GENDER PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTHCARE ACCESS IN UNIVERSITIES abstract

The paper investigates the gendered patterns in accessing healthcare in university spaces. Institutions of higher education which are associated with inclusivity and multicultural values often reproduce barriers that disproportionately affect women students. The study draws on a structured narrative of secondary literature with thematic synthesis and analyzes empirical case studies from India and elsewhere through the lenses of structural violence and gender-based violence. It identifies three interrelated mechanisms through which gendered barriers to healthcare are produced and sustained i.e. infrastructural invisibility, procedural opacity and normative normalization. These mechanisms manifest in inadequate menstrual hygiene facilities, limited transparency in health services and the routinization of gendered norms that render women’s health needs inconspicuous. The paper argues that barriers or inaccessibility to healthcare in university spaces may be understood as a form of institutionalized structural violence which is rooted in gendered relations of power. The notion of gender discrimination and violence reflects a structural character that is manifested through various norms and institutional practices in higher education institutions. Various policies in India explicitly recognize the prevalence of such issues and propose institutional measures which, if effectively implemented, hold significant potential for addressing and mitigating these challenges.