Women's Health Center

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A women's health center sees itself as a social institution that gives women partial advice on health issues and offers or mediates help.

aims

The aim is to offer women of all ages and all walks of life women-related advice and help on health issues specific to women. Women's health centers see themselves as advocates for girls and women, in the sense that they stand for health care appropriate to women and are critical and vigilant about the possible instrumentalization , pathologization and medicalization of female health through gynecology and the pharmaceutical industry . They support women in the existing health system to find and go their own way and thus to preserve their autonomy .

deals

Women's health centers try to reach women with individual advice, courses, lectures or therapeutic offers. Topics are selectively the phase of menopause , the diaphragm as an alternative method of contraception , group offers for women with depression , offers especially for girls, for lesbian- oriented women and also for women who are or have been affected by violence. Events that convey the female body specifically for women are also part of the offer, as are courses on vaginal self-examinations or breast examinations.

Women's health centers in different countries

Australia

The first women's health center in Australia opened in 1974 in Leichhardt near Sydney . In 1975 Liverpool and Newcastle were added, in 1978 Wagga Wagga , Bankstown and Gosford . In 1981 these centers formed the umbrella organization Women's Health and Information Resource and Crisis Centers Association (WHIRCCA), which was renamed Women's Health New South Wales (WHNSW) in 2000 . The association now has 23 women's health centers as member associations in New South Wales .

Germany

In Germany, the first women's health center was founded in Berlin in 1974, the Feminist Women's Health Center eV Berlin. The motto was to learn through self-help to gain autonomy over one's own body and sexuality. One year after the opening of the Berlin FFGZ, the Feminist Women's Health Center was established in Frankfurt am Main and the centers in Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover followed shortly afterwards. In the Deutsches Ärzteblatt in 1979, the emerging women's health initiatives were brought closer to the terrorist scene and the discussion of laypeople with medical issues was rated as a " hybrid overconfidence". Police searches of the centers took place not only in the USA , but also in Germany. These actions were classified by the women's health movement as a strong resistance by established social forces against women's right to physical self-determination. There are currently around 17 women's health centers in Germany that have networked with one another in the Federal Association of Women's Health Centers. At the municipal level - the on-site level - there are cooperations with municipal institutions such as hospitals and health authorities as well as social advice centers such as wild water and other social networks such as self-help groups . Women's health centers have their roots in the women's health movement.

Austria

The first Austrian women's health center, FEM Vienna, was founded in 1992. The women's health center in Graz followed in 1993. There are currently centers in Linz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg, Villach and Wels. The seven women's health centers in Austria are independent organizations - they share goals and values. In order to be able to work even more effectively for equitable health opportunities for women and girls, they joined forces in 1995 to form the network of Austrian women's health centers. In a further professionalization step, the ARGE of the Austrian women's health centers was founded in 2007. The women's health centers are based on national and international agreements and implement them in Austria, e.g. Ottawa Charter of Health Promotion, 1986, WHO Report Women and Health, 2009, Madrid Declaration on Gender Mainstreaming in Health Care, 2002, Austrian Health Quality Act, 2005, Austrian Framework Health Goals, 2012 .

The network of Austrian women's health centers is committed to quality assurance in its mission statement. In a joint process, as a basis for cooperation and further development, it has defined twelve criteria for women's health centers that make the quality of work transparent and verifiable. The word mark Frauengesundheitszentrum has been protected by the Austrian Patent Office since 2004 and therefore only designates institutions that work in accordance with these quality criteria.

United States

In the United States there since the early 1970s, women's health centers ( English women's health center ). One of the first such centers was the Los Angeles Feminist Women's Health Center (LAFWHC), in 1972 on the premises of a women's shelter in Los Angeles was founded. The Los Angeles Police Department put an informant on a self-help course; in September 1972 the center was then searched by the police. Carol Downer and Colleen Wilson - two of the founders - were arrested and documents and incriminating objects were confiscated. Yogurt packs were also among the confiscated items because they were used in self-help courses to treat vaginal yeast infections . Therefore, the process was later ironically referred to as the "Great Yogurt Conspiracy ". Downer and Wilson were charged with performing medical treatments without medical approval. The case against Wilson was dropped against a reduced admission of guilt. However, Downer's charge came to trial; in December 1972 she was acquitted on all counts. The process generated publicity across the country, and allowed Carol Downer, along with Lorraine Rothman , to go on extensive lecture tours inside and outside the United States, in which the idea of ​​women's health centers and women's health self-help was further promoted.

literature

  • Sandra Morgen: Into our own hands: the women's health movement in the United States, 1969-1990 . Rutgers University Press, Piscataway 2002, ISBN 0813530717 .
  • Cindy Pearson: Self Help Clinic Celebrates 25 Years . In: Network News: Newsletter of the National Women's Health Network . Edition March / April 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of Women's Health New South Wales (WHNSW) ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the WHNSW website.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.whnsw.asn.au
  2. ^ Feminist Women's Health Center eV Berlin official website
  3. ↑ Women's media tower: Chronicle of the New Women's Movement> 1977 ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenmediaturm.de
  4. ↑ Anke Büter: The value ideal of freedom in social cognition Theory: objectivity plurality and the example Women's Health Research , Ontos Verlag; 1st edition August 27, 2012, page 113 f .; ISBN 3868381686
  5. ↑ Stascheit, Angela; Uecker, Karin: Archives of the Munich Women's Health Movement 1968-2000. Munich 2011 (PDF; 2.2 MB)
  6. ↑ Sandra Morgen: Into our own hands . Piscataway 2002, p. 11f, p. 23f.