Global Policy and Women’s Health

Our first feature from the latest issue of ANS is titled “Raising Questions About Capitalist Globalization and Universalizing Views on Women: A Transnational Feminist Critique of theWorld Development Report: Gender Equality and Development” by Victoria L. Scheer, BSN, RN; Patricia E. Stevens, PhD, RN, FAAN and Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu, PhD, RN. The article is available to download at no cost while it is featured!

The authors offer a critique of an important global policy document focussed on women’s health, and the way in which this policy document problematically represents women living in low-income countries.  The authors offer an alternative policy approach, emphasizing the important role that nurses can play in creating better global policy. Victoria Scheer sent this message about her work in this area, and invites readers to engage in discussion of their ideas:

It is a great honor to have this article chosen to be highlighted in the Advances in Nursing Science blog. This article was originally conceived from a project taken on as part of my doctoral course work. While taking a

Victoria Scheer

feminist theory course offered in the Women’s and Gender Studies department, I found there to be a disconnect between the critical feminist standpoints I was reading, and what I often read within nursing literature. Specifically, I found there to be a dearth of critical analyses of international policies drawing on transnational and postcolonial feminist perspectives.

Given the recent release of the Sustainable Development Goals, an agenda undertaken across the globe, it seems both timely and imperative to integrate a perspective that centers women and focuses on the social, economic, and political determinants of health within the context of transnationalism and globalization.

With guidance and collaboration from co-authors Dr. Stevens and Dr. Mkandawire-

Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu

Valhmu, we are pleased to offer this critique of the World Bank’s 2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development. Framed through a transnational feminist lens, we challenge the capitalist framework underpinning the agenda outlined in the Report, as well as the language used that we argue problematically represents women living in low-income countries. Through this analysis, we sought to demonstrate how economic globalization, unabated development, and misrepresentation may have negative implications in the lives of the world’s most marginalized women.

Nurses have a significant role to play in the international policy arena, and I hope this

Pat Stevens in Malawi

article provides a persuasive example of how a transnational feminist viewpoint may prove useful to advancing gender equality and social justice for women located in resource poor-countries, as well as those located in high income countries yet excluded from the benefits of modern capitalist states. We would also like to thank Dr. Chinn for the opportunity to share this article and look forward to hearing any feedback!