Women and Their Bodies: Health Movement Report
Today, women in developed countries have the right and opportunities to see a doctor regularly and monitor the state of their health. However, even nowadays, there is a high risk for a woman to feel uncomfortable while visiting a doctor because many topics regarding the women’s health are not discussed openly. In this context, it is important to analyze the ideas regarding the topic claimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, a feminist, and by the representatives of Boston Women’s Health Collective in the 1970s-1980s. These women were among the first activists of the women’s health movement who drew the public’s attention to the problem of sexism related to the provision of health services for women.Women and Their Bodies: Health Movement Report
Three specific notions can attract the attention of the reader reviewing the first chapters of the work Women and Their Bodies presented by Boston Women’s Health Collective in 1970. These notions are ‘mystification’, ‘objectification’, and ‘alienation’ (Boston Women’s Health Collective 6). On the one hand, it seems that these ideas have no relation to the issue of women’s health and medical services. However, the closer analysis of the issue indicates that Boston Women’s Health Collective were the first women who clearly stated that females can face such barriers while asking for the medical consultation as ‘mystification’ because male doctors exaggerate their significance and ‘power’; ‘objectification’ because women can be perceived as ‘stupid’ sex objects even by doctors; and ‘alienation’ because women experience barriers in discussing their personal health problems. Therefore, female patients are perceived as ‘females’, rather than ‘patients’. From this point, the booklet was important to present the information on women’s problems when they visit doctors in a form understandable for each female, while avoiding sexism and biased notes.Women and Their Bodies: Health Movement Report
The work by Boston Women’s Health Collective had the revolutionary effect on the women’s vision and their awareness of rights regarding the own health. In their article, Stephenson and Zeldes state that Women and Their Bodies helped women focus on their personal experiences and understand that many women have the same problems to be discussed openly (Stephenson and Zeldes 1742). The similar opinion is argued by Ehrenreich in her discussion of the women’s health movement. Ehrenreich’s position regarding the necessity to discuss women’s personal health issues as social and political ones due to the helplessness of women to oppose the everyday pressure in the healthcare facilities sounds rather provocative (Ehrenreich par. 4). Nevertheless, it is possible to agree that the idea was a result of prolonged discussions of problems experienced by women in their struggle for the healthy life. Therefore, Ehrenreich’s view on the problem was in line with the feminists’ ideas characteristic for the era of the 1970s-1980s.
It is possible to state that the authors’ ideas regarding the necessity of focusing the attention on the women’s health experiences are ground-breaking for the late part of the twentieth century. However, it is also important to note that there was a need for starting the open discussion of the problems in the society in order to avoid the progress of such problems as discrimination, violation, victimization, and humiliation in the sphere of health care and medicine. The reason is that women need to know about their bodies and health as much information as men, and they have the right to receive the medical assistance without being derided and humiliated.Women and Their Bodies: Health Movement Report
Works Cited
Boston Women’s Health Collective. Women and Their Bodies (1970). Web.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Body Politic: The Growth of the Women’s Health Movement (1984). Web.
Stephenson, Heather, and Kiki Zeldes. “Write a Chapter and Change the World”: How the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective Transformed Women’s Health Then – and Now”. American Journal of Public Health 98.10: 1741-1745. Web.Women and Their Bodies: Health Movement Report