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THERE is more to good health than doctors and medicines, argues Lesley Doyal, professor of health and social care at the University of Bristol. Her book is an engaging introduction to 鈥渢he ways in which women鈥檚 lives can make them sick鈥�.

Exploring the social origins of ill health around the world, Doyal鈥檚 overview is perforce a whistle-stop tour of everything from coercive 鈥渉eterosex鈥� to the hazards of photocopying machines. Packed with references and annotated reading lists, What Makes Women Sick provides an excellent starting point for anyone interested in grappling with the social roots of health and illness today.

Why is the book 鈥渏ust鈥� about women? Doyal holds gender to be a key issue in the political economy of health because, compared with men, women generally do more work for less economic reward, have little control over their own sexuality and reproduction, and continue to be the prime targets of an epidemic of male violence. Throughout, she emphasises both the 鈥渆normous diversity in women鈥檚 material circumstances and in the way they make sense of them鈥� and the shared needs that make it possible to campaign for 鈥渨omen鈥檚 health鈥�. Doyal ends on an optimistic note, with scores of examples of how women throughout the world are now engaged in the fight for better health.