ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews literature from divergent fields of research including discourses of poverty and health, social epidemiology, women's health, feminist theory, and feminist action research. It also reviews the dominant discourses of poverty and health in order to provide a broad landscape for locating poor women's experiences of health. The chapter then argues that adopting a social determinants perspective is most suitable for studying poor women's health. It contributes to conceptualizations of poor women's health and the ways that women on low income negotiate their day-to-day lives. The chapter explains the genesis and principles of feminist action research (FAR), how the use of FAR can elucidate and address poor women's health, and the ways that it is a viable research framework for the work of collective action. Social change can be envisioned as the outcome of deliberate individual and collective actions.
