Gender, Global Health, and Violence

Beyond the metaphorical use of healthy society as a normative goal of Peace Research (PR), there is little engagement in contemporary PR with questions of global health. Simultaneously, critical feminist approaches to the intersections of different forms of violence and health are rare in Global Health (GH) literature. Bringing together feminist PR and GH scholarships, this edited book aims to enrich both scholarly traditions. On the one hand, the book provides perspectives from PR that help us to understand better and analyse different forms of violence in the gendered realm of global health. On the other hand, the variety of empirical cases analysed in the chapters widens the horizons of PR, in its understanding of what it means to study violence, peace, and justice in everyday lives. The themes dealt in the chapters of the book vary from questions of reproductive health, to non-communicable (e.g. breast cancer) and communicable diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria), mental health, the relationship between religious beliefs and health, domestic violence, sex trafficking, and ageing and dementia.This text will help students and researchers alike navigate Global Health through a feminist lens.

This collection of essays edited by Tiina Vaittinen and Catia C. Confortini is packed with sophisticated insights that look beyond the usual securitisation lens. Through case studies and conceptual work, the book reveals the complexity and significance of the subject; it is highly recommended., One of the most important collections of essays on global health to be published in recent years. It makes at least three notable contributions. First, it shifts the focus towards concrete violences and experiences of vulnerability, bringing fresh insights to a field of studies where macro-level analyses and the voices of the powerful are often prevalent. Second, the volume shows the crucial importance of seeing violence in global health as gendered, demonstrating that the future of the global health literature must also be feminist. Finally, the volume's engagement with the (rich but long-neglected) body of work in Peace Research is a watershed that, I think, will shape the trajectory of global health scholarship., This volume brings together a wide variety of diverse voices and leading scholars to shine a light on a woefully-understudied subject. Mixing keen theoretical insights with incredible empirical richness, these chapters illuminate why global health—and international relations more broadly—needs to take questions of gender and violence much more seriously. This will be an invaluable resource for scholars and practitioners.

Tiina Vaittinen is a PhD Candidate at the University of Tampere, Finland.Cata Confortini is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of Peace and Justice Studies at Wellesley College, USA.