Health Challenges Facing Women Today

“Without a lifespan view of women’s health… we are unlikely to be successful in advancing women’s health” (Woods 2009, pg. 400). A Global Health Imperative (2009) by author Nancy Fugate Woods explains the issues about health status and opportunities for the health of girl-children world-wide, which includes sex and gender disparities. Girl and women’s health is important, but just not as important as men’s health. Woods gives example of women’s health issues that are extremely serious. “Health issues or problems that occur predominantly in women are breast cancer and menopause” (Woods 2009, pg. 400). Women all over the world have the risk of getting breast cancer, HIV and Aids. Women that are affected by these diseases in some countries may

With the focus on these five areas, Governments in each country are creating health systems that aim to provide services that are affordable, equitable and accessible. To achieve a sustainable health system, cooperation and participation of all health care providers is vital. This will work towards WHO’s goal of achieving “better health for all”

Healthy People 2020 is a truly lofty project which seeks to improve the health of the entire nation, in a verifiable and drastic manner over a decade long period. Because it is a multi-year process it has a clear focus on the bigger picture, so as to demonstrate the needs and input from a diverse group of healthcare professionals. The vision of Healthy People 2020 is to create "a society in which all people live long, healthy lives" along with a proactive mission which involves the following steps, to: "Identify nationwide health improvement priorities. Increase public awareness and understanding of the determinants of health, disease, and disability and the opportunities for progress. Provide measurable objectives and goals that are applicable at the national, State, and local levels. Engage multiple sectors to take actions to strengthen policies and improve practices that are driven by the best available evidence and knowledge. Identify critical research, evaluation, and data collection needs" (healthypeople.gov, 2013). These specific missions will help the movement to achieve some of its larger goals of helping Americans to live longer, prevent diseases, disabiliries, injuries and untimely deaths; furthermore accomplishing a greater degree of health equity is also essential, as well as an elimination of disparities and a betterment of all groups who need healthcare (healthypeople.gov, 2013).

Healthy people 2020 “ establishes national goals and objectives for policy, programs, and activities to address the major health challenges facing our country today, and seeks to assure conditions in which people can be healthy, both now and for generations to come” (Secretary Advisory Committee, 2010, pg., 2). This initiative helps supports people on their health and wellbeing. It strives to identify potential health risks and help support improvement priorities. Healthy people 2020 have elaborated with different sectors to strengthen these policies by proving goals and objectives.

Mission: Advance the health and safety of women and girls with a focus on disease prevention and wellness. (cdc.gov/women)

As discussed previously, it is very difficult for individuals in remote villages to make their way to health centers. For women, accessing health care in general is more difficult because of their lack of income and also a lack of emphasis on women’s health. Even prior to the earthquake and the cholera epidemic, women faced large discrepancies in the health care they received (Bloem, Miller 2013). Women work both inside and outside the home, but the work done outside the home is often in the informal sector, meaning that it is very low pay (Bloem, Miller 2013). This is exacerbated by the lack of education for women, which forces them into jobs in the informal sector because they lack the skills to attain work in the formal sector. The income of women is also invaluable within the household, because, although men may earn more, women put a larger percent of their earnings into the household (Maternowska 2006). Women have even less money than men in the same social class to spend on their health. They also have less free time, as any time that is not spent maintaining the home is spent looking after the children or doing work outside the house, or any of the other countless tasks women in Haiti have. Women may also have to ask their husbands for permission before seeking any sort of medical treatment. The power disparity between men and women, discussed more in depth in Maternowska’s book, is such that women have very limited agency. Their husbands can dictate the actions that they take or the woman may face physical abuse. Women’s awareness of their position in society is a form of symbolic violence, as they know that they are more likely to suffer from diseases because of their low status. I believe that the rate of incidence is higher in women, because of their extended exposure to water and their stressful life styles, and also that they suffer from a higher

MDGs are millennium developmental goals. The UN adopted the SDGs; SDGs are sustainable developmental goals in 2016. Some of the goals were to get rid of extreme hunger and poverty by 2015. The other goals were to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. They hope to reach these goals by 2030.

Women in today’s society have a lot more power and say in what they can or cannot do.

Advertisement for “Men’s Health The Big Book of Uncommon Knowledge” found in Men’s Health, November 2015.

One of the United States’ core values is the right to privacy, a right evidenced in the constitution’s fourteenth amendment. This amendment, of course, is the one cited in cases of women’s reproductive health rights, an issue as contentious as ever in the 21st century. With the federal government working seemingly endlessly to revert fifty-year-old decisions pertaining to women’s health rights, one must ask themselves if such undermining of Supreme Court decisions is constitutional, and why it is so important to men in Congress to legislate women’s bodies. With half a century of feminist progress behind us, one would think the

▪ Write down what happened. Write down the date, time and place of the incident, as soon as possible. Include what was said and who was there. Keep a copy of these notes at home. They will be useful if you decide to file a complaint with your company or to take legal action.

Women make up just slightly over half the U.S population (US Census Bureau, 2010) and should not be even considered a part of a minority group. The female population should acquire the same equal research attention as men do, especially when it comes to health issues. The unavoidable, yet quite simple realities of breastfeeding, menstruation, menopause, along with pregnancy require special scrutiny from medical experts. Those medical specialties are generally referred as gynecologists or obstetrics, who focus on the exclusive needs of a female’s reproductive health throughout their lifespan. Historically, the health needs of women have been disregarded as well as their fundamental rights. However, over the past few decades, it has grabbed the media and the government’s attention causing some major changes in support of women’s rights and health care.

In many developing countries globalization has brought masses of wealth to the elite at the expense of the poor. Consequently, many women of the poorer classes leave their homeland in search of opportunities for employment. These women are disproportionately affected by

There are a number of global trends that are affecting poor women. Gender, biology and poverty are linked together and are causing women to be more vulnerable to infectious diseases and reproductive tract infections. Poor women are being denied the health care and reproductive care that they desperately need. By ignoring the care that they need, we are deteriorating their lives, the lives of their families and their communities.

The country that this author chose to research about is Haiti, which has some major health concerns that are present in the country. Haiti is currently working on improving these health concerns. The topics that were chosen to examine Haiti’s health more in depth was women’s health, sanitation and hygiene, and nutrition. This paper will look further into the health of women in Haiti, as well as the sanitation and water supply and nutrition of the population. This paper will also address the steps that have been taken to help improve the health of women, nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene in Haiti. The population of Haiti as of 2015 is 10,711,000 (World Health Organization (WHO), 2017). Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in