There is a persistent belief that illnesses which affect men receive more public funding and more attention in research than illnesses which affect women. This is used to promote the belief that women’s health is taken less seriously than men’s, or that women are somehow second-class citizens. In the game of oppression Olympics, it is a favorite among feminist scholars, who insist that women are treated unfairly in all facets of life.

So, the thing about this statistic is it’s technically true. Illnesses which affect more men than women do get more funding. The only problem is that just because a statistic is true does not mean it’s not used dishonestly and maliciously. Here is a list of some of the illnesses which are considered “men’s diseases”:

  1. The majority of cancers (especially those with low survival rates)

  2. HIV/AIDS

  3. The majority of mental health issues

  4. The majority of rare diseases

  5. Cardiovascular disease

  6. The majority of infectious diseases

Notice something? Men’s illnesses can be portrayed as receiving more funding than women’s because men are significantly more likely to get all of the deadly illnesses. You see, if men make up 51% of an illness's sufferers, it's considered a "men's disease."

Men’s illnesses receive more research and funding on the surface, but that’s only because so-called men’s illnesses kill more people than women’s illnesses. These are the diseases that are funded the most for obvious reasons.

So when a feminist complains that women's health isn't valued, you can point this out, or point out the fact that the group of people who live 5 years longer than another group complaining about health is pretty comical.