Women's health movement in the United States

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The women's health movement (WHM, also feminist women's health movement) in the United States refers to the aspect of the American feminist movement that works to improve all aspects of women's health and healthcare. It began during the second wave of feminism as a sub-movement of the women's liberation movement. WHM activism involves increasing women's knowledge and control of their own bodies on a variety of subjects, such as fertility control and home remedies, as well as challenging traditional doctor-patient relationships, the medicalization of childbirth, misogyny in the health care system, and ensuring drug safety.

Notable organizations associated with the women's health movement include the Jane Collective, the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, the Feminist Abortion Network, the National Women's Health Network, the Black Women's Health Imperative and the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center. Other results of WHM activism are the creation of feminist health centers, the Dalkon Shield lawsuit, the DES daughters lawsuit, and the Nelson Pill Hearings, which resulted in the inclusion of medication package inserts to insure informed consent for women taking oral contraceptive pills. Notable books and media resulting from this movement include Women and Madness by Phyllis Chesler, Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm by Anne Koedt, and La Operación.

The WHM is unique from the abortion-rights movement in that the WHM has a wider scope of issues in relation to women and their health. The health clinics, groups, and activists of the WHM also advocate "nonprofessional caregivers, self-help, emphasis on alternative (nonprescription) remedies when possible, demystification of health information and providers, and clinic administration and control by nonprofessional women."^[1]