Women, Myths, and Misinformation: Understanding Gendered Vaccine Hesitancy inConservative Societies

Abstract

 Vaccine hesitancy is a complex social phenomenon shaped by cultural beliefs, gender roles,
misinformation, and structural inequalities, all of which are particularly pronounced in
conservative societies. This review focuses on how women’s vaccine perceptions and decisions
are influenced by gender norms, cultural myths, and patriarchal control over health choices, with
a particular emphasis on South Asia and the Muslim world. In these contexts, women’s healthseeking behaviors are closely monitored by male family members, shaping access to vaccines,
particularly for women and children. Women often rely on informal sources of health information
family elders, community networks, religious figures, and social media where myths and
misinformation circulate freely. Cultural myths portraying vaccines as causes of infertility,
violations of modesty, or containing religiously prohibited (haram) substances disproportionately
affect women, who are culturally positioned as guardians of family health and morality. This paper
examines how vaccine hesitancy among women is shaped by the intersection of cultural narratives,
religious interpretations, and digital misinformation. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, including
interviews with rural women, lady health workers, midwives, and community elders, the paper
highlights how gendered fears and cultural anxieties especially about reproductive health are
mobilized to discourage vaccine uptake. For example, polio and COVID-19 vaccines were targeted
by conspiracies linking them to infertility and Western population control agendas narratives that
gained traction among women responsible for family planning and childbearing. The paper further
explores how gendered health communication gaps, including low female literacy rates, lack of
female-specific health education, and exclusion from community decision-making, exacerbate
susceptibility to myths and misinformation. Cultural taboos surrounding reproductive health also
deny women access to the appropriate information. To combat gendered vaccine hesitancy, the
chapter advocates for culturally appropriate, gender-sensitive communication strategies such as
training female health workers as trustworthy sources of information, mobilizing religious leaders
to debunk myths, and advocating for women's health literacy through culturally acceptable
channels such as mothers' groups, women's religious circles, and women-targeted internet
campaigns. Ultimately, combating vaccine hesitancy from a gender perspective not only boosts
vaccine uptake but also acts towards contributing to enhanced women's empowerment through
enhanced health autonomy and decision-making capacity in conservative societies.