Brazil's leadership
role in the fight against HIV has brought its public health system
widespread praise. But the nation still faces serious health
challenges and inequities. Though home to the world's second largest
African-descendant population, Brazil failed to address many of its
public health issues that disproportionately impact Afro-Brazilian
women and men. Kia Lilly Caldwell draws on twenty years of engagement
with activists, issues, and policy initiatives to document how the
country's feminist health movement and black women's movement have
fought for much-needed changes in women's health. Merging ethnography
with a historical analysis of policies and programs, Caldwell offers
a close examination of institutional and structural factors that have
impacted the quest for gender and racial health equity in Brazil. As
she shows, activists have played an essential role in policy
development in areas ranging from maternal mortality to female
sterilization. Caldwell's insightful portrait of the public health
system also details how its weaknesses contribute to ongoing failures
and challenges while also imperiling the advances that have been
made.
