This book integrates the role of gender in girls' and women's development across the life span, looking specifically at internal and external vulnerabilities and risks, and the protective or supportive factors that facilitate effective coping, positive growth, strength and resilience. The interaction between physical, psychological, and cultural factors is integrated within each period of development. The book emphasizes how gender socialization of female development and behavior impacts self-evaluation and identity processes within various cultural groups. The authors also discusses the social roles that girls and women reflectively adopt and describe how externally induced risks such as poverty, interpersonal abuse, and violence influence a healthy development.
This resoure combines medical information with an understanding of how poverty, discrimination and culture affect women's health and access to health care. Included are the health concerns for girls, sexual health, infertility, family planning, abortion, pregnancy, childbirth, breast-feeding, sexually transmitted diseases, aging, women with disabilities, nutrition, tuberculosis, cancer, and problems of the urinary system, vagina, and the lower abdomen. Included also is information on violence against women, rape and sexual assault, female circumcision, refugees and displaced women, sex workers, work, mental health, and alcohol and drugs. Lastly, the book discusses the use of medicine in women's health and a list of these medicines, providing generic and brand names.