Women, health and the sexual division of labor: a case study of the women's health movement in Britain.

Abstract

The women's health movement in Britain can be divided into three main stages. During the first period, most activities took place outside the National Health Service (NHS) and the emphasis was on women as consumers of medical care. Feminists exposed the sexism inherent in most medical practice and stressed the need for women to gain control of reproductive technology. During the second phase, these priorities shifted toward a greater concern with the need to defend the NHS against reductions in resources and to oppose the increasing privatization of medical care. These campaigns involved women not only as users of medical services but also as health workers, thereby bringing the women's health movement into the wider political arena. They also led to the growth of a socialist feminist analysis of women's health issues and a recognition that feminist participation in health struggles is essential if the NHS is to be not merely defended but qualitatively changed to meet the real needs of consumers and workers. During the third (and current) stage of the women's health movement, feminists have moved beyond a concern with medical care alone toward the development of a socialist feminist epidemiology--toward the identification and eventual elimination of those aspects of contemporary society that make women sick.