Fig. 1

Thurston and Visandjée [12] Ecological Framework to Study Women’s Health. The framework illustrates the interplay of personal, situational, and sociocultural factors that shape women’s health. It offers a holistic approach to analyze multilevel and interactive influences of violence against women. In Canada, 12 determinants of health have been adopted in official policy: social support networks; biology and genetic endowment; personal health practices and coping skills; healthy child development; education; income and social status; employment and working conditions; social environments; physical environments; health services; gender; and culture [23]. These determinants are shaded in boxes. Gender and culture are listed in Symbolic Institutions. The micro-level is that of the individual woman who embodies the meso- and the macro-systems or institutions. Gender is shaped by micro-level politics: gender expectations, gender norms, a socially constructed body, symbolic representation and symbolic language. Gender also orders and is ordered by other social institutions at the meso- and macro-levels: the economy; ideologies; family; politics; religion; and the media [20]