Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in research on women's health. Some of the issues to be addressed are clear, though the methods and problems involved may not be. Women's Health Matters , like its sister volume Women's Health Counts , is a valuable and practical guide to doing feminist research on women's health. For people starting to do research, the completed monograph and the methodology textbook can give only a partial understanding of what it is like to do research and what the problems and pleasures really are. What, for instance are the pitfalls of obtaining funding, finding researchable topics, and managing research projects? This collection, with contributions by pioneering researchers and practitioners such Ann Oakley and Sheila Kitzinger, provides accounts of research work ranging from getting the research idea, through obtaining the funding and doing the research, to the practical problems faced, and eventual publication. The contributors all underline the value of qualitative data and women's own experience in assessing and interpreting health issues.
Intended for social scientists, nurses and medical students, Women's Health Matters will be of enormous help both to those beginning to research women's health and to experienced researchers. These lively accounts, with their emphasis on the practical aspects of research, provide an excellent antidote to textbooks and manuals.