1. Both structural stratifiers of gender and race/ethnicity can impact the intermediary determinant of material resources to contribute to health outcomes. For example, women face systematic discrimination in the workplace and have less access to power, prestige, and resources. They may have fewer employment opportunities and are overall paid less than men. Race and ethnicity may intersect with gender to contribute to less material resources, where women from races/ethnicities that face systematic discrimination may have even less employment opportunities and experience more of an income gap (e.g., Black and Latina women). This may result in disadvantaged material resources such as living in neighborhoods with less access to healthy food, less access to medical care, and access to affordable and safe spaces to exercise which may put women at risk for conditions such as Type II diabetes.
2. For Type II diabetes, socioeconomic factors earlier in the lifecourse and neighborhood characteristics could contribute to eating and exercise habits that may be difficult to shift in later adulthood. For example, if parents had less income, knowledge, and material resources to cook healthy food, they could have overly relied on quick high carbohydrate snacks and meals. The neighbhorhood may not have had grocery stores that provided fresh foods, and children may live on a diet of more processed, high starch/salt/fat foods. This may have started a cycle of insulin resistance during childhood which could turn into Type II diabetes later in life. If the neighborhood did not have access to safe parks and play areas, and the parents lacked economic resources to support participation in sports or other physical activities, children may not learn habits for exercise that could also protect against Type II Diabetes.