Women in developing countries have been subject to numerous programs to improve
reproductive health. Many argue that state-based programs use coercion to regulate and control
women’s bodies. In addition to this, certain regions in developing countries still experience high
rates of infant and maternal mortality. It is argued that a women-centred approach focusing on
reproductive rights is necessary to improve conditions for women worldwide. Using examples,
explore the impact of shifting global discourses in terms of reproductive health management and
the experience of women’s health in developing countries.
Look at recent and past issues of journal ‘reproductive health matters’ – it has many relevant
articles over many years. Other sources might include the following

Chapman, R. 2003. ‘Endangering safe motherhood in Mozambique: prenatal care as pregnancy risk’,
Social Science and Medicine 57(2)
Ecks, S. & Sax, W. S. 2005. The Ills of Marginality: New Perspectives on Health in South Asia.
Anthropology & Medicine, 12, 199 – 210.
Jolly, M. and Ram, K. 2001. Borders of Being: citizenship, fertility and sexuality in Asia and the
Pacific University of Michigan Press.
Filippi V. et al 2006. ‘Maternal Health in poor countries: the broader context and a call for action’,
Lancet 368: October
Green, G. et al. 2001. ‘Female control of Sexuality: Illusion or reality? Social Science and Medicine
52:585-598
Edstrom, J. 2010 Time to Call the Bluff: (De)-constructing ‘Women’s Vulnerability’, HIV and Sexual
Health, Development, 53(2), (215–221)
Harcourt Wendy, 2009 Body Politics in Development: Critical Debates in Gender and Development,
Zed Books
Hardon, A. (2006). “Contesting contraceptive innovation – Reinventing the script.” Social Science &
Medicine 62: 614-627.

Loblay, V (2007): “Rethinking the ‘International’ in the Politics of Women’s Health: An Ethnographic
Excursion through the Story of the Anti-Fertility Vaccine and Beyond”, Outskirts 17 (Feminist
Engagements in Other Places).
Kaler. Amy 2001“It’s some kind of women’s empowerment”: the ambiguity of the female condom as a
marker of female empowerment’, Social Science and Medicine 52: 783-796
Lane, S. 1994 From Population Control to reproductive Health: An emerging policy agenda’, Social
Science and Medicine 39(9)
Mohindra, K. S., Haddad, S. & Narayana, D. 2006. Women’s health in a rural community in Kerala,
India: do caste and socioeconomic position matter? Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, 60:, 1020-1026.
Paulson, S. and Bailey, P. 2003. Culturally constructed relationships shape sexual and reproductive
health in Bolivia Culture Health & Sexuality 5
Pigg, S. L. 1992. Inventing Social Categories through Place: Social Representations and Development
in Nepal. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 34, 491-513.
Pigg, S. L. 1997. Authority in Translation: Finding, Knowing, Naming and Training ‘Traditional Birth
Attendants’ in Nepal. In: DAVIS-FLOYD & SARGENT, C. F. (eds.) Childbirth and
Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London:
University of California Press.
Pinto, S. 2008. Where There is No Midwife: Birth and Loss in Rural India, Oxford, New York,Berghahn Books.
Ram, K. (1998b). “Na Shariram Nadhi, My Body is Mine: The Urban Women’s Health Movement in
India and its Negotiation of Modernity.” Women’s Studies International Forum 21(6): 617-631.
Rao M. (2004). From Population Control to Reproductive Health: Malthusian Arithmetic. New Delhi:
Sage Publications India.
Robinson, K (2001) Government agency, women’s agency: feminisms, fertility, and population
control. In M Jolly & K Ram (eds), Borders of being: citizenship, fertility, and sexuality in Asia
and the Pacific. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 36-57.
Schrater, A. 1995 ‘Immunization to Control Fertility: Biological and Cultural Frameworks’, Social
Science and Medicine 41(5)