This book provides a state-of-the-art, comprehensive review of the many factors that affect womens health, ranging from low socioeconomic status and the impact of the debt crisis to more direct medical determinants, such as poor nutrition, hemorrhage, eclampsia, and infection. At stake are the unnecessary and preventable deaths of women and girls around the globe. The contributors assess the reduced quality of life for women and the often unacknowledged contributions of women and girls as the backbone of production in both developing and developed countries. Synthesizing perspectives of policymakers and practitioners, researchers and scholars, The Health of Women urges major new initiatives to understand and improve womens health, taking into account biological elements such as the life cycle of women as well as cultural constraints and socioeconomic realities.