WHO WE ARE?
The purpose of Women's Health and Education Center (WHEC) is to support and improve the educational opportunities and general health of women and particularly women of the developing countries. Women's health and status is a very complex and challenging issue for the developing and industrialized countries both. Women face enormous obstacles -- prejudice, ostracism, domestic violence, poverty, hunger and virtually no access to medical care and life saving medicines. The Women's Health and Education Center is dedicated to women's health and well being worldwide. Its web site, WomensHealthSection.com is for educational purposes, between USA and developing countries of: Mutual Benefit and Mutual Respect. We support and help projects / programs in women's health, education and research. We believe: On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure.
Each year more than 500, 000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth and less than 10 million children die before their fifth birthday- nearly 40% of these in the first month of life. But evidence shows that at least 6 million of these lives can be saved each year with proven, cost-effective interventions.
Our Vision: A world where all women and children receive the care they need to live healthy, productive lives.
Our Goal: To invest in, deliver and advance maternal, newborn and child health, and thereby put 50% of the 60 high-burden countries "on track" to achieve MDGs 4 and 5 in 5 years.
WHAT WE DO?
Women's Health and Education Center (WHEC) advocates gender equality in health and education for women and girls around the world. WHEC brings attention to the ways in which biological and socio-cultural factors affect the health of women and men, boys and girls. WHEC aims to increase knowledge and strengthen the health sector response by gathering evidence, strengthening capacity and engaging in advocacy on how gender and gender inequality affect health.
WHEC focuses on the ways that gender, as a social construction, affects the health of both men and women. But we also realize that gender inequality has a higher toll on women's health due to the discrimination they face in nearly every culture. Gender inequality exacerbates the harmful effects of poverty and lack of education on women's health, hampering the ability of millions of women worldwide to access health care and achieve the best possible level of health.
WomensHealthSection.com educates health care professionals about conditions that are exclusive to women, more prevalent in women, or are diagnosed or treated differently in women versus men. This publication presents unbiased, comprehensive, concise, and clinically relevant review articles and practical sections. The articles are peer reviewed to maintain the highest quality and to verify clinical relevance, medical accuracy, and clarity of presentation. The most insightful and thought-provoking articles are now available in a single portal. All WHEC Practice Bulletins are reviewed 18 to 24 months after publication and are revised, reaffirmed, or withdrawn.
WHY GENDER AND HEALTH?
Both gender differences and gender inequalities can give rise to inequities between men and women in health status and access to health care. For example:
- A woman cannot receive needed health services because norms in her community prevent her from travelling alone to a clinic.
- A teenage boy dies in an accident because of trying to live up to peers' expectations that young men should be "bold" risk-takers.
- A married woman contracts HIV because societal standards encourage her husband's promiscuity while simultaneously preventing her from insisting on condom use.
- A country's lung cancer mortality rate for men far outstrips the corresponding rate for women because smoking is considered an attractive marker of masculinity, while it is frowned upon as unfeminine in women.
In each of these cases, gender norms and values, and resulting behaviors, are negatively affecting health. In fact, the gender picture in a given time and place can be one of the major obstacles - sometimes the single most important obstacle - standing between men and women and the achievement of well-being. WHEC has produced a series of information pages on the relevance of gender to several specific health problems. Reading them over is a good way to begin to get a sense of the ways gender and health interact.
WomensHealthSection.com is a global, Web-enabled platform for multiple forms of collaboration. This platform enables individuals, groups, companies, and universities anywhere in the world to collaborate -- for the purposes of innovation, education, research and to advance the causes peace, health and development. We invite you to tap into this platform, and finally, the governance to get the best out of this platform.
Dedicated to Women's and Children's Well-being and Health Care Worldwide
www.womenshealthsection.com