From Outrage to Courage
Women Taking Action for Health and Justice

"Anne Firth Murray’s new book is three things at once:
a catalogue of abuses, an analysis of their causes and consequences, and a chronicle of courage under fire.”
–from the Foreword by Paul Farmer

From Prologue: Darkness and Light
"Being born female is dangerous to your health. This reality may not be true for many readers, but for most women living in poorer countries² around the globe, it is devastating.

The dangers start before birth. Sex-selective abortion is widespread, as parents decide for various reasons that they cannot bring another girl into the world.³ Hundreds of thousands of girls have “disappeared,” unbalancing sex ratios in countries like China, India, and Korea.⁴ Every person in poverty is at a disadvantage, but the gender differences are staggering. Ninety million girls worldwide, compared with twenty-five million boys, do not go to school.⁵ Some two million girls, most of them in Africa, are at risk of being genitally mutilated each year.⁶ HIV/AIDS is spreading fastest in one population:adolescent girls and young women.⁷ More than half a million women die each year from almost completely preventable childbirth-related injuries and illnesses.⁸ One fourth to one half of women worldwide suffer violence at the hands of an intimate partner.⁹ Three out of four fatalities of war are women and children.¹⁰ Most older women in poorer countries are illiterate and living with illness, challenges also faced by many men. But unlike their male counterparts, these women are more isolated (rarely remarrying after the death of a spouse) and often are saddled with arduous care-giving roles.

Women’s health is so much more than a medical issue; it is cultural, political, economic, and—above all—an issue of social justice. Improving women’s health and advancing the status of women is often seen as a powerful means to solve economic problems rather than as a route toward true justice. It is both, to be sure. However, I write this book to make the case that social justice has for too long been eclipsed by concerns for “development.” My experience indicates that the basic reality of women as “the other,” or persons of lesser power (in many senses, not just economic power), emerges as central. Health issues are one prism through which to view the human rights of all.

In this book I describe this outrage, the darkness of persistent poverty and the low status of women, and the scandalous injustices that ravage the health of poor women in many poorer countries. Yet there is another side to this story. Change is possible, brought on by the courage of women to shine a light in the darkness and take action. These efforts are represented here by the poetry of women and the work of women’s groups. They are also expressed through the images of the koru used throughout the book. Koru, in the Maori language of New Zealand, symbolizes not only the unfolding of the fern frond striving toward the light, but also a new beginning, renewal, and hope for the future. To fully grasp the depth of women’s courage requires understanding the outrage in all its heinous aspects, a fact that has led me to concentrate on describing the details of their plight.

Endorsements for
From Outrage to Courage: Women Taking Action for Health and Justice

TEACHING TIPS for a course on International Women’s Health and Human Rights based on From Outrage to Courage

Other books by Anne Firth Murray
Paradigm Found: Leading and Managing for Positive Change

Copyright© 2007 Anne Firth Murray -- All Rights Reserved.