Unequal Treatment: What You Don't Know about How Women Are Mistreated by the Medical Community

In our traditionally male-dominated society women are accorded lower quality health care than men, shows this impressively documented volume by the coauthors of The Women's Encyclopedia of Health and Emotional Healing. Along with sexism in the medical profession and violence by anti-abortionists, the authors also deplore the lack of funding for health problems specific to women such as breast and uterine cancers. They also note the frequent exclusion of women from clinical studies of ailments common to both sexes, e.g., heart disease, AIDS, depression and age-related ailments like osteoporosis. While Congress, spurred by national publicity, now funds some research of women's health issues, the authors urge women to fight for their special health care needs in their doctors' offices, at their workplaces and in the voting booth. (May)