Women's Studies 214:
Women, Reproduction and Health

Spring 2008 · Professor Charlene Galarneau

Contents:

• Find background information
• Find books
• Find scholarly journal articles
• Find articles in the alternative press
• Key websites
• Evaluating what you find

• Concise Medical Dictionary (Oxford)
• CQ Researcher - In-depth, unbiased background and analysis on timely political topics, 1923 to present
• Encyclopedia of Bioethics
• Encyclopedia of Population
• Encyclopedia of U.S. Biomedical Policy - Clapp Ref RA395.A3 E545 1996
• Encyclopedia of American Social Movements - Clapp Ref HN57 .E594 2004
• Health Care Policy and Politics A to Z - Clapp Ref RA395.A3 R685 2003
• Historical and Multicultural Encyclopedia of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States
• The New A to Z of Women's Health: A Concise Encyclopedia - Clapp Ref RA778 .A494 2000, Science Ref RA778 .A494 2000
• Portrait of Health in the United States - Science Ref q RA407.3 .P67 2001
• Praeger Handbook of Black American Health: Policies and issues behind disparities in health - Clapp Ref RA448.5.N4 H364 2004
• Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine - Science Ref q RA564.7 .P7545 2004
• Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Clapp Ref R121 .S8 2000, Science Ref R121 .S8 2000
• Women of Color Health Data Book

Guides and handbooks to women's health

• Handbook of Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health - Science Ref RG103 .H27 2002
• The New Harvard Guide to Women's Health - Science Ref q RA778 .C2164 2004
• Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era - Science Ref RA778 .N49 2005 (also on reserve in Clapp)
• The Yale Guide to Women's Reproductive Health - Science Ref RG121 .M667 2003

Use the Wellesley library catalog to find books, videos, and journals (not individual articles).

a few tips:

• use a keyword search to return a broad set of results, or to find resources that reference specific key terms (e.g., health disparities, reproductive health latina)
• use subject headings to identify more books on a specific topic (find them by clicking on the "Full Record" tab in any catalog record) in our catalog and in NExpress or WorldCat

some useful subject headings for your research might be:

• Women's health services -- United States
• Women's health services -- Political aspects -- United States
• Pregnancy -- Political aspects
• Human reproduction -- Political aspects

• Health care reform -- United States
• Insurance, Health -- Social aspects -- United States
• Health services accessibility -- United States
• Right to health care -- United States
• Health status indicators -- United States

• Minorities -- Medical care -- United States
• Health and race -- United States
• Racism -- Health aspects -- United States
• Discrimination in medical care -- United States

• Women -- Violence against
• Women -- Violence against -- United States
• Abused women -- United States
• Wife abuse -- United States -- Prevention
  
  

• if our copy is checked out, click on to the right of the title to request a book quickly (2-4 days)
• If NExpress doesn't have it, click on in our catalog (2-4 days)
• Search WorldCat to find material we don’t own, click on and request through ILL (interlibrary loan)
• In a hurry? Get a BLC card and borrow the book directly from a nearby library

relevant databases

• Women's Studies International
• Academic Search Premier
• Web of Science
• PubMed
• Project Muse (recent articles) / JSTOR (older articles)
  

• Journals pertaining to women's health (via the Wellesley College Library online catalog)

find more databases on the Databases A - Z page

• Alt-Press Watch
• Ethnic NewsWatch
• GenderWatch
  

• Women's Health websites
• Web Sites for Women’s Health

• WHO, Dept of Gender, Women and Health
• USDHHS Office of Women’s Health
• National Women’s Health Information Center
• National Center for Health Statistics
• Massachusetts Department of Public Health
• UNAIDS

• Kaiser Family Foundation
• Center for Reproductive Rights
• National Women’s Health Network
• National Women's Health Organization
• Feminist Women’s Health Center
• Black Women's Health Imperative
• Boston Women's Health Book Collective aka Our Bodies Ourselves
• National Latina Health Network
• MySistahs
• National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
• Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center
• National Indian Women's Health Resource Center
• Lesbian Health Research Center
  

Critically evaluate what you find

Criteria to keep in mind when choosing and using soures:

• Accuracy - Does the author cite her/his sources and are they legitimate?
• Authority - Who wrote the source? Are they credible?
• Objectivity - Does the author have a bias, political or commercial or persuasive?
• Currency - Is this information new or based on outdated sources? Can you tell how current it is?

Wellesley College Library • WCIS • Alana Kumbier • last modified: February 15, 2008