Conference Evaluates BC Health Programs

Women worldwide make important decisions about their health every day.

Nearly 700 people converged at the Barnard Summit on Women and Health on Saturday to examine those decisions.

This summit, which took place in Barnard's LeFrak Gymnasium, was the second of its kind at Barnard. The first conference, which took place in the fall of 2001, was entitled "Women, Leadership, and the Future." The focus for this year's summit was chosen partially to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Well Woman program at Barnard, a milestone that was celebrated last Friday.

But honoring the Well Woman program was not the only force behind choosing women's health as the subject of the day-long event.

In her opening remarks, President of Barnard College Judith Shapiro emphasized the importance of discussion about the topic of women's health, speaking to the confusion surrounding treatments, and the potential for great developments as evidenced by the drastic advances in research over the past decades.

Shapiro also emphasized the need to analyze women's health issues on a global level, reminding participants that many of the health issues affecting women are the result of poverty and social conditions and transcend gender barriers.

The summit was composed of three separate panels showcasing the expertise of 21 participants. The day began with a panel entitled "Women's Health Trends: A Current Assessment," moderated by Shapiro.

The first panel tackled the issues of patterns and developments in women's health over the past decades. It offered a critical evaluation of the role the media plays in communicating such developments, commending outlets for highlighting advances as well as adding confusion relating to classical women's health issues like breast cancer.

Leading panelists included Dr. Christina Beato, the principal advisor and assistant to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson; Faye Wattleton, the president of the Center for Gender Equality; and Cindi Leive, the editor-in-chief of Glamour.

The magazine, along with The New York Times' Community Affairs Department and WNYC, provided media sponsorship of the event.

Next came a discussion of the social issues confronting advances in women's health, including the biases and stereotypes that affect research and development in areas like reproductive technology.

The panel, named "Women and Healthcare: A Critical Analysis," was moderated by Lynn Sherr, a women's issues specialist at ABC News. It included Dr. Vivian Pinn, director of the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institute of Health; Dr. Susan Wood, the director of the Office of Women's Health at the Food and Drug Administration.

Such panelists were able to weigh in on the battles over hormone treatment and the new forms of birth control that their offices oversee, and they commented on the social implications of advances in such areas.

The panel also included Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America, who offered a social analysis of women's health advances and their impacts on a woman's cultural role.

The most poignant moments of the day came in the final panel, entitled "Women and Health: A Matter of Survival." This panel tackled the subject of women's health worldwide, by combining the issues that were raised in the first two panels and placing them against an international background.

This panel, moderated by Soledad O'Brien of Weekend Today, moved away from issues simply surrounding women's health, and moved to the greater health concerns of all impoverished nations. This expansion of the subject was largely due to the lead of Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute and Special Advisor on the Millennium Development Goals, who presented global issues and potential answers.

The panel opened up with O'Brien soliciting an opinion from each member as to what they think the biggest problem with women's health is today.

Answers ranged from violence to AIDS, but all centered around one notion: poverty.

Many panelists linked the social position of women as another key cause of women's health problems.

Some of the members of the panel suggested the idea that women's health issues are still not approached with the same sense of urgency on the international level of other health issues, just as women are still viewed as second class citizens in many countries across the world.

Panelists went on to say that if poverty and women's social standing are not brought into consideration, and efforts do not go into remedying the two problems, women's health will never improve.

Dr. Carolyn Hannan, director of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, referenced her experiences in Tanzania as examples of how those two problems adversely affect the health of communities.

She mentioned how the women work in the household and in the fields all day, then must go long distances for health care, and finally are not told any reasons behind treatments or diagnoses so that they can never remedy the situation were it to happen around them again.

She said that the "window of hope" in this battle lies with men and changing notions of gender equality.