Women and Health: Women's Dual Roles as Both Recipients and Providers of Healthcare

Abstract

With the many economic, demographic, social and epidemiological global transitions, a Harvard-Penn-Lancet commission reviewed the current health status of women and its relationship to sustainability, and redefined the field as women and health. Four major recommendations were offered, insuring mechanisms to count women properly as providers and recipients of care, to value them by insuring protective policies, to treat and compensate them fairly and equitably, and to develop strategies to be accountable for sustaining and implementing the recommendations. However, without a life span approach to women, and their health, and without universal access to comprehensive health care, women's wellbeing and abilities to function up to their full capacities will be compromised. These recommendations have many implications for health care, education and practice.