"In this volume Judith Lorber explores the interaction between gender as a social institution on one hand and Western medicine as a social institution on the other. Focusing on illnesses considered to be physical, Lorber brings a feminist viewpoint to analyze issues of power and politics, which have pervaded the study of both gender and medicine in recent times." "Gender and the Social Construction of Illness is an ideal supplemental reading for a number of courses, including but by no means limited to medical sociology, medical anthropology, and the history of medicine."--BOOK JACKET.