EDITORIAL
For several years numerous groups of women around the world have been working on issues of women and health. They represent an international movement responding to the need of women to reappropriate knowledge about health in order to gain direct control over their own life. In 1977 a first International meeting on women and health took place in Rome.
A second meeting was held in Hannover in 1980. This year - 1981 - 500 women from over 35 countries convened in Geneva the 6-8 June for the Third International
Women and Health Meeting. This meeting was organised by ISIS, and by the Dispensaire des Femmes, a collective of women offering gynecological, obstetrical, and
pediatric services in Geneva, Switzerland.
Like the previous two meetings, the purpose of the Geneva meeting was to exchange knowledge, experience and ideas among women working in self-help health. Unlike
the Rome and Hannover meetings, however, funds were especially secured to bring women from Asia, Africa and Latin America to enable a truly international exchange. Indeed, as Western medicine becomes more expensive and frequently inappropriate in both developed and developing countries, it is all the more imperative
for women to come together internationally and discuss alternatives.
the Rome and Hannover meetings, however, funds were especially secured to bring women from Asia, Africa and Latin America to enable a truly international exchange. Indeed, as Western medicine becomes more expensive and frequently inappropriate in both developed and developing countries, it is all the more imperative
for women to come together internationally and discuss alternatives.
The most striking aspect of the exchange that took place was that, regardless of country, continent or soco-economic status, women found that they face very similar
problems : everywhere they are subject to laws, customs, and mental attitudes which institutionalise their supposed inferiority. Whether it is forced sterilization practices as in Puerto Rico, or the denial of sterilization to women who want it, as in France, whether one considers "family planning" centres in India or the increasingly restricted availability of abortion in the USA, the result is the same; women do not have the right to control their own bodies. This came out clearly throughout the conference, as will be seen from the workshop reports and related articles in this Bulletin.
In addition, contrary to feelings in some quarters that feminism is losing its force or political focus, this meeting demonstrated how truly international and forceful
the women's movement is. At every workshop issues of sexism, racism and imperialism affecting women and their health were brought up. There was ample exchange
of what groups are doing in developing alternatives.
There were, of course, dissimilarities in the situation of different countries, yet this only helped to increase participants' understanding of women's situation from an international perspective. The warm feeling of solidarity which characterized the meeting enabled the expression of both emotions and theoretical considerations. Naturally the three days were not long enough for discussion on every pertinent subject or even for workshop discussions to gain the depth participants would have liked. Other meetings will be needed. One of the forthcoming tasks of the women and health movement, as we of the present organising committee see it, will be to work out a feminist theory and strategy to deal with even broader issues affecting women and their health, such as ecology and nuclear power. As is true of so many issues — although perhaps especially clear here — tomorrow's world will be made by women, or it will not BE at all.
Third International Women and Health Meeting des Femmes
Helene Bregani, Jane Cottingham, Rosangela Gramoni, Dina Leveille, Rina Nissim, Patricia Schulz.
countries represented
Algeria Colombia Germany Mauritius Puerto Rico
Austria Costa Rica Greece Morocco Senegal
Australia Netherlands Denmark India South Africa
Bangladesh Dominican Republic Indonesia New Zealand Sweden
Belgium England Italy Pakistan Switzerland
Brazil Ethiopia Ivory Coast Peru USA
Canada France Kenya Philippines Zimbabwe