Why geographies of women’s health?

Isabel Dyck, Nancy Davis Lewis, Sara McLafferty

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Introduction The last decade has seen an escalating interest in understanding the health of women. As women’s health has been explored, the limits of biomedical approaches in understanding health and illness have become evident. Reliance on biological and physiological explanation of women’s health and illness is challenged by documentation of the ways in which women’s location in complex social, political, and economic relations affects the content and meaning of their lives, including their experience of health and sense of well-being. Gender is shown to be a major axis of difference that affects health status, while class, “race,�? and nationality are also interrelated in complex ways with health inequalities. Social science is now commonly, but not universally, acknowledged as an essential ingredient in understanding women’s health, one that must take into account the various dimensions of “context�? in which women live.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationGeographies of Women's Health
Subtitle of host publicationPlace, Diversity and Difference
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages1-20
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9781134562497
ISBN (Print)041523607X, 9780415695336
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences
  • General Health Professions
  • General Medicine

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