A Twenty-First-Century Agenda

Shari Dworkin, Monica Gandhi,Paige Passano, Editors

What is women's empowerment, and how and why does it matter for women's health? These are questions that the University of California Global Health Institute's (UCGHI) Center of Expertise (COE) on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment aimed to answer with this book. Since 2009, the COE (Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment) has brought together a multidisciplinary network of experts from across the University of California campuses and departments, along with their global partners, to advance research and education on what has become a capstone theme in the global health and development agenda: women's and girls' empowerment and health.

Women's Empowerment and Global Health is one of the COE's signature products, which aims to advance pedagogy and present the work of thought leaders in this domain. Despite the rise of a human rights-based approach to health and increasing awareness of the synergies between women's health and empowerment, a lack of consensus remains as to how to operationalize empowerment in ways that improve health. Women's Empowerment and Global Health presents thirteen multidisciplinary case studies that demonstrate how science and advocacy can be creatively merged to enhance the agency and status of girls and women.

The book is organized into two sections, the first focused on sociocultural, educational, and health systems interventions, and the second on economic, policy, and structural interventions. Seven of the chapters are enriched by complementary videos that provide readers with context about programs in India, Kenya, the United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

Women's Empowerment and Global Health provides the next generation of researchers and practitioners, as well as students in global and public health, sociology, anthropology, women's studies, law, business, and medicine, with cutting-edge and inspirational examples of programs that point the way toward achieving women's equality and the positive outcome of empowerment on health.

For more information and to purchase the book, visit the UC Press website.

Authors

Chapter authors include representatives and grantees from world-renowned organizations working at the intersection of women's health, gender, and empowerment, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CARE International, Department for International Development, GirlHub, National Institute of Health's Fogarty International Center, Nike Foundation, Packard Foundation, Population Council, Public Health Foundation of India, Sonke Gender Justice, and UNICEF.

Lead Editors

Shari L. Dworkin is professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, and co-founder and former deputy director of the UCGHI Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment.
Monica Gandhi is professor of medicine and an infectious diseases doctor in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and former co-chair of knowledge dissemination of the Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment.
Paige Passano is director of the Sahel Leadership Program of OASIS Initiative, a project of the Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability and the College of Natural Resources, both based at University of California Berkeley, in partnership with Venture Strategies for Health and Development, and former chair of knowledge dissemination of the Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment.

Section Editors

Shelley Grabe is associate professor in social psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with affiliations in feminist studies and Latin American and Latino studies, and campus ambassador for the Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment.

Lara Stemple is the director of graduate studies and the director of the Health and Human Rights Law Project at UCLA School of Law, and Co-Founder and former deputy director of the Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment.

Dallas Swendeman is assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine, and co-director of the Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment from 2016 to the present.

Paula Tavrow is associate professor and director of the Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and co-founder and former co-director of the Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment.

Joanna Weinberg is senior lecturer in law at Hastings College of the Law and associate adjunct professor of law, policy, and ethics at the Institute for Health and Aging, University of California, San Francisco.

Sheri Weiser is associate professor of medicine and doctor in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and former co-chair of research of the Center of Expertise on Women's Health, Gender, and Empowerment.