What Makes Women Sick: Gender and the Political Economy of Health

ISBN: 0813522072

Author: Doyal, Lesley

Condition: New

What makes women sick? To an Ecuadorean woman, its nervios from constant worry about her childrens illnesses. To a woman working in a New Mexico electronics factory, its the solvents that leave her with a form of dementia. To a Ugandan woman, its HIV from her husband's sleeping with the widow of an AIDS patient. To a Bangladeshi woman, its a fatal infection following an IUD insertion. What they all share is a recognition that their sickness is somehow caused by situations they face every day at home and at work.In this clearly written and compelling book, Lesley Doyal investigates the effects of social, economic, and cultural conditions on womens health. The fault line of gender that continues to divide all societies has, Doyal demonstrates, profound and pervasive consequences for the health of women throughout the world. Her broad synthesis highlights variations between men and women in patterns of health and illness, and it identifies inequalities in medical care that separate groups of women from each other. Doyals wide-ranging arguments, her wealth of data, her use of womens voices from many cultures-and her examples of women mobilizing to find their own solutions-make this book required reading for everyone concerned with womens health.