underpinned by the values of the European policy framework for health and well -being,  Health  2020  (2) , which acknowledges that gender is a determinant of health, alongside  social and environmental determinants, and which identifies  gender mainstreaming as a  mechanism to achieve gender equity. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles,  behaviours and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men. A gender-based approach means supporting the need to strengthen  the  understanding of  the determinants of men’s as well as women’s health with a view to making  policies and  strategies more responsive to  both men’s  and women’s  needs across the life -course,  and  therefore an  analysis  of the determinants of men’s health  will be taken forward in the  future. This Strategy focuses on the determinants of women’s health, without  necessarily making  comparisons between women  and  men.