Book ID: CBB419949878

More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement (2015)

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More Than Medicine poignantly reveals how social justice activists in the United States gradually transformed the meaning of health care, pairing traditional notions of medicine with less conventional ideas of "healthy" social and political environments"-- "In 1948, the Constitution of the World Health Organization declared, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Yet this idea was not predominant in the United States immediately after World War II, especially when it came to women's reproductive health. Both legal and medical institutions--and the male legislators and physicians who populated those institutions--reinforced women's second class social status and restricted their ability to make their own choices about reproductive health care. In More Than Medicine, Jennifer Nelson reveals how feminists of the '60s and '70s applied the lessons of the new left and civil rights movements to generate a women's health movement. The new movement shifted from the struggle to revolutionize health care to the focus of ending sex discrimination and gender stereotypes perpetuated in mainstream medical contexts. Moving from the campaign for legal abortion to the creation of community clinics and feminist health centers, Nelson illustrates how these activists revolutionized health care by associating it with the changing social landscape in which women had power to control their own life choices. More Than Medicine poignantly reveals how social justice activists in the United States gradually transformed the meaning of health care, pairing traditional notions of medicine with less conventional ideas of "healthy" social and political environments.

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Reviewed By

Review Rebecca M. Kluchin (2016) Review of "More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 180-181). unapi

Review Sharra Vostral (2016) Review of "More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement". Journal of American History (pp. 272-273). unapi

Review Manon Parry (2016) Review of "More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement". American Historical Review (pp. 606-607). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB419949878/

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Authors & Contributors
Roberto Cea
Fiorilli, Olivia
William W. Buzbee
Sledge, Daniel
Hannah Dudley-Shotwell
Viana, Ana Luiza d'Ávila
Concepts
Public health
Health care
Medicine
Women and health
Feminism
Hygiene
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
New York City (New York, U.S.)
Italy
Brazil
Baltimore (Maryland, U.S.)
St. Louis (Missouri, U.S.)
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