Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore consider the interface between the social institutions of gender and Western medicine in this brief, lively textbook. They offer a distinct feminist viewpoint to analyze issues of power and politics concerning physical illness. SIGNS labeled the first edition 'a rich and imaginative work.' In the extensively revised second edition of this successful text, the authors add chapters on disability and genital surgeries. They also update and expand their discussions of social epidemiology, AIDS, the health professions, PMS, menopause, and feminist health care. For a creative, feminist-oriented alternative to traditional texts on medical sociology, medical anthropology, and the history of medicine, this is an ideal choice.

By Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore

Chapter 1: Gender and the Social Construction of Illness: Overview
Chapter 2: Women Get Sicker, but Men Die Quicker: Social Epidemiology
Chapter 3: Hierarchies in Health Care: Patients, Professionals, and Gender
Chapter 4: Gender and Disability: Contradictions and Status Dilemmas
Chapter 5: If a Situation is Defined as Real: Premenstrual Syndrome and Menopause
Chapter 6: Genital Surgeries: Gendering Bodies
Chapter 7: A Modern Plague: Gender and Aids
Chapter 8: Healing Social Bodies in Social Worlds: Feminist Healthcare