A clear priority for research is to understand the complex ways in which SES combines with race and sex to affect patterns of health. We earlier noted the gaps by race and SES in national data on life expectancy at age 25.51 The patterns become more complex when we simultaneously consider sex. At age 25, white women outlive their male counterparts by 6.6 years and African American women outlive their male peers by 6.7 years. That is, the gender differences in life expectancy are larger than the racial ones. Moreover, the effects of the occupancy of multiple statuses are additive at their intersections. For example, the most advantaged group in terms of health, high income white women have a life expectancy at 25 of 58 years while the most disadvantaged group, low income black men, have a life expectancy at 25 of 42 years. This 16-year difference in life expectancy between these two categories is four times the overall Black-white difference and twice the income and gender differences. These examples highlight the need for careful and systematic efforts that pay
