WOMEN'S GLOBAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

• Author: Bhattacharya, Dhrubajyoti
• Position: Book review

WOMEN'S GLOBAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS Edited by Padmini Murthy and Clybe Lanford Smith Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Massachusetts, 2010 pp. 556, $72.95

Women's Global Health and Human Rights, Murthy et al. fills a deep void in scholarship and provides practical insight on the challenges facing women's health advocates worldwide. Readers will be taken by the work's encyclopedic breadth and conceptual depth. A diverse array of reputable and emerging scholars and practitioners contributed to the work, including the late women's health advocate and former Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, Dr Allan Rosenfield, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, and senior UN staff members. Divided into seven sections and 42 chapters, major themes include the impact of globalization, economics and development, chronic diseases, human rights, and cultural practices. Together, the work is at once inspiring and sobering--informative in describing current trends and identifying avenues to remedy existent problems, yet daunting in its appraisal of pervasive social impediments that cause innumerous harms and preclude women from realizing their human right to health. Women's health advocates will find in its pages a clarion call to redouble their efforts.

Traditional treatment of women's global health issues is often subsumed in discussions about maternal mortality and violence against women. This work, however, explores a myriad of themes and topics that affect women's health generally and particular issues unique to women across their lifespan. Moreover, the issues are relevant to both developed and developing countries. Infectious diseases, chronic illnesses, and microbial, behavioural, and ecological determinants of health are all addressed from a gender-based perspective.

The compilation also transcends traditional dichotomies of medicine and public health by promoting preventive and treatment modalities to secure women's health. For example, Drs Brinton, Hopkins, and Sankaran's exploration of risk factors and risk reduction of cardiovascular diseases highlights their role as the leading cause of deaths worldwide (over 30% of all mortalities, according to the World Health Organization).

Exploring the synergy of health and human rights is also timely given the rise of religious fundamentalism and pervasive trends in violence and oppressive social practices. Practitioners...