Women's Health Advocacy

Womens Health Advocacy brings together academic studies and personal narratives to demonstrate how women use a variety of arguments, forms of writing, and communication strategies to effect change in a health system that is not only often difficult to participate in, but which can be actively harmful. It explicates the concept of rhetorical ingenuitythe creation of rhetorical means for specific and technical, yet extremely personal, situations. At a time when womens health concerns are at the center of national debate, this rhetorical ingenuity provides means for women to uncover latent sources of oppression in womens health and medicine and to influence matters of research, funding, policy, and everyday access to healthcare in the face of exclusion and disenfranchisement. This accessible collection will be inspiring reading for academics and students in health communication, medical humanities, and womens studies, as well as for activists, patients, and professionals.