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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.