November 2, 2010
Yesterday, I asked my undergraduates in a health communiction class that question. And I got…nothing in response. “Really?” Almost a whole semester of conversation about how we communicate about health, beginning with a discussion about “science” as a starting place for what we “know” and talk about when it comes to health, and — nothing?
Celeste Condit and I talked about this issue in our book, “Evaluating Women’s Health Messages,” and I continue the discusssion in the chapter devoted to, “What’s politics got to do with it?” in my book, “Talking about Health.” The bottom line: Groups of activists have been working to expand attention and information about health care for women since the birth of the contemporary women’s movement. This contributed to the formation of the Office of Research on Women’s Health.
A Women’s Health Caucus formed in Congress and a woman-oriented political task force led by Representatives Patricia Shroeder and Olympia Snowe, and Senator Barbara Mikulski published a report on women’s issues. Five criteria were use to categorize a health conditon or disease as a woman’s issue for funding purposes: unique to women or some subgroup of women; more prevalent in women or some subgroup of women; more serious in women or some subgroup of women; one for which risk factors are different for women or some subgroup of women; and/or one for which interventions are different for women.
These criteria emphasize women’s reproductive health, the most apparent area where women differ from men. Reproductive health issues are important to women. However, these are not the only health focus that demand attention with regard to women’s health. And the flurry of research about women’s reproductive health also breeds a paradox for men: men have babies, too. A focus on women’s reproductive health ignores the interaction of effects owing to the father’s behavior. It may in fact perpetuate knowledge gaps and a sense of confusion about what is missing in the expression…”women’s reproductive health…”
