Description
Book SynopsisCovering the lifespan of women from puberty to old age, this comprehensive collection provides ground-breaking research and theory that challenges current conceptions of women's health and illustrates the diversity of approaches in this burgeoning field. The interdisciplinary angle of the book will appeal to a wide-ranging readership and includes detailed commentaries on key topics such as anorexia nervosa, depression, women and cancer, sexual abuse, disability, exercise, body image, pregnancy, sexual violence and drug use.
Trade Review'Brillant! This exciting collection should be on the bookshelf and reading list of everyone concerned with women's health issues. It can only be hoped that the ground-breaking work presented here will be as widely read and taught as it richly deserves to be.' Professor Valerie Walkerdine, Centre for Critical Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
'This volume provides a comprehensive and confident treatment of this vast and vital topic ... In this book the psychology of women's health has come of age.'
Dr Wendy Hollway, School of Psychology, University of Leeds
Table of ContentsList of contributors x
Preface xx
Acknowledgements xx
Introduction
Women’s health: Contemporary concerns 1
Jane M. Ussher
Section One: An Overview of Critical Issues in Women’s Health
1 Psychology of women’s health: A critique 26
Christina Lee
2 Qualitative methods and women’s health research 40
Michael Murray and Kerry Chamberlain
3 Choosing a life span developmental orientation 50
Sheila Greene
Section Two: Young Women’s Health
4 Young Asian women and self-harm 59
Harriette Marshall and Anjum Yazdani
5 Girls on “E”: Social problem or social panic? 69
Maria Pini
6 Women and substance abuse: Problems of visibility and empowerment 76
Helen Keane
7 Young lesbians and mental health: The closet is a depressing place to be 83
Julie Mooney-Somers and Jane Ussher
8 Femininity as a barrier to positive sexual health for adolescent girls 93
Deborah L. Tolman
Section Three: Sexuality and Sexual Health
9 ‘I couldn’t imagine having sex with anyone else’ Young women’s experience of trustworthiness in heterosexual relationships 105
Niamh Stephenson, Susan Kippax and June Crawford
10 Reclaiming women’s sexual agency 114
Lynne Segal
11 The social construction of women’s sexuality: The dangers of pharmaceutical industry interest 124
Leonore Tiefer
12 Rape: Cultural definitions and health outcomes 129
Nancy Felipe Russo, Mary P. Koss and Luciana Ramos Lira
13 Sexual assault and domestic violence: Implications for health workers 143
Sue Lees
14 Naming abuse and constructing identities 154
Rosaleen Croghan and Dorothy Miell
15 Sexual harassment and stress: How women cope with unwanted sexual attention 160
Alison Thomas
16 Women’s sexual health: An overview 172
Sylvia Smith
17 Contraception choice: A biopsychosocial perspective 180
Beth Alder
18 Menopause and sexuality 190
Lorraine Dennerstein
19 Living on the edge: Women with learning disabilities 196
Jan Burns
Section Four: Physical Health and Illness
20 Women living with HIV in Britain 204
Corinne Squire
21 Gynaecological cancer 218
Marian Pitts and Eleanor Bradley
22 Cervical screening 224
Julie Fish and Sue Wilkinson
23 Breast cancer: A feminist perspective 230
Sue Wilkinson
24 Partner support for women with breast cancer: A process analysis approach 237
Nancy Pistrang
25 Chronic pelvic pain 244
Marian Pitts, Linda McGowan and David Clark Carter
26 Women and somatic distress 249
Annemarie Kolk
Section Five: Reproductive Health
27 ‘PMS research: Balancing the personal with the political’ 255
Jacqueline Reilly
28 What does systems theory have to do with premenstrual complaints? 266
Wendy Vanselow
29 Menstrual cycle and eating behavior 271
Louise Dye
30 Hormones and behavior: Cognition, menstruation and menopause 278
John T. E. Richardson
31 Sex hormones as biocultural actors: Rethinking biology, sexual difference and health 283
Celia Roberts
32 Reproduction: A critical analysis 290
Carol A. Morse
33 Pregnancy: A healthy state? 296
Harriet Gross
34 Screening: A critique 302
Maeve Ennis
35 Childbirth 307
Jane J. Weaver
36 Motherhood and mothering 312
Anne Woollett and Harriette Marshall
37 Competing explanations of postpartum depression: What are the benefits to women? 320
Paula Nicolson
38 Deconstructing ‘Hysterectomized Women’: A materio-discursive approach 329
Pippa Dell
39 The experience of abortion: A contextualist view 339
Mary Boyle
Section Six: Bodies and Body Image
40 Body image 356
Sarah Grogan
41 Anorexia nervosa 363
Helen Malson
42 Looking good and feeling good: Why do fewer women than men exercise? 372
Precilla Y. L. Choi
43 Gender, culture and eating disorders 379
Mervat Nasser
44 Women with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) 387
Celia Kitzinger
45 Transgender issues 394
Louise K. Newman
Section Seven: Mental Health
46 Understanding depression in women: Limitations of mainstream approaches and a material-discursive alternative 405
Janet M. Stoppard
47 Women’s narratives of recovery from disabling mental health problems: A bicultural project from Aotearoa/New Zealand 415
Hilary Lapsley, Linda Waimarie Nikora and Rosanne Black
48 Women, stress and work: Exploring the boundaries 423
Rebecca Lawthom
49 The socio-political context of abortion and its relationship to women’s mental health 431
Jean Denious and Nancy Felipe Russo
50 Women and psychosis 440
Emmanuelle Peters
51 Women and dementia: From Stigma towards celebrations 447
Kate Allen
52 The experience of childhood sexual abuse: A psychological perspective of adult female survivors in terms of their personal accounts, therapy, and growth 455
Christine D. Baker
53 Psychodynamic psychotherapy 461
Janet Sayers
54 Self-psychology 465
Anna Gibbs
Section Eight: The Health of Older Women
55 Representations of menopause and women at midlife 470
Antonia C. Lyons and Christine Griffin
56 Psychological well-being in aging women 476
Linda Gannon
57 The paradox of older women’s health 485
Rosemary Leonard and Ailsa Burns
58 Working with older women: Developments in clinical psychology 489
Frances J. Baty
Index 497
