Historical Perspectives
The women’s health movement originated as result of the feminist movement. In the United States the feminist movement began in the mid-nineteen century. Industrialization created social changes for women in the family structure whereas the burden of women increased and women left the workforce. The birth rates decreased and life expectancy increased. Women began to seek more education and energy on health reform.
During the second transition of women health, economical changes occur in the United States whereas large number of women entering the workforce. However, birthrates decreased and life expectancies increased due to health innovation and technologies .The feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s was impetus for the women health movement. Fertility continued to decrease over time. Women continue to have higher education than men. In 1960s Congress passed Title VII which banned sexual discrimination in workplace, and civil rights for women.
Women Health
Women health includes the entire lifespan which involves health promotion; maintenance of women lives. Women’s life events include menstruation, childbirth, and menopause instead of disease requiring medical treatment.
Improvement in Women Health
The feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s was impetus for the women health movement. Fertility of women was monitored by the National Health Care Policy. It functions as a clearinghouse and advocates for women health. In 1986, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) developed a health policy that called for the inclusion of women clinical research .In 1990, the Office of Research on Women’s Health within the NIH was formed. This office has the responsibilities to address women health issues .Women’s health has been growing concern for the 21st century since the National Institutes of Health made a commitment to include more women and minorities in scientific research. However, women’s health research rarely addressed African American women’s needs. The vast majority of research on “women” has been conducted on European American middle-class women. However, research findings are generalized to all women, regardless of race, class, sexuality, or other variables.
Women in the United States have a life expectancy of 8 years longer than that of men. Women suffer greater morbidity and poor health outcomes than men. Also, women have a higher prevalence of health problems than men over the course of lifetime. Poor women have been the target of unethical procedures. In 1929, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a poor white, unwed mother could be sterile without her explicated consent to prevent the reproduction of socially inadequate offspring. Many states adopted compulsory sterilization laws. As late as the 1970s, there were reports of blacks and Puerto Rican women having unnecessary hysterectomities and other forms of sterilization not only in the rural south but in prominent teaching hospitals in Boston and New York .These procedures were often done without the full informed consent of the women. They were often performed in public institutions and government employees. However, women in diverse countries around the world have been the subjects of contraceptives technology, and sterilization. All of the contraceptive technology and sterilization were tested in undeveloped countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Mexico, where the literacy is common and medical services are weak.
Women Health Status
On a global level, women are more poverty stricken than men. Women have poor access to care and material resources. Disparities in access to care vary in developed and developing countries. Women who lack access to care have poor health outcomes and shorter lifespan. Adequate access to care has resulted in premature deaths of women worldwide. In most countries women live longer than men but are less healthy. Gender disparities and gender-violence extend to rich and poor women and between developed and developing countries. In addition, gender inequalities refer to difference and unequal socio-cultural expectations and treatment of women as compared to men result in many health disparities experienced by women and their children.
In many countries, lack of empowerment prevent women and children from receiving basic health care Women compose of half of the world population; they represent (70%) of the people in the world living in poverty . The health care system is often unresponsive to the women living in poverty and increases their vulnerability to impoverishment. Health services to poverty -stricken woman are often poor in quality. In developing countries, gender inequities, sexual coercion, and violence by intimate partners undermine women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy and jeopardize their health and well-being.
In developing countries improving the health status of women remain an unmet challenges with great disparities existing between low and high-income countries resulting in deaths due to HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, and tuberculosis which primary affect poor women.
Global Gender Disparities and Gender Violence
Lack of equality and empowerment socially, culturally, and politically keep women from overcoming subjugation to violence. Around the globe, women lack basic rights to protection and from abuse; especially to intimate partner violence. The United Nations formed a new worldwide council specifically devoted to women called the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. This council aims to fight discrimination and violence directed at women at all levels; local, national and global. The United Nation declares violence against women and girls are one of the most widespread violations of human rights. It can include physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse, and it cuts across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth and geography. It takes place in the home, on the streets, in schools, the workplace, in farm fields, refugee camps, during conflicts and crises. It has many manifestations from the most universally prevalent forms of domestic and sexual violence, to harmful practices, abuse during pregnancy, so-called honour killings and other types of femicide. International and regional legal instruments have clarified obligations of states to prevent, eradicate and punish violence against women and girls. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) requires that countries party to the convention take all appropriate steps to end violence. However, the continued prevalence of violence against women and girls demonstrates that this global pandemic of alarming proportions is yet to be tackled with all the necessary political commitment and resources.
Women who lack sexual autonomy often are powerless to refuse unwanted sex or to use conception which causes a greater risk of unwanted pregnancies, STDs and HIV. Gender disparities and gender-violence extend to rich and poor women and between developed and developing countries.
In developing countries, gender inequities, sexual coercion, and violence by intimate partners undermine women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy and jeopardize their health and well-being . Women who lack sexual autonomy often are powerless to refuse unwanted sex or to use conception which causes a greater risk of unwanted pregnancies, STDs and HIV.
The victims of gender-based violence are primary women and the risk of violence that women face is aggravated by poverty and political instability to include inadequate access to reproductive health services contributing to unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, inadequate antenatal, and lack of skilled birth. Women in low-resources, refugee or conflict settings, and economically vulnerable circumstance experience higher levels of violence and more routine societal undervaluing of their lives and health.
Women In Networking Ministry (WIN) is a faith-based ministry, non-profit organization focusing on global health issues of women and other vulnerable groups to assist with education, information, resources, and support. Contributions will be provided to support individuals, groups, programs, organizations for improving health outcomes of these groups around the globe.
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