Foreword Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello Certain books are eagerly anticipated and long overdue. Gender, health, and ageing is such a book. Its topic is relevant in many different ways. The de- graphic and societal changes of the past decades, such as longevity and - provement of public health, have definitely created new and often very distinct realities for men and women. However, these diversities have only marginally and fragmentally been the topic of research endeavours. There is, for example, a general growing awareness for the societal phenomenon of feminization of old age, yet the topic and...