Book review of Gita Sen, Asha George and Piroska Osltin (Eds.) Engendering International Health: The Challenge of Equity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002 $24.95 papercover

Wilkinson, Deborah Schild

English

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The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 31 Issue 1 March - Special Issue on Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation Article 17 March 2004 Review of Engendering International Health: The Challenge of Equity. Gita Sen, Asha George and Piroska Osltin (Eds.). Reviewed by Deborah Schild Wilkinson. Deborah Schild Wilkinson University of Michigan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw  Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Wilkinson, Deborah Schild (2004) "Review of Engendering International Health: The Challenge of Equity. Gita Sen, Asha George and Piroska Osltin (Eds.). Reviewed by Deborah Schild Wilkinson.," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 31 : Iss. 1 , Article 17. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol31/iss1/17 This Book Review is brought to you by the Western Michigan University School of Social Work. For more information, please contact wmu-scholarworks@wmich.edu. Book Reviews 227whether faith-based social work programs should be requiredto comply with nondiscrimination standards if they violate thebeliefs of those institutions? The debate's context refers to somealleged practices of faith-based schools that may not tolerate gayand lesbian lifestyles. Karen E. Gerdes and Elizabeth A. Segalidentify some legal difficulties in imposing any standard regard-ing sexual orientation but argue that every program should teachand model nondiscrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gender (LGBT) people. Lawrence E. Ressler disagrees and main-tains that the CSWE standard on nondiscrimination is legallyand ethically flawed and should not be applied to all institutionsequally.A valuable feature of this book is the "Editor's Note" at thebeginning of each debate, which serves as a thumbnail sketch in-troducing each selection. Controversial Issues in Social Policy will nodoubt be very useful as a text in both undergraduate and graduatesocial work policy classes. While as a collection of contemporarysocial policy debates it is quite extensive, by no means should thebook be treated as exhaustive. Its additional strength lies in itsstyle of presentation. The presentation of topics as controversies,as the authors argue, "is the essence of intellectual discourse"and I believe that we should make the best and most effective useof this critical discourse in our educational process as well as inprofessional forums.Mizanur R. MiahSouthern Illinois University CarbondaleGita Sen, Asha George and Piroska Osltin (Eds.) EngenderingInternational Health: The Challenge of Equity. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, 2002 $24.95 papercover.For at least the last twenty years, health theorists have em-ployed social epidemiology to better understand the distributionof health and illness among various populations. Most of theresearch in this area has concentrated on three main factors, races,sex and income, a set of variables that have sometimes beencalled the 'Holy Trinity' of social epidemiology. Data about thesevariables are readily available, and each has been shown to have228 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfarea significant impact on health status. The editors of EngenderingInternational Health: The Challenge of Equity, and the numerousauthors who contributed to the book argue that to more fullycomprehend the distribution of health and illness, one needs toinclude not only sex, but also gender in one's analysis. Theyposit that these two variables, biologically determined sex, andsocially defined gender, have significant impact on health status,especially through social roles that delimit how women and menbehave, work, and reproduce.The book begins with an excellent introduction to the themesof the text. The editors of the text lay the groundwork in thischapter for the rest of the book. Sex and gender are clearly dif-ferentiated, and the various pitfalls and difficulties of separatingtheir unique impacts on health are discussed fully. They provide aclear explanation of why and how gender has been largely over-looked in social epidemiological studies of health status. Theyalso examine the importance of the intersections among race,age, income status (in particular poverty) and gender. This singlechapter provides an essential framework for including genderin health study. The remainder of the book is divided into twosections: key health area, and health research and policy. Thehealth areas included are communicable diseases; work and itseffects on health; reproductive health; violence against women;mental health; hip fracture; and, health and the environment. Theresearch and policy section includes two chapters on gender, raceand class--one examining these issues in the United States andthe other in India. The remaining chapters in this section are onpolicy environments, health status measures and health sectorreform.Each of the key health area chapters follows the same format.They begin with a description of the issue, its distribution invarious populations, a gender analysis, and end with discussionsof research and policy needs to further address the areas. Thepolicy chapters do not follow a specific format, although eachdescribes its subject and then includes a careful gender analysisrelated to its specific focus.This is a strong book with few, but at least one notable weak-nesses. The content is meaningful and the focus on internationalBook Reviews 229health provides opportunities to compare developed and de-veloping nations with regard to both their population healthstatus and the different gender roles and its impact. Althoughthe primary focus is on women's health, the impact of genderroles on men's health is not overlooked. What is omitted is ananalysis of the impact of sexual orientation/identity on health.This is surprising given that the effects on health of a person'ssexual orientation/identity are equally as socially grounded asare the effects of gender, and in some person's definitions sexualorientation is part of gender identity.The policy section of the text is not as strong as are the healtharea chapters. There is some considerable redundancy in thecontent, especially with regard to discussion of measures. Thechapter on measures is clear and complete, and the inclusion offurther analysis of those measures in other chapters is not needed.The final chapter focuses on health sector policy reform, but islocated fully in developing countries. Important as this is, thoseof us searching for health sector reform in the United States mayfind ourselves frustrated by the lack of discussion of this mostpressing issue.Except in a course on women's health, this book may bedifficult to use as a text. In addition to the obvious limitationof the primary focus on gender, its organization of covering bothhealth areas in a theoretical perspective, followed by policy issuesmay make it difficult to locate in a single class. I may use some ofthis text in the course that I teach on the behavioral, psychosocialand environmental aspects on health and illness. I would, how-ever, probably not use the entire text. The introductory chapterprovides the necessary framework for expanding the discussionof social epidemiology to include gender (and in my teaching,to include sexual orientation, as well). I would suggest that stu-dents read health area chapters that inform research for their forthe various class assignments, however, I would be somewhatreluctant to use the policy segments of the text-mostly becausethey do not fit with the course. In contrast, I might want to assignat least a few of the chapters for reading in my health policyclass, especially the ones related to measurement and policy en-vironments. Regardless of whether it is used as a primary text, a230 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfaresecondary one, or to provide background for preparing classes,as a university professor, I find this a valuable book and suggestthat others teaching health courses will find it so.Deborah Schild WilkinsonUniversity of MichiganVan Wormer, Katherine and Davis, Diane Rae, Addiction TreatmentA Strength's Perspective, Pacific Grove, CA: Thomson BrooksCole, 2003. $ 51.92 papercover.In this recently published work, Katherine van Wormer, Pro-fessor of Social Work, University of Northern Iowa and Diane RaeDavis, Associate Professor of Social Work, Eastern WashingtonUniversity offer their readers an exhaustive and comprehensiveCook's tour of the why's, wherefores and whereby's of addictiontreatment from a strengths (including but not limited to socialwork) perspective. The book is a must read for social workers andother allied health and substance abuse treatment professionalsand provides refreshing and insightful vignettes and anecdotesfrom both authors' professional and personal lives. It is full ofhistory and facts, and the authors take the bio-psycho-social eco-logical framework very seriously in their effort to situate currentaddiction treatment in its appropriate context.The book is divided into four parts: Part I offers an Intro-duction which encompasses chapters on the nature of addiction,historical perspectives and strength's based helping strategieswhile Part II, on the biology of addiction, consists of two chapters;these deal respectively with substance misuse, dependence andthe body and interventions related to the biological nature ofsubstance abuse among Native Americans. Part III addresses thepsychology of addiction with chapters on addiction across thelifespan, eating disorders, gambling, shopping and other behav-ioral addictions and substance use with a coexisting disorderor disability. Part IV provides an overview of the social aspectsof addiction, including chapters on family risks and resiliencies,racial, ethnic and cultural issues, gender and sexual orientationdifferences, mutual help groups, and public policy.In short, the book is remarkably wide ranging and compre-hensive and if there are any downsides it may be that, for some

Review of \u3cem\u3eEngendering International Health: The Challenge of Equity.\u3c/em\u3e Gita Sen, Asha George and Piroska Osltin (Eds.). Reviewed by Deborah Schild Wilkinson.

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Review of \u3cem\u3eEngendering International Health: The Challenge of Equity.\u3c/em\u3e Gita Sen, Asha George and Piroska Osltin (Eds.). Reviewed by Deborah Schild Wilkinson.

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