More than motherhood? A feminist exploration of ‘women's health’ in papers indexed by CINAHL 1993–1995

Holism is claimed to be the signifying feature that sets women's health apart from traditional approaches to health care. As such, articles published in the nursing literature about women's health would, one might expect, reflect the centrality of holism to women's health care nursing. The findings of a study which examined the content and the focus of articles published about women's health in journals indexed by CINAHL in the period 1993–1995 challenge this assumption. It was found that women's health is a taken-for-granted notion and is used interchangeably and synonymously to refer to reproductive health, maternal health, neonatal health, family health and (hetero)sexual health. Confounding the view that holism is foundational to a women's health perspective, the papers forming the study's sample largely depict issues to do with women's health from a narrow and stereotypical perspective and with a bio-medical focus. Women were referred to as fragmented bodies, body parts and diseases, and were depicted as being passive and silent. By contrast, the voice (and the activity) of nurses and nursing's imperative to intervene was clearly discernible.