9.7 Conclusion

In ancient times, women regulated pregnancy through herbs and natural methods. Childbirth was primarily the concern of women. In the 1800s, laws and societal norms about women’s reproduction shifted to institutional concerns. During this time, eugenics practices also took root in some scientific circles. The mid-1900s saw the advent of the birth control pill, shifting some bodily autonomy back to women and providing empowerment of women’s rights for access to education, politics, and the workplace. White male-dominated government structures in the United States have continued to guide legal and societal regulation of women’s bodies.

Global and U.S. state trends in healthcare provide a clear picture of the ramifications of people’s lack of access to safe and quality healthcare. Countries and states with poor access to healthcare for women are those with the most restrictive personal rights. They also have the lowest life expectancies and the poorest infant and maternal mortality rates. Ensuring access to quality healthcare for everyone, especially women, can increase life expectancy and quality of life for everybody.

9.7.1 Key Terms

  • abortion: the spontaneous (also known as miscarriage) or voluntary termination of pregnancy.
  • anorexia nervosa: a significant and persistent reduction in food intake leading to extremely low body weight in the context of age, sex, and physical health; a relentless pursuit of thinness; a distortion of body image and intense fear of gaining weight; and extremely disturbed eating behavior.
  • binge eating disorder: recurrent binge eating episodes during which a person feels a loss of control and marked distress over his or her eating.
  • bulimia nervosa: binge eating (eating large amounts of food in a short time, along with the sense of a loss of control) followed by a type of behavior that compensates for the binge, such as purging (e.g., vomiting, excessive use of laxatives, or diuretics), fasting, and/or excessive exercise.
  • doula: someone trained to support a pregnant person before, during, and after childbirth.
  • eugenics: the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics ) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics ). (Dictionary.com N.d.)
  • female circumcision: also known globally as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The act of removing part or all of the clitoris, labia, and/or other genital parts.
  • forced sterilization: the practice of forcibly preventing people from becoming pregnant or impregnating someone.
  • infibulation: sewing of the vaginal area together leaving only a small hole for urination and menstruation
  • infant mortality rate: the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.
  • intersectionality: the inequalities produced by simultaneous and intertwined statuses and how that influences the life course of an individual or group.
  • life expectancy: the amount of time an individual is expected to live.
  • maternal mortality: the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births
  • medicalization: the process by which previously normal aspects of life are redefined as deviant and needing medical attention to remedy.
  • menopause: when the body stops menstruation through either natural or other causes.
  • midwife: a medical professional trained to deliver babies
  • morbidity: the incidence of disease.
  • mortality rate: the rate of deaths in a population over a year expressed per 1000.
  • male circumcision: the act of removing the foreskin of the penis.
  • reproductive justice: the “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities” by the Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (N.d.).
  • sick role: the expected patterns of behavior attached to individuals who are sick and those that take care of them.
  • social determinants of health: “the range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status” (ODPHP, n.d.).

9.7.2 Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion

Figure 9.??? Photo by Yagazie Emezi for Getty Images/Images of Empowerment licensed under (CC BY-NC 4.0)

 https://www.imagesofempowerment.org/1c_pa-1799312_250

Binge eating disorder definition in “Eating disorders as a gendered health issue” by National Institute of Mental Health license???? https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/eating-disorders

Bulimia nervosa definition in “Eating disorders as a gendered health issue” by National Institute of Mental Health license???? https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/eating-disorders

Anorexia nervosa definition in “Eating disorders as a gendered health issue” by National Institute of Mental Health license???? https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/eating-disorders

Sick role definition is from the Open Education Sociology Dictionary edited by Kenton Bell, which is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Infant mortality rate definition in “health” by CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm#:~:text=The%20infant%20mortality%20rate%20is,overall%20health%20of%20a%20society.

Maternal mortality rate in “health” by CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2020/maternal-mortality-rates-2020.htm

Intersectionality definition is from the Open Education Sociology Dictionary edited by Kenton Bell, which is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Mortality rate definition is from the Open Education Sociology Dictionary edited by Kenton Bell, which is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Morbidity definition is “Health in the United States,” OpenStax Sociology 3e by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Medicalization definition is “Health in the United States,” OpenStax Sociology 3e by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

“Conclusion” by Jane Forbes is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

License

Sociology of Gender Copyright © by Heidi Esbensen. All Rights Reserved.

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