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Time for women-centred gynaecology

Nature Reviews Urology volume 19, pages 689–690 (2022)Cite this article

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Although gynaecology is a specialty responsible for women’s health, the field was historically male-dominated and its science remains biased towards male perceptions of women’s health. In light of the changing social climate in our society and the changing gender composition of the specialty, a number of steps can be taken to make gynaecology more women-centred.

Three decades into the twenty-first century, one would think that the medical specialty dedicated solely to female organs might have adopted a women-centred, feminist approach, owing to the general changes in social norms, the feminization of gynaecology1 and five decades of feminist critique of gynaecological science2. However, the overall approaches in the field have made insufficient progress and for many fundamental issues, no changes at all. This lack of progress is a major drawback in gynaecological science and could result in a serious crisis of confidence between women and medical institutions.

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Acknowledgements

This Comment was written with the support of the Jonathan Shapiro Fund grant for postdoctoral fellows, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Netta Avnoon

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  1. Netta Avnoon
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Correspondence to Netta Avnoon.

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Avnoon, N. Time for women-centred gynaecology. Nat Rev Urol 19, 689–690 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-022-00656-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-022-00656-4

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