What Makes Women Sick

by Doyal, Lesley

• ISBN13: 9780813522074
• ISBN10: 0813522072
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-06-01
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

In this book, the author investigates the effects of social, economic, and cultural conditions on women's health.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xii
In Sickness and in Health	1	(26)
Introduction	1	(2)
What this book is and is not about	3	(4)
Rejecting crude universalism	4	(2)
Rejecting crude difference theories	6	(1)
Why is health important?	7	(3)
Health and human needs	8	(1)
Comparing health across cultures	9	(1)
A picture of health?	10	(4)
Inequalities in mortality	10	(1)
Sickness and affluence	11	(2)
Sickness and poverty	13	(1)
Does medicine have the answer to women's health problems?	14	(4)
The `biomedical model'	15	(1)
Perils of reductionism	16	(1)
Gendered research	17	(1)
Are women really the weaker sex?	18	(3)
Biological and social advantages of females	19	(1)
The impact of discrimination on life expectancy	20	(1)
Redefining women's health	21	(5)
Further reading	26	(1)
Hazards of Hearth and Home	27	(32)
Introduction	27	(1)
Women's labour in the household economy	27	(3)
What do women do?	28	(1)
What do women earn?	29	(1)
Cross-cultural perspectives on domestic work	30	(4)
No time for women	30	(1)
Working themselves to death	31	(3)
Occupational hazards of unpaid labour	34	(2)
Demands, dilemmas and distress	36	(6)
Marriage and marital status	37	(1)
Is motherhood maddening?	38	(2)
Dependants and dependency	40	(2)
Depression, `nervios' or just plain `bad news'?	42	(3)
An example from India	42	(1)
A case of `nervios'	43	(2)
Social significance of mental distress	45	(1)
Who cares for the carers?	46	(3)
To each according to her needs?	49	(3)
Adding injury to insult	52	(4)
The scope of the problem	52	(2)
The reality of domestic violence	54	(1)
The psychological effects of battering	55	(1)
Conclusion	56	(1)
Further reading	57	(2)
Safe Sex?	59	(34)
Introduction	59	(1)
Is heterosex good for women?	59	(3)
Mad with desire	62	(5)
Sex and violence	67	(6)
Problems of measurement	67	(1)
Sexual abuse and male power	68	(2)
Physical effects of rape	70	(2)
Emotional effects of abuse	72	(1)
Dying for sex	73	(4)
Sex and cervical cancer	74	(1)
A smear in time	75	(1)
A culture of silence: the female burden of reproductive tract infections	75	(2)
Sex, gender and aids	77	(10)
Why are women at risk?	77	(1)
Economics of HIV transmission	78	(2)
Poverty and seropositivity	80	(2)
Prevention and power	82	(2)
Motherhood or safer sex?	84	(1)
Equal opportunities in treatment?	84	(3)
The unkindest cut	87	(4)
Conclusion	91	(1)
Further reading	92	(1)
Regulating Reproduction	93	(32)
Introduction	93	(1)
Health and reproduction	93	(2)
Who controls whose fertility?	95	(5)
Family ties	95	(1)
The power of religion	96	(1)
Nationalism and natalism	96	(2)
Social eugenics and social control	98	(2)
A contraceptive revolution?	100	(3)
Expanding contraceptive technologies	100	(1)
Contraception as `women's business'	101	(2)
Barriers to birth control	103	(3)
Evidence of unmet need	103	(1)
Dynamics of demographic decision making	103	(2)
Shortage of services	105	(1)
Mrs Hobson's choice: picking a contraceptive	106	(9)
Sexism and sterilisation	106	(1)
Sterilisation and abuse	107	(2)
Are IUDs the answer?	109	(3)
Benefits and hazards of hormonal methods	112	(1)
Introducing injectables	112	(2)
Contraceptive providers: care or control?	114	(1)
Abortion -- a global epidemic	115	(8)
Counting the cost	116	(1)
Abortion: public or private choice?	117	(2)
Risks of termination	119	(2)
Wider costs of the abortion epidemic	121	(1)
Politics of innovation	122	(1)
Conclusion	123	(1)
Further reading	123	(2)
A Labour of Love	125	(27)
Introduction	125	(1)
Dying for a baby	126	(7)
The social roots of maternal mortality	127	(2)
The perils of pregnancy	129	(3)
Crying out for care	132	(1)
The new obstetrics: science or social control?	133	(12)
New technologies for old skills	134	(2)
Managing labour	136	(2)
Clinical freedom or medical domination?	138	(3)
A doctor's right to choose	141	(4)
Infertility: a life sentence?	145	(5)
Conclusion	150	(1)
Further reading	151	(1)
Waged Work and Well-being	152	(24)
Introduction	152	(1)
Sexual divisions in waged work	152	(1)
Women work and health	153	(3)
Danger: women at work	156	(8)
Hazards of industrial employment	156	(3)
Agricultural labour: growing dangers	159	(2)
Male bias in occupational health research	161	(1)
Reproductive risks: counting the future cost	162	(2)
Occupational stress and gender: adding insult to injury	164	(5)
Pressures of work	165	(3)
Low status, high stress	168	(1)
Jobs fit for women?	169	(5)
Do nurses need nursing?	169	(3)
`My boss gets on my nerves': the hidden hazards of office work	172	(2)
Conclusion	174	(1)
Further reading	175	(1)
Abusing Women	176	(21)
Introduction	176	(1)
Blowing her mind	176	(2)
Eating her heart out	178	(2)
Fallen angels: alcohol	180	(2)
A pill for every ill	182	(5)
The politics of prescribing	183	(2)
Pharmacology and social control	185	(1)
Tranquillisers as a coping strategy	186	(1)
Assessing risks and benefits of drug use	187	(1)
A smoking epidemic	187	(8)
Smoking and the diseases of equal opportunity	189	(2)
Seduced into smoking	191	(2)
Smoking for life	193	(2)
Conclusion	195	(1)
Further reading	196	(1)
Women's Movements for Health	197	(37)
Introduction	197	(1)
The global politics of women's health	197	(1)
Reproductive rights and wrongs	198	(11)
Campaigning for change: unity and diversity	199	(2)
Seeking sexual self-determination	201	(1)
The battle for birth control	202	(2)
A woman's right to choose?	204	(3)
Controlling birth	207	(2)
Challenging medicine	209	(9)
Women help themselves	210	(2)
Creating feminist alternatives	212	(3)
Reforming the system	215	(1)
Empowering women	216	(2)
Basic needs and sustainable development	218	(4)
The politics of subsistence	219	(1)
Producing food and fuel	220	(1)
Ensuring safe water and sanitation	221	(1)
Homes fit for habitation	221	(1)
Working for health	222	(5)
Organisational strategies	223	(1)
Office workers in action	224	(1)
Confronting sexual harassment	224	(1)
Factory workers fight back	225	(1)
Health and safety in sex work	226	(1)
Spreading the word	226	(1)
Putting violence on the political agenda	227	(4)
Supporting survivors	228	(1)
Campaigning for prevention	229	(2)
Conclusion	231	(1)
Further reading	232	(2)
Bibliography	234	(32)
Index	266