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Article: Women's Health
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WOMEN'S HEALTH
WOMEN'S HEALTH.
Feminist health activism grew out of the women's liberation movement of the 1960s, which argued that ideas of female inferiority pervaded the gender-segregated health care system. In
The Feminist Mystique
(1963) Betty Friedan assailed physicians who proscribed addictive tranquilizers to dissatisfied suburban housewives; protesters at the 1968 Miss America pageant rejected stereotypical notions of femininity; and New York City's Redstockings and other radical feminists organized "speak-outs" to break society's silence about abortion and rape.
Women's physical and mental health was, feminists argued, best maintained outside the hospital and doctor's office, ...