Author Description

Wings of Gauze is an anthology on health and illness as experienced by women of color in the United States. Written by community activists, health professionals, and scholars in the social sciences and humanities, the essays address the interconnections of psychological and physical health; ideas of traditional medicine among various minority groups; historical perspectives of culture as a factor in medicine; breast cancer; and health issues affected by federal and institutional policy: rape and domestic violence, reproductive rights, substance abuse, and sexually transmitted disease. Women of color, who make up a large number of the nation's poor, disproportionately face the pressing problems and consequences of infant mortality and poor pediatric care, drug and alcohol abuse, chronic disease, psychological stress, physical endangerment and homicide, and the likelihood that they will die at a younger age than whites. Minority women are also less likely to have personal physicians, to have quality health insurance coverage, or to be treated with respect and understanding in negotiating with health care institutions. However, many have as resources belief systems and traditions of caretaking, expertise, and mutual understanding that broaden dominant ways of perceiving well- or ill-being in the world. Thus their stories are about both oppression and empowerment, victimization as well as the strength to reshape and redefine. The emphasis in this collection is on changing perception, giving voice, and addressing the issues of racial discrimination. There is also discussion of solutions: ways to personal empowerment and better health; ways of changing outreach to more equitably instill the benefits of preventive education; ways of altering the structures of care offered through health institutions; and ways to think about self-help. With some notable exception's, recent feminist scholarship about women's health and the history of health care has focused primarily on the experiences of white middle-class women, and literature health professionals about people of color has emphasized illness rather than health, men rather than women, and African Americans to the exclusion of other peoples of color. Wings of Gauze is unique in that it considers the experiences of African-American, Native-American, Latina, and Southeast-Asian-American women and makes their perceptions the central reality. Testimony to the many layers of experience by women of color concerning health and illness, this book broadens our understanding of the connections that exist between those experiences and the health issues and cultural standpoints that frame them.