ABSTRACT
Gender issues are receiving increased attention on national and international health policy agendas. This reflects in part the health campaigns associated with ‘second wave’ feminism. In the 1970s activists in many of the developed countries launched campaigns to enhance the appropriateness and quality of services for women. Following the landmark UN conferences in Cairo (1994) and Beijing (1995), these goals were taken up by advocates in many different parts of the world. At the same time a new conceptual framework was developed for understanding the links between women, health and health care. In recent years both the campaigns and the analytic work have broadened with a shift from ‘women’ to ‘gender’ as the central focus of concern.
