Citation
Cogswell, Betty E. & Arndt, Jane E. (1980). Women's Health Care: An Overview. Marriage & Family Review, 3(3/4), 1-34.Abstract
In this paper we employ feminist perspectives to examine health care for women. As often occurs in the early stages of social reform movements, extreme positions are taken in order to draw attention to issues which once lay dormant. Thus, there is a tendency in this literature to view physicians as villains and female patients as victims. Differences among and within groups of physicians and women tend to be ignored, and ranges of phenomena are seen as bipolar categories rather than continua. Furthermore, within the women's health movement there has been an initial tendency to attack discrete problems in the medical care system rather than to view and to reformulate the system as a whole. As a result, one finds contradictions among the multiple positions taken by activists. The movement is still too young to have worked out the shades of gray surrounding each extreme position and to have found the criteria for integrating incompatible positions. Consequently, this paper reflects the exaggerations and contradictions inherent today in the women's health movement. As the movement matures and as analysts and investigatorsbecome more sophisticated, we can expect greater specification of variations and resolution of incompatible stances.
URL
https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v03n03_01Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
1980Journal Title
Marriage & Family ReviewAuthor(s)
Cogswell, Betty E.Arndt, Jane E.