Feminism meets the new epidemiologies: toward an appraisal of antifeminist biases in epidemiological research on women's health

This essay explores an alternative paradigm for epidemiology, one which is explicitly informed by a feminist perspective. We intend to expand upon recent critiques and debates within the emergent fields of critical, popular, and alternative epidemiology to examine how epidemiology's conceptual models - which are meant to contribute to the prevention of social inequalities in health, but may instead reinforce social hierarchies based on gender, race? and class - constrain our understanding of health and disease. Specifically, we examine persistent antifeminist biases in contemporary epidemiological research on women's health. Issues highlighted include: problem definition and knowledge production in women's health; biological essentialization of women as reproducers; and decontextualization and depoliticization of women's health risks. As part of this critique, we include suggestions for an emancipatory epidemiology that incorporates an alternative feminist framework. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.