Review by Choice Review
A mostly readable and persuasive compilation of essays, this book is packed with statistical summaries and recommendations for improving the health care of minority women and children in the US. Current proposals in Congress are aimed at severely cutting financial assistance to these poor women and children. This book documents the limited access to health care for women of color as a result of race, class, gender, and culture. Western medicine based on the biomedical model has not served African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, nor Latina women well. These essays clarify the important connections between poor health and social problems such as violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, unemployment, poverty, and lack of health insurance. Poor women of color need to enhance their capacity for family planning, job training, child care, drug treatment, and marketable skills. Western medicine needs minority primary-care physicians with an appreciation of cultural factors that contribute to the negative health status of the four diverse groups discussed. Extensive references; charts/graphs comparing white and nonwhite women by employment, income, insurance, education, death rates, abuse, etc.; helpful subject index. Recommended for health policy collections. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. E. R. Paterson SUNY College at Cortland
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
