Overview

This provocative and moving work explores concepts of body and space to better understand the daily lives and struggles of women with chronic illness. Moss and Dyck show how such women—coping with associated notions of illness, health, and being female—restructure their physical and social environments through the strategies they choose to accommodate disabling illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis. Strategies might include disclosing or concealing illness from employers and friends; seeking or rejecting emotional support through old friends and new contacts; and pursuing or resisting specific diagnoses from the biomedical community. Featuring a wealth of original research and personal stories, Women, Body, Illness tells the tales of chronically ill women forging networks of support, redefining themselves, and challenging what it is to be ill.

Full Product Details

9780847695430

Table of Contents

Reviews

A unique and original book, Women, Body, Illness is the first attempt on this scale to synthesize women's health issues, feminist theory, spatial approaches, and work on the body. It is much needed and will fill a major gap in the literature on the geography of women's health.--Wilbert M. Gesler

This is an exciting book that proposes a radical body politics. The authors combine a critical analysis of women's health with rich empirical material to rethink our embodiment. Written in an imaginative and accessible way, this book makes an important contribution to feminist theory. -- Gill Valentine, University of Sheffield In that combination of scholarship and intimacy, this is a surprising book, a welcome and a needed book. Metapsychology A unique and original book, Women, Body, Illness is the first attempt on this scale to synthesize women's health issues, feminist theory, spatial approaches, and work on the body. It is much needed and will fill a major gap in the literature on the geography of women's health. -- Wilbert M. Gesler, University of North Carolina

Author Information

Pamela Moss is a feminist geographer in the faculty of human and social development at the University of Victoria. Isabel Dyck is a social geographer in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences and a faculty associate in women's studies at the University of British Columbia.

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