Women’s mental health around the world: Education, poverty, discrimination and violence, and political aspects

Abstract

In this chapter, we will discuss the specific challenges that women face in the healthcare system, including the lack of access that much of the world’s female population suffers. We will defend a change of approach to women����s health issues whenever they need to use the health system. To this end, we will describe some of the gender inequalities that arise from family microsystems as well as from the social and political macrostructures of power and world organization that are some of the causes of female pathological conditions. We refer here to some that particularly affect women: gender violence, poverty, migration, human trafficking, and violence used against women during armed conflicts. To conclude, we talk about lack of justice. After analyzing these aspects, we suggest some recommendations for mental health professionals with regard to possible lines of work in the healthcare system, with the objective of making a change possible, a change based on the empowerment of women, considering health professionals as active agents and enablers of that empowerment.