Awards

• Winner of Winner, 2023 Andrew Price-Smith Book Prize, Global Health Studies Section, International Studies Association.

Overview

When Zika made headlines in 2016, images of women cradling babies affected with microcephaly spread across the media and pulled on heartstrings. But, as this book argues, whilst this outbreak was about women and babies, this outbreak also highlighted the lack of gendered considerations in global health security. The policy response to Zika focused on limiting the spread of the virus through domestic and civic cleaning to remove mosquitoes and by asking women to defer pregnancy. Both of these actions are inherently gendered, placing the burden of responsibility for stemming the spread of disease on women. By taking Zika as its primary case but also touching on COVID-19, Feminist Global Health Security asks what the policy response to disease outbreaks tell us about the role of women in global health security. More broadly, what would global health policy look like if it were to take gender seriously, and how would this impact global disease control? Beyond raising questions of gender equity, Clare Wenham also considers global health security's lack of consideration for sustainability in epidemic preparedness and response. Wenham argues that global health security in general has thus far lacked a substantive feminist engagement, with the result that the very policies created to manage an outbreak of disease disproportionately fail to protect women. We know that women have biological pre-disposition and social vulnerability to contracting a number of infectious diseases, making them more susceptible to infection. Yet, the dominant gender-blind policy narrative of global health security has created pathways which focus on protecting the international spread of disease and state economies, rather than protecting those who are most likely to be affected. As such, the state-based structure of global health security provides the fault line for global health security's failure to engage women. This book highlights the ways in which women are disadvantaged by global health security policy, through engagement with feminist international relations concepts of visibility, social and stratified reproduction, intersectionality, and structural violence. Wenham argues that it was no coincidence that poor, Black women living in low-quality housing were the most affected by the Zika outbreak and will continue to be so amid all epidemics, until meaningful engagement with gender is incorporated into global health security. As many news reports have made clear during COVID, there has been a recent sea change in thinking about the secondary effects of infectious disease control policy on women. However, we have yet to see this reflected in global health policy.

Full Product Details

9780197556931

Table of Contents

Reviews

Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * B. A. D'Anna, SUNY Delhi, CHOICE * Outstanding and original. Wenham provides a meticulous, detail-rich study of a health emergency outbreak. This is the feminist inquiry into national, regional, and international responses to health emergencies. Wenham asks the critical question: for who is the phrase 'global health security' invoked? The answer is confronting but the final message is hopeful. A timely book. An essential read. * Sara E. Davies, Professor of International Relations, Griffith University, Australia * How can it be that global efforts to respond to epidemics still remain so blind to their gendered impacts? Clare Wenham begins to dissect and unravel this glaring injustice with immense scholarly rigor, care, and compassion. Her critique of global health security is a fresh, incisive, and ever so vital book for everyone in the field—now more than ever. * Stefan Elbe, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex * Epidemics and illness are not gender-neutral, but how we respond to them is frequently gender-blind. In this groundbreaking and insightful book, Clare Wenham uses a feminist analysis of global health security narratives and responses to lay bare the inequitable impact of epidemics (and pandemics) on women's lives, health, and wellbeing. The lessons from her analysis are relevant across the global health spectrum; Wenham shows us that gender matters. * Sarah Hawkes, Professor of Global Public Health, University College London * Clare Wenham is a rising star in global health politics whose work on gender, feminism, and global health security is path-breaking and inspiring. Her writing style is clear and accessible, and she combines theoretical sophistication with data-driven empirical research from Brazil. In this book, Clare turns the emphasis on gender in global health from representation (are women involved in decisions?) to the impact of global health security on women's lives. This is incredibly timely given the disproportionate impact the current COVID-19 pandemic has had on women in terms of unemployment, childcare responsibilities, and poverty across the world. Clare's book is a must-read for global health students, researchers, and policy-makers trying to ensure that the gendered impact of outbreaks, and their responses, are appropriately and fully considered. * Devi, Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health, University of Edinburgh *

Outstanding and original. Wenham provides a meticulous, detail-rich study of a health emergency outbreak. This is the feminist inquiry into national, regional, and international responses to health emergencies. Wenham asks the critical question: for who is the phrase 'global health security' invoked? The answer is confronting but the final message is hopeful. A timely book. An essential read. -- Sara E. Davies, Professor of International Relations, Griffith University, Australia How can it be that global efforts to respond to epidemics still remain so blind to their gendered impacts? Clare Wenham begins to dissect and unravel this glaring injustice with immense scholarly rigor, care, and compassion. Her critique of global health security is a fresh, incisive, and ever so vital book for everyone in the fieldnow more than ever. -- Stefan Elbe, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex Epidemics and illness are not gender-neutral, but how we respond to them is frequently gender-blind. In this groundbreaking and insightful book, Clare Wenham uses a feminist analysis of global health security narratives and responses to lay bare the inequitable impact of epidemics (and pandemics) on women's lives, health, and wellbeing. The lessons from her analysis are relevant across the global health spectrum; Wenham shows us that gender matters. -- Sarah Hawkes, Professor of Global Public Health, University College London Clare Wenham is a rising star in global health politics whose work on gender, feminism, and global health security is path-breaking and inspiring. Her writing style is clear and accessible, and she combines theoretical sophistication with data-driven empirical research from Brazil. In this book, Clare turns the emphasis on gender in global health from representation (are women involved in decisions?) to the impact of global health security on women's lives. This is incredibly timely given the disproportionate impact the current COVID-19 pandemic has had on women in terms of unemployment, childcare responsibilities, and poverty across the world. Clare's book is a must-read for global health students, researchers, and policy-makers trying to ensure that the gendered impact of outbreaks, and their responses, are appropriately and fully considered. -- Devi, Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health, University of Edinburgh

Author Information

Clare Wenham is Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She specializes in global health security and the politics and policy of pandemic preparedness and outbreak response, through analysis of influenza, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19. Her work has been featured in The Lancet, BMJ, Security Dialogue, International Affairs, BMJ Global Health and Third World Quarterly.

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