Lesley Doyal draws on a wide range of disciplines to highlight the limitations of medical models in understanding global patterns of health and disease in women. Examining in detail the impact of sexuality, fertility control, reproduction, domestic labour and waged work on women's well-being, she shows how gender divisions in economic and social life affect their experiences of illness, disability and mortality. A concluding chapter illustrates the multiplicity of ways in which women around the world are challenging the threats to their health.