Public health nurses working with undocumented refugees from Central America encounter affliction... more Public health nurses working with undocumented refugees from Central America encounter afflictions ranging from parasitic infection, emotional trauma, and homelessness. Helping this population requires the skills of a diplomat, advocate, and public health professional--as the experience of one Los Angeles public health nurse demonstrates.
The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
This chapter describes the efforts undertaken since 2013 to mainstream gender, equity, and human ... more This chapter describes the efforts undertaken since 2013 to mainstream gender, equity, and human rights into the programs, policies, and practices of the World Health Organization (WHO). With a largely medical and public health staff, for whom the language of rights remains unfamiliar, and an organization focused on providing technical and normative support, WHO is thought to be ill-equipped to make human rights a core part of its activities. However, there are signs that this is changing. Starting with the adoption of an integrated approach to gender, equity, and human rights in 2012, this chapter explores how these cross-cutting values are being mainstreamed into the Organization, and also how norms and principles of human rights and the core attributes of a right to health are finding resonance across a wide range of health programs.
This chapter examines how the Sustainable Development Agenda—with its focus on equity, gender equ... more This chapter examines how the Sustainable Development Agenda—with its focus on equity, gender equality, and human rights—has provided an unprecedented opportunity to advance human rights within the World Health Organization (WHO). It looks at how human rights are increasingly permeating the Organization’s work, both implicitly and explicitly, and how this paves the way for a bolder vision for human rights in health. Through this examination, the authors lay out a strategy for three necessary shifts that would set WHO on an unprecedented path toward greater rights-based health governance: the adoption of a Resolution by WHO’s governing body on health, both as a human right and as a means to achieve human rights (“to health and through health”); greater collaboration between WHO and the UN human rights system to promote rights-based approaches to health; and building evidence of the impact of such approaches on health.
AVSC news (Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception (U.S.)), 1995
Informal interviews with family planning providers and clients in India revealed several importan... more Informal interviews with family planning providers and clients in India revealed several important attitudinal differences which would affect their interaction. Providers generally are from urban areas; therefore, they view children as an extra expense, consider a large family irrational, view fertility as controllable, are used to making individualized lifestyle choices, and feel comfortable with modern technology. In addition, performance targets cause them to try to convince clients to accept long-acting methods rather than to counsel clients so that the client can choose the method best suited to his or her needs. Rural clients consider extra children to be a potential source of extra income. For this reason, a large family is rational to them. They also view fertility as uncontrollable, are not used to making lifestyle choices because they identify themselves as members of a group which makes choices for them, and have little interaction with or faith in technology. They often view providers as coercive rather than helpful. Given this situation, providers must learn to 1) include clients in program planning and design; 2) appreciate client needs, values, and priorities when making programmatic decisions; and 3) defer to clients during program implementation.
While gender has become increasingly mainstreamed 1 in international development, it has lost its... more While gender has become increasingly mainstreamed 1 in international development, it has lost its sharpness as an analytical tool and operational means to women's liberation. Sexuality, while it intersects with gender as a social construct, has been largely ignored within development contexts. This paper draws on findings that emerged from the gains and struggles experienced by project staff in a large international development agency engaging communities on issues related to sexual and women's rights. In so doing, it illustrates how a sexuality lens can move beyond gender equity and sexual health programmes focused on women's vulnerability (largely framed around protecting women and promoting access to services and contraceptive or condom use) to richer understandings of the range of social and cultural factors shaping sexual meanings and gender roles. Reshaping understandings of gender and sexuality requires a change from the conventional development discourse based on biomedical and moral-based sensibilities that associates sex with risk and danger, towards one that also recognises pleasure and agency. Sexuality is a vital aspect of development and sexual rights are a precondition not only for HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health or rights, but also for gender equality and social inclusion more widely. While personal and organisational transformation is fundamental, broader social, cultural and political forces, from community groups to governments and donors at large, must lie at the heart of change.
Synopsis-This descriptive study of an Indian nongovernmental organization (NGO) interprets how wo... more Synopsis-This descriptive study of an Indian nongovernmental organization (NGO) interprets how women are redefining traditional understandings of female roles in Delhi slums. An empowerment framework, which focuses on individual and group capacities, is used to gain insight into a unique approach to self-governance. In addition to counseling women, perpetrators are held accountable through an indigenous form of resolving conflict that has been adapted to feminist principles, known as mahila panchayats, or women's courts. Data were combined from in-depth interviews with both NGO staff and women seeking help at the NGO and from observations of NGO activities, including mahila panchayat hearings and counseling sessions. In all cases, the mahila panchayat required that women receive financial maintenance. Debt-repayment strategies and legal counsel related to acquiring property empowered women to obtain resources. Most of the women (10) who brought disputes against their husbands wanted to reconcile. The NGO staff and mahila panchayats engage the husbands, who generally comply with the mahila panchayat mandates. Awareness of gender inequity is best observed by the NGO staff and mahila panchayat members through their understandings of the perceived causes of violence, which in turn reveals how violence is addressed by them. Family perpetrators generally deny their abusive behavior or rationalize it in order to legitimize their conduct. By publicly challenging women's subordination by the husband and in-laws, women become agents in developing a new understanding of gender-based violence-that physical and emotional abuse against women, for any reason, is unacceptable. D 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The man has been given a higher position in our society. He always keeps that in mind. He beats even those who have not harmed him.. .. Nothing like it anymore! There has been a lot of weeping-now there is a lot of courage. Women's court organizer.
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2012
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
demand for rights in the Indian context. Similar difficulties persist in the second chapter, whic... more demand for rights in the Indian context. Similar difficulties persist in the second chapter, which offers a straight history of feminism in the West; however, the reader is left with a better understanding of the various strands of the Western debates. In the third chapter, the discussion of the ambiguous nature of early Indian feminism due to its birth in the social reform movement in the l9th and early 20th centuries provides an interesting view point on the current state of feminism in India.
Public health nurses working with undocumented refugees from Central America encounter affliction... more Public health nurses working with undocumented refugees from Central America encounter afflictions ranging from parasitic infection, emotional trauma, and homelessness. Helping this population requires the skills of a diplomat, advocate, and public health professional--as the experience of one Los Angeles public health nurse demonstrates.
The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
This chapter describes the efforts undertaken since 2013 to mainstream gender, equity, and human ... more This chapter describes the efforts undertaken since 2013 to mainstream gender, equity, and human rights into the programs, policies, and practices of the World Health Organization (WHO). With a largely medical and public health staff, for whom the language of rights remains unfamiliar, and an organization focused on providing technical and normative support, WHO is thought to be ill-equipped to make human rights a core part of its activities. However, there are signs that this is changing. Starting with the adoption of an integrated approach to gender, equity, and human rights in 2012, this chapter explores how these cross-cutting values are being mainstreamed into the Organization, and also how norms and principles of human rights and the core attributes of a right to health are finding resonance across a wide range of health programs.
This chapter examines how the Sustainable Development Agenda—with its focus on equity, gender equ... more This chapter examines how the Sustainable Development Agenda—with its focus on equity, gender equality, and human rights—has provided an unprecedented opportunity to advance human rights within the World Health Organization (WHO). It looks at how human rights are increasingly permeating the Organization’s work, both implicitly and explicitly, and how this paves the way for a bolder vision for human rights in health. Through this examination, the authors lay out a strategy for three necessary shifts that would set WHO on an unprecedented path toward greater rights-based health governance: the adoption of a Resolution by WHO’s governing body on health, both as a human right and as a means to achieve human rights (“to health and through health”); greater collaboration between WHO and the UN human rights system to promote rights-based approaches to health; and building evidence of the impact of such approaches on health.
AVSC news (Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception (U.S.)), 1995
Informal interviews with family planning providers and clients in India revealed several importan... more Informal interviews with family planning providers and clients in India revealed several important attitudinal differences which would affect their interaction. Providers generally are from urban areas; therefore, they view children as an extra expense, consider a large family irrational, view fertility as controllable, are used to making individualized lifestyle choices, and feel comfortable with modern technology. In addition, performance targets cause them to try to convince clients to accept long-acting methods rather than to counsel clients so that the client can choose the method best suited to his or her needs. Rural clients consider extra children to be a potential source of extra income. For this reason, a large family is rational to them. They also view fertility as uncontrollable, are not used to making lifestyle choices because they identify themselves as members of a group which makes choices for them, and have little interaction with or faith in technology. They often view providers as coercive rather than helpful. Given this situation, providers must learn to 1) include clients in program planning and design; 2) appreciate client needs, values, and priorities when making programmatic decisions; and 3) defer to clients during program implementation.
While gender has become increasingly mainstreamed 1 in international development, it has lost its... more While gender has become increasingly mainstreamed 1 in international development, it has lost its sharpness as an analytical tool and operational means to women's liberation. Sexuality, while it intersects with gender as a social construct, has been largely ignored within development contexts. This paper draws on findings that emerged from the gains and struggles experienced by project staff in a large international development agency engaging communities on issues related to sexual and women's rights. In so doing, it illustrates how a sexuality lens can move beyond gender equity and sexual health programmes focused on women's vulnerability (largely framed around protecting women and promoting access to services and contraceptive or condom use) to richer understandings of the range of social and cultural factors shaping sexual meanings and gender roles. Reshaping understandings of gender and sexuality requires a change from the conventional development discourse based on biomedical and moral-based sensibilities that associates sex with risk and danger, towards one that also recognises pleasure and agency. Sexuality is a vital aspect of development and sexual rights are a precondition not only for HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health or rights, but also for gender equality and social inclusion more widely. While personal and organisational transformation is fundamental, broader social, cultural and political forces, from community groups to governments and donors at large, must lie at the heart of change.
Synopsis-This descriptive study of an Indian nongovernmental organization (NGO) interprets how wo... more Synopsis-This descriptive study of an Indian nongovernmental organization (NGO) interprets how women are redefining traditional understandings of female roles in Delhi slums. An empowerment framework, which focuses on individual and group capacities, is used to gain insight into a unique approach to self-governance. In addition to counseling women, perpetrators are held accountable through an indigenous form of resolving conflict that has been adapted to feminist principles, known as mahila panchayats, or women's courts. Data were combined from in-depth interviews with both NGO staff and women seeking help at the NGO and from observations of NGO activities, including mahila panchayat hearings and counseling sessions. In all cases, the mahila panchayat required that women receive financial maintenance. Debt-repayment strategies and legal counsel related to acquiring property empowered women to obtain resources. Most of the women (10) who brought disputes against their husbands wanted to reconcile. The NGO staff and mahila panchayats engage the husbands, who generally comply with the mahila panchayat mandates. Awareness of gender inequity is best observed by the NGO staff and mahila panchayat members through their understandings of the perceived causes of violence, which in turn reveals how violence is addressed by them. Family perpetrators generally deny their abusive behavior or rationalize it in order to legitimize their conduct. By publicly challenging women's subordination by the husband and in-laws, women become agents in developing a new understanding of gender-based violence-that physical and emotional abuse against women, for any reason, is unacceptable. D 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The man has been given a higher position in our society. He always keeps that in mind. He beats even those who have not harmed him.. .. Nothing like it anymore! There has been a lot of weeping-now there is a lot of courage. Women's court organizer.
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2012
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
demand for rights in the Indian context. Similar difficulties persist in the second chapter, whic... more demand for rights in the Indian context. Similar difficulties persist in the second chapter, which offers a straight history of feminism in the West; however, the reader is left with a better understanding of the various strands of the Western debates. In the third chapter, the discussion of the ambiguous nature of early Indian feminism due to its birth in the social reform movement in the l9th and early 20th centuries provides an interesting view point on the current state of feminism in India.
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Papers by Veronica Magar