Women's health: A global perspective

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss global issues related to women's health. Several universal issues were selected for presentation to provide a context for understanding health care for women and to challenge readers to identify potential threats to quality care. In addition, principles that have been proposed for the development and implementation of a viable and comprehensive health care system for women are identified and discussed. The intent here is not to capture the situation and health experience of women in all parts of the world; nor is it possible to address all the contextual contingencies needed for addressing women's health. Rather, the intent is to provide a framework for understanding the neglect that women have encountered in all aspects of their lives, including health care. Furthermore, our aim is to provide those who have been committed to health care for women with support in their attempt to provide quality health carefor other women. Finally,our goal is to raise the readers' consciousness of women's health needs beyond the United States. We fully realize that women's health issues cannot be understood in isolation from the specific sociocultural context of their situations; however, by highlighting some universals, perhaps we can underscore the need for global cooperation in taking a more coherent and coordinated approach to providing affordable and quality health care for women.