Gender and Health – Global Feminisms Project

Gender and Health

Teresa Akintonwa :

Teresa Akintonwa

Teresa Tindle Akintonwa, born in 1976, has been an Educator for over 25 years with extensive experience in Instruction and Corporate Training. Since becoming a Long Hauler after her initial covid infection in February 2020 she founded the Black Covid-19 Survivors Alliance  which was first an online Patient-support group. It has since evolved into  activism and advocacy aimed at helping African-Americans overcome the misinformation and social stigma of CoVid and Medical Research involvement. As President of Black CoVid Survivors Alliance she now collaborates with various organizations to increase Health Equity through Health Coaching, research participant recruitment, and DEI advisement to Research organizations.

Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, gender and health, racial identity

Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Adrienne Asch : 1948-2013

Adrienne Asch

1948-2013

Adrienne Asch (1948-2013) was an author and an internationally known bioethicist. At the time of her death, she was director of the Center for Ethics and the Edward and Robin professor of biotethics at Yeshiva University in Manhattan. She was also professor of epidemiology and population health at Yeshiva. Adrienne was a long-time member of the board of directors of the American Society for Bioethics in Humanities and served on the Clinton Task Force on Healthcare Reform and the Ethnical, Legal, and Social Implications Policy Planning Group of the National Human Genome Research Institute. The GFP staff note with sadness Adrienne's death in 2013. Read the NYT obituary to learn more about her pioneering work in disability rights.
Keywords: gender and health, disability rights, reproductive rights
Media: Transcript (English), VideoBibliographyYouTube VideoName Pronunciation Audio

Grace Lee Boggs : 1915-2015

Grace Lee Boggs

1915-2015

Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015) was an activist and writer. A daughter of Chinese immigrants, she moved to Detroit and worked in grassroots projects together with her partner, James Boggs. They founded Detroit Summer, an intergenerational multicultural youth movement, and wrote in the Michigan Citizen newspaper. She published her autobiography, Living for Change, and among others, received the distinguished Alumna Award from Barnard College, the Chinese American Pioneers Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans, and a lifetime achievement award from the Anti-Defamation League. A plaque in her honor is at the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY. The GFP staff were saddened by Grace's death in 2015. Read the NYT obituary to learn more about her remarkable life, spanning a full century, as a human rights activist.
Keywords: gender and health, community activism, education, intersectionality, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English), VideoBibliographyYouTube VideoName Pronunciation Audio

Barbara Brookes :

Barbara Brookes

Barbara Brookes is a New Zealand historian and academic who specialises in women's history and medical history. She completed a bachelor's degree with honours at the University of Otago in 1976, then won a scholarship to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where she completed both her master's (1978) and doctoral (1982) degrees. Her PhD thesis topic was Abortion in England during the inter-war period (1918-1939), published as Abortion in England, 1900-1967 (Croom Helm, 1988; Routledge, 2012). After graduating from Bryn Mawr she returned to Aotearoa/New Zealand to complete post-doctoral studies at University of Otago and was offered a position in the university's Department of History in 1983 where she remained until her retirement in June 2020.   

In 1986, Brookes and her colleague, Dorothy Page introduced the first honours-level women's history course in New Zealand. In 2004, she became head of the Department of History and guided the amalgamation of the department with the art history department to form the Department of History and Art History. She has authored or edited thirteen books. Her A History of New Zealand Women (2016; Bridget Williams Books https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/a-history-of-new-zealand-women/), won the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Award (Illustrated Non-Fiction category). Her most recent book, co-edited with James Dunk, is Knowledge Making: Historians, Archives and Bureaucracy (Routledge, 2020).  

In 2022, Brookes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. As professor emerita, she continues to pursue her research concerning gender relations in New Zealand, and the history of health and disease in New Zealand and Britain. 

Keywords: academia and women's studies, education, gender and health

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

 

Bertha Inés Cabrales :

Bertha Inés Cabrales

Bertha Inés Cabrales was born in 1943 and joined the Sandinista Front during college and in the late 1970s was sent to Sweden to organize Solidarity events in Europe. She was active in the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women and at last contact was head of the Collectivo de Mujeres Itza, an organization that provides sexual and reproductive health counseling as well as legal assistance for victims of gender-based violence.
Keywords: gender and health, media, gender-based violence, reproductive rights, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (EnglishSpanish), Video (EnglishSpanish), Bibliography, YouTube Video (English, SpanishName Pronunciation Audio

Valentina Coletta :

Valentina Coletta

Valentina Coletta was born in Campania, a region of Naples in 1985. She identifies as trans and intersex. She graduated with a degree in psychology from a university in Rome. She works with the Transsexual Identity Movement (MIT) to fight for transgender rights, including with migrants. 

Keywords: gender and health, LGBTQ+ rights, reform of domestic/family roles, politics and the law

Media: Transcript (Italian, English), YouTube Video (Italian, English Subtitles)

Sandra Coney :

Sandra Coney

Sandra Coney is a feminist, women’s health advocate, writer, environmentalist, and local body politician. She was one of the founders of Broadstreet feminist magazine and the advocacy group Women’s Health Action. In 1987, with Phillida Bunkle, she wrote the Metro magazine article ‘An Unfortunate Experiment at National Women’s’ that led to the Cervical Cancer Inquiry (also known as the Cartwright Inquiry) in 1987-88 and, subsequently, to significant reforms in health consumers’ rights. She wrote a regular column of political and social comment for New Zealand newspaper the Sunday-Times between 1986 and 2002, and has won both the Qantas Senior Feature Writers’ Award and the Jubilee Prize for Investigative Journalism. Sandra has written or edited over 18 books, including the major Suffrage Centennial publication Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote (1993), and Stroppy Sheilas and Gutsy Girls: New Zealand Women of Dash and Daring (2004). Since 2001 she has been a councillor and board member in Auckland local government, serving on the Waitematā District Health Board for 10 years, and currently on the Waitākere Ranges Local Board; her particular interest is centered on parks and the environment. 

Keywords: community activism, gender and health, intersectionality

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

JD Davids :

JD Davids

JD Davids, born in 1967, is a US-based health justice and communications strategist working with national networks of disabled and chronically ill people. He co-founded Strategies for High Impact and its Network for Long COVID Justice in 2021. Davids has been an external expert advisor to the NIH, CDC, and local health departments, and has served as a strategist and organizer with many pivotal groups, including ACT UP Philadelphia, AVAC, the Coalition for a National HIV/AIDS Strategy, Health GAP, the Health Not Prisons Collective, the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance, Positive Women’s Network – USA and the U.S. Caucus of People Living with HIV. As a queer and trans person living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), Long COVID and other complex chronic conditions, he writes and hosts conversations for The Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic Illness (@TheCrankyQueer), sits on the board of #MEAction and is a contributing member of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, which released the first comprehensive study on Long COVID. 

Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, disability rights, gender and health, international rights

Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Violeta Delgado :

Violeta Delgado

Violeta Delgado was born in 1969, participating in the National Literacy Campaign when she was just 11 years old, kicking off a lifetime of political participation and activism. She became involved in a campaign to end domestic violence. She has done consulting, run for the National Assembly, and now works with CINCO - an organization that researches the media's role in society and politics. In 2005, Delgado was part of the group of 1000 Peacewomen that was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender and health, education, gender-based violence, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (EnglishSpanish), Video (EnglishSpanish), Bibliography, YouTube Video (English, Spanish) Name Pronunciation Audio

Jarjum Ete :

Jarjum Ete

Jarjum Ete, born in 1963, belongs to the Galo tribe and is the Chairperson of the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission on Women which discusses women's participation in panchayats, customary laws, need for a state women's commission and anti-liquor laws. She has very strong views on legalisation of prostitution.
Keywords: gender and health, community activism, gender-based violence, sex work, intersectionality, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English), VideoBibliographyYouTube VideoName Pronunciation Audio

Gao Xiaoxian :

Gao Xiaoxian

Gao Xiaoxian, born in 1948, is Secretary General of the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family. Working as an official in the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Federation, Gao has been a pivotal figure in establishing this influential non-governmental women's organization, and has also been involved in rural development projects.
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender and health, academia and women's studies, education, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (EnglishMandarin), Video (EnglishMandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio

Ngozi Iwere :

Ngozi Iwere

Ngozi Iwere, born in 1956, has pursued work in language teaching, journalism and communications, but describes herself as primarily an activist. Through her contributions to the United Nations Expert Strategy Meeting on HIV/AIDS and Gender preparatory to the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, the Expert Strategy Meeting on HIV/AIDS as a security issue, and UNAIDS Consultative Meeting on Communication for Social Change, she played key roles at the national and global levels in shaping policies on HIV/AIDS. She developed a model program for HIV/AIDS Prevention that targets and involves the entire community, which earned her an Ashoka Fellowship.

Keywordscommunity activism, gender and health, reform of domestic/family roles, feminist conferences

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Marian Kramer :

Marian Kramer

Marian Kramer (interviewed with Maureen Taylor) at last contact was the co-chair of the National Welfare Rights Union. She has fought government programs, such as Workfare, defended poor women against unjust persecution for welfare fraud and led campaigns to elect the victims of poverty to political office. She has organized poor people's movements, housing takeovers by people without homes, and led efforts to unionize in the South. She has received many community service awards and mentors college students fighting poverty.  Taylor and Kramer spoke at a rally in Detroit, Michigan in June 2020, and a video of their speech recorded by the group Detroit Will Breathe can be found here.
Keywords: gender and health, media, community activism, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English), VideoBibliographyYouTube VideoName Pronunciation Audio

Matilde Lindo :

Matilde Lindo

Matilde Lindo (1954-2013) was a feminist leader, teacher, sociologist and activist who focused on issues of violence and discrimination against women and racial discrimination within Nicaragua. She was a proud representative of the black population from the Rosita Mines region. She helped to start a radio program that aimed to raise awareness about violence against women as a violation of women's rights and lead the Network of Women Against Violence during the later years of her life. The GFP staff note with sadness the death of Matilde in 2013. A public obituary celebrating her life and detailing her dedication to women's rights can be found here (Spanish).
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender and health, education, intersectionality
Media: Transcript (English), VideoBibliographyYouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Fiona Lowenstein :

Fiona Lowenstein

Fiona Lowenstein, born in 1993, is an award-winning independent journalist, producer, and speaker, covering health justice, wellness culture, LGBTQ+ issues and more. Their work has appeared in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Vox, The Guardian, and Business Insider, among other publications. Fiona is the founder of Body Politic – home of the original Long COVID support group. They are also the editor of the recently published anthology, THE LONG COVID SURVIVAL GUIDE, out November 2022 from The Experiment. Photo credit: JJ Geiger

Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, disability rights, gender and health, intersectionality, media

Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Dr. Mairo Usman Mandara :

Dr. Mairo Usman Mandara

Dr. Mairo Usman Mandara was born on June 5, 1965, in Bukuru, just outside of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, Nigeria. She first attended primary school in Bukuru and continued her post-secondary education at the University of Jos. There she studied medicine, specifically women’s health issues, an interest that expanded to include the socio-economic issues associated with women’s health such as VVF (vesico-vaginal fistula), e.g., early marriage and stunting due to malnutrition. Her work as an obstetric-gynaecologist led to a broader feminist concern with girl-child education, the founding of the Federation of Muslim Women of Nigeria (FOMWAN), and with the NGO, Girl-Child Concerns. Between 2005 and 2010, Dr. Mandara was a Senior Country Adviser in Nigeria to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and more recently worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Country Representative to Nigeria. Her current activist and scholarly work reflect her belief in the importance of working with traditional political and religious leaders in encouraging parents to enable their daughters to complete their secondary school education.

Keywordsgender and health, reform of domestic/family roles, academia and women's studies, feminist conferences

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Reiko Masai :

Reiko Masai

Reiko Masai, founder and Executive Director of NPO Women’s Net Kobe, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, the first group in Japan to call attention to disaster-related gender-based violence and published reports documenting women’s experiences, including Women talk about the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (English translation available at https://wn-kobe.or.jp/bosai/eng/index.html). For over thirty years, Ms. Masai has worked to promote women’s rights and gender equality in Japan. In 2007, she launched Disaster & Gender Information Network, the first initiative of its kind in Japan, and co-founded Women's Network for East Japan Disaster in 2011 (http://risetogetherjp.org/?cat=46), also the first of its kind, advocating for more inclusive disaster response. For her tenacious activism, she has received numerous awards, including Kato Shizue Award in 2003 and the Champion of Change Japan Award from the Fish Family Foundation in 2018.   

Keywords: gender-based violence, community activism, gender and health

Media: Transcript (English, Japanese), YouTube Video (Japanese, English Subtitles)

Diana Martínez :

Diana Martínez

Diana Martínez was born in 1958, and became active in the Sandinista movement as a student, finishing high school in Guatemala and becoming a Marxist. After the Sandinista Revolution, she returned to Nicaragua and worked in the textile industry based on her belief in the importance of laborers, and in an effort to rid herself of her bourgeois past. She has been involved with feminist research in Nicaragua, and at last contact was a director at La Fem, a coffee cooperative for women in Estelí.
Keywords: gender and health, rural women and land reform, reproductive rights, academia and women's studies
Media: Transcript (EnglishSpanish), Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Lisa McCorkell :

Lisa McCorkell

Lisa McCorkell, MPP, born in 1992, is the co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC), a group of people with Long COVID who conduct research on Long COVID. She has presented PLRC's work to Congress, NIH, CDC, the President's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, and more, and has co-authored several research papers and chapters on Long COVID. She is a policy expert, with a background in social safety net, public health, labor policy, advocacy, writing, and research. She has a Masters of Public Policy from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA.

Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, gender and health

Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Sandra Ramos :

Sandra Ramos

Sandra Ramos was born in 1959 and is a leader in the Women's Rights Movement whose activism focuses on women workers in the maquila. She is a co-founder and director of Nicaragua's María Elena Cuadra Women's Movement, which provides scholarships for nontraditional jobs, has a small credit program for unemployed women, teaches women about their labor rights, and provides training for negotiation techniques.
Keywords: gender and health, gender-based violence, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (EnglishSpanish), Video (EnglishSpanish), BibliographyEnglish YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Natal’ia Mikhailovna Rimashevskaia :

Natal’ia Mikhailovna Rimashevskaia

Natal'ia Mikhailovna Rimashevskaia was born in 1932 in Moscow and is a professor at Moscow State University, and at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations. She helped to create the Laboratory on Issues of Gender at the Institute of Social and Economic Studies of the Population, where she worked until 2005. She is a member of the Russian Academy of Life Sciences and editor of Human Population magazine, and works on issues of demography. The GFP staff note with sadness Natal'ia's death in 2020.

Keywords: reform of domestic/family roles, gender and health
Media:
Transcript (English, Russian), Video, YouTube Video (English, Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio

Loretta Ross :

Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross, born in 1953, is an activist and was one of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center. She has served as director of the Women of Color Programs for the National Organization for Women, as national co-director of the March for Women's Lives in DC, and as National Program Research Director for the Center for Democratic Renewal. She founded the National Center for Human Rights Education and co-authored "Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice". She is a founding member and most currently a national coordinator of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. The New York Times published an article about Loretta Ross on November 19th, 2020, which can be found here. Congratulations to United States GFP interviewee Loretta Ross on being named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow!
Keywords: gender and health, feminist conferences, gender-based violence, intersectionality, reproductive rights
Media: Transcript (English), VideoBibliographyYouTube VideoName Pronunciation Audio

Maria de Fátima Lima Santos :

Maria de Fátima Lima Santos

Maria de Fátima Lima Santos, born in 1974, grew up in Aracaju in the northeast of Brazil. She is an anthropologist and an associate professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro where she teaches courses related to gender, health and community. Her scholarly and activist focus is on health care and understandings of health for the LGBT community.
Keywords: gender and health, LGBTQ rights, academia and women's studies
Media: Transcript (EnglishPortuguese), Video, YouTube Video (Portuguese, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio

Chimére L. Smith :

Chimére L. Smith

Suffering with the debilitating effects and symptoms of Covid-19 for nearly a year, Chimére L. Smith, born in 1982, has had to learn the hard knocks of advocacy in healthcare. While seeking treatment and care, she experienced racism, sexism, and dismissal by several medical professionals. Chimére boldly took matters into her own hands by challenging Baltimore hospitals for better, comprehensive treatment for herself and other Black Long Covid patients in urban communities. She is an author, speaker, highly-requested panelist, and thought leader who unapologetically shares her Long Covid journey — including balancing the effects of her disability emotionally, physically, and financially. Chimére Smith has been featured on CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, and in The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She has written for Huffington Post, Medium, The Long Covid Survival Guide, and She Knows.

Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, disability rights, gender and health, media

Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Maureen Taylor :

Maureen Taylor

Maureen Taylor (interviewed with Marian Kramer) is a social worker and community activist. She has served as chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights organization and was elected treasurer of the National Welfare Rights Union. She defends recipients of public aid at the Michigan Family Independence Agency in case disputes, and directs the Detroit NFI Community Self Sufficiency Center. She was awarded the National Community Leader Award from the National Black Caucus in Washington, DC. Taylor and Kramer spoke at a rally in Detroit, Michigan in June 2020, and a video of their speech recorded by the group Detroit Will Breathe can be found here.
Keywords: gender and health, media, community activism, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English), VideoBibliographyYouTube VideoName Pronunciation Audio

Wang Xingjuan :

Wang Xingjuan

Wang Xingjuan, born in 1931, was an editor at the Beijing Publishing House and started the first women's domestic violence hot line in China. This became the Maple Women's Counseling Center, one of the earliest women's NGOs in China. At the last contact, she was serving as the director.
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender and health, gender-based violence, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (EnglishMandarin), Video (EnglishMandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio

Etsuko Yahata :

Etsuko Yahata

Etsuko Yahata, founder and Executive Director of NPO Hearty Sendai, Sendai City Miyagi Prefecture (https://www.hearty-sendai.com/). She spearheaded grassroots initiatives to assist women affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Disaster, on top of running a domestic violence shelter and many assistance programs. Originally trained as a midwife, she has since worked over 30 years in fighting against gender-based violence and promoting reproductive health and justice, human rights, and nonviolence. In addition to serving as the Director of the Miyagi Regional Center of Yorisoi Hotline (a nation-wide free 24-hour telephone assistance program), she serves on the board of director of Sendai Gender Equal Opportunity Foundation, Child Line Miyagi, and many others.  

Keywords: community activism, gender and health, gender-based violence

Media: Transcript (English, Japanese), YouTube Video (Japanese, English Subtitles)

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