Customer Reviews

Health Issues for Women of Color: A Cultural Diversity Perspective

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This would be a great compendium or resource book for those writing papers on women of color. At times a bit dull to read, many chapters amass all research available to say what diseases affect women of color and to what extent. Though the book never says racism is more of an issue for women of color than sexism, the contributors usually compare the health status of women of color to white women, rather than to men of color. This book does a great job in acknowledging diversity. One might ask, for example, "How can you talk about Asian women's health when that group encompasses so many subpopulations?" The book would answer by saying, "This is what research says about East Asians; this is what is known of South Asians; this is what we have on Pacific Islander women.", etc.

I liked the chapter "Health Care on the Inside" the best. Unfortunately, because of its colloquial title, many may not know it talks about women of color in prison and their health needs. I thought this book was thorough, but some chapters need not be there. One of the last chapters was on homeless children. Yes, women are the primary caretakers of children, but that chapter would have been better suited for a book solely on children. Several other chapters are tangential to the main subject. Maybe this is an example of "Publish or perish!" Still, some authors really should have taken their work elsewhere.

To be honest, this book may be dated. It was written in the mid-1990s. Medicare has changed. Former President Clinton gutted welfare in many ways. Prisons are no longer profitable in the way they had been for small towns. This book has a chapter on Arab American women. It would now need to speak of the added discrimination they face after the 9-11 attacks. Still, I bet this book may have been a catalyst for researchers to add to the existing health studies on women of color.