The Women's Health Movement By Mary K. Zimmerman

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Mary Zimmerman framed that women have not had ultimate control over their own bodies and health as a fundamental assumption underlying women’s health movement. Men control and dominate a huge portion of the of decision making roles in the healthcare field, such as health related research, health policy etc. Whereas women are more seen in social positions. According to the article “The Women’s Health Movement” by Mary K. Zimmerman, the concept of medicalization is the “increasing tendency to apply medical definitions and control to phenomena not previously thought of as medical problems (Zola, 1972; Conrad and Schneider, 1980). In the 1950’s a drug called Thalidomide was created by a German company, claiming that it was safe for pregnant women. Although many women were still using this drug during this time, in 1961, reports began to surface that this drug was causing several birth defects and other health problems. The author presented the Thalidomide case as an example of medicalization by showing us the potential consequences of a style medical …show more content…

(2.) policy determination as movement organizations expanded and used legislative/ judicial means to effect change. (3.) successful social movements ultimately become institutionalized in some manner and enter a reform. Within the women’s health movement, were liberal and radical feminist. Liberal feminist philosophy have focused on increasing the number of women doctors, having community agency support groups that cater to the medical needs of women’s issues and changing hospital procedures to help specifically women. While radical feminist, according to Fee (1983), believe that equality can be achieved only by transforming existing social institutions and engaging in actions directly designed for

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