Gender, Health and Healing

What do we mean by 'gender' and how does this relate to health? How is 'biology' best understood? What does a focus on the division of labour bring to our understanding of health work? Is (gender) 'equity' in health possible? How have developments such as the resurgence of emotions and the new genetics affected these and other social relations at the turn of the century? These are just some of the questions addressed in Gender, Health and Healing in which a whole range of issues are brought together and connected to emerging concerns in contemporary life such as the new genetics and transformations in biomedical knowledge and practices. It offers a challenging assessment of gender relations and embodied practices across the public/private divide, using health and healing as paradigmatic examples. This thought-provoking volume lies at the intersection of gender studies, the sociology of health and healing, health policy, the critical analysis of scientific knowledge and the current debates around the body, health and emotions. Bringing together new and leading scholars in the field, it provides a unique critical overview of contemporary debates in health care for an interdisciplinary readership.

Gillian Bendelow, Mick Carpenter, Caroline Vautier and Simon Williams are all members of the Centre for Research in Health, Medicine and Society, University of Warwick.

Introduction One: Biology 'Revisited' 1. New Genetics and New Eugenics: the Rise and Rise of Consumer Eugenics 2. Body Machines: Feminist Readings of the Biological Body 3. Rethinking the Biological: Reductionism, Constructionism and Beyond Two: Gender (in)Equality 4. Conceptualizing Gender and Health 5. Men Behaving Badly? The Theory and Practice of Gendered Approaches to Men's Health and Illness 6. Gender Equity in Health: A Challenge for the next Millennium Three: Human Reproduction 7. Alien Bodies and Genetic Technologies: Unintended Consequences and Responsible Ethics 8. Assessing the Infertile: Health Professionals' perceptions of the Suitability of Patients for Parenthood 9. Protection, Control or Interference: Lay and Professional views on the desirability and 'risks' of prenatal screening tests among Palestinian Women Four: Gender, 'Work' and the (Emotional) Division of Labour 10. Gender and the Politics of Professional Self-Regulation 11. The Gendering of Psychiatry 12. Emotions Across the Public / Private Divide 13. The Mediators: Mothers of Disabled Children and the Social Order Five: Ferment and Change 14. Health, Illness and the Troubled Issue of Informed Consent 15. Medical Uncertainty and the (Bio)Ethics Debate 16. Integrated Medicine 17. Health Medicine and Society at and into the Millennium Afterword Conclusions