THE SOCIAL-CONTEXT OF WOMENS HEALTH - COALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR MEDICAL-EDUCATION

The Women's Health Interschool Curriculum Committee of Ontario has dev eloped goals and objectives for medical education based on a definitio n of women's health that includes emotional, social, cultural, spiritu al and physical well-being. The author presents background information on how women have been treated as ''other'' and sex-role stereotypes have been reinforced by some of the assumptions, terminology and attit udes used in medical practice and research. The objectives address the biologic and social context of women's health, the effect of power di fferentials (particularly the imbalance in power between physicians an d patients), sex-role stereotyping in medical practice and teaching, a nd the effect of individual physicians' attitudes toward women on the care they provide. These objectives are the first published effort to define what physicians should know about the social context of women's health. The committee encourages readers to debate, discuss and use t hese objectives.