Medicine and Women's Studies: Possibilities for Enhancing Women's Health Care

This paper discusses contributions of feminist theory to the education of health professionals in the United States and Brazil, and takes off from my experience as an educator, physician and researcher in Brazil. I present some insights grounded in Brazilian initiatives to educate health professionals, and informed by feminist theory and pedagogy. I analyze the benefits for women's health care which might result from the integration of Women's Studies and medical education. I reflect on the entrance in medical schools of a new kind of student-women who majored in Women's Studies at the undergraduate level-and present insights of three students about women's health and medical education. These reflections are aimed at the ongoing debate around issues of women's health and professional education with respect to the possibilities and limitations of the incorporation of a feminist perspective in training processes.