Intellectual intersections: gender and health in the Pacific

Intriguing intellectual intersections offer the promise of enriching medical geography and making it both more theoretically sophisticated and more policy relevant. Employing a socio-ecological model of health, this paper explores several of these intersections, including the incorporation of gender into our research frameworks. As a context, the complex reasons for the increased interest in women's health over the past two decades, including the persistent tensions surrounding this interest, are reviewed. Drawing not only from conventional sources but also from literature on gender relations, domestic violence and aging in the Pacific as well as recent reports on health and socioeconomic development, key issues for women's health in the Pacific Islands are addressed.