This book, based on papers presented at a conference held at the University of Southern California, The Ethics of State Involvement in Women's Health, explores women’s global health from a multidimensional, transnational perspective. Grounded in previous ethnographic research, the book analyzes the topic from a norms and state policy viewpoint, as the subtitle indicates. Case materials and examples are derived from the United Nations organization, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Mozambique, Tanzania, the US, Iran, India, and Sri Lanka. Key subjects addressed in the nine chapters include a definition of women’s global health, women’s rights, the role and power of women, access to resources, and politics, laws, and governance. The volume is eclectic in its approach to this subject, with contributions from scholars in political science, anthropology, ethics, women’s studies, and international studies. The authors make suggestions for an expanded, comprehensive research agenda that underscores the importance of facilitating positive norms and state policies to advance the health of women worldwide. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners.

Choice Reviews

This new book, Women’s Global Health, co-edited by Boyd-Judson and James, fills an important niche in the expanding women’s health and politics literature. First, it examines the feedback loop between international norms and domestic policies, and includes some pathbreaking new studies on countries not usually included in comparative texts from Asia and Africa. This type of study has been needed for a long time and will be useful to students and practitioners at many levels.

Melissa Haussman, Professor of Political Science, Carleton University