Diversity and Women's Health

Once focusing solely on reproduction and reproductive matters, the study of women's health has expanded to include cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and osteoporosis. The United States has established an office dedicated to researching women's health issues, and the Women's Health Initiative has begun collecting data on the prevention of diseases common among women. Yet the health care issues affecting diverse groups of women have remained underfunded and understudied. Diversity and Women's Health calls attention to this glaring discrepancy and presents cutting-edge research on women's health from a feminist perspective. The contributors argue that the health issues specific to lesbians, elderly women, women of color, immigrant women, and disabled women must become a central part of the broader conversation on women's health in the United States. Essays in this collection highlight the disparities in diagnosis and treatment among women because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, and age. Some articles focus on the range of medical problems affecting women, while others take a women's studies approach. In reviewing the history of feminist scholarship on health care, the contributors to this volume show how bringing a feminist perspective to biomedical research will address the health care needs of marginalized groups in the United States.''This anthology is important and timely. The issues raised by Rosser and the individual authors also synergize with the Institute of Medicine's focus on advancing efforts to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities in our nation, with the National Institutes of Health Roadmap initiatives to stimulate community engagement by academic health centers in their clinical research agendas, and with growing acknowledgement of the social determinants of health. Thank you, Sue Rosser, for putting together this work.''-Molly Carnes, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health''This is the book that clearly demonstrates why we must focus on diversity and feminist perspectives in women's health care . . . a welcome addition for women's studies courses . . . Diversity and Women's Health is indispensable to those interested in women's health care.''-Heather McIlvaine-Newsad, Western Illinois University