Home > Human Rights Toolkit > A Call for Inclusion >
Promotion of Young Women’s Health

The issue of health promotion addresses the question of whether women have access or equal access to information. Specifically, we are concerned with the issue of how young women learn about healthy habits and appropriate health care.

Obstacles

• Assumptions about Behavior: Unrealistic and negative assumptions are often made about young women’s behavior. For instance, societal taboos about young women’s sexual activity may lead to the promotion of abstinence campaigns instead of information on family planning and protection from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Furthermore, such campaigns are usually targeted solely at young women seemingly absolving men and boys from their responsibility for their actions. Similar arguments account for the prevalence of programs that support abstinence campaigns rather than looking at the underlying reasons why young women abuse drugs and alcohol.
• Language: Health campaigns that rely on written materials and pamphlets do not take into account the fact that many young women cannot read because they have not been given the opportunity to go to school for reasons such as poverty and lack of access in rural areas, or that young women may speak languages other than the main language of a country. Furthermore, the language used in promotional instruments typically lacks sensitivity to youth culture. From music to dress, young women display their own unique brand of expression. Promotional literature and methods not connected to their reality often fail to reach young women, at an age when they are most susceptible to high-risk behaviors.
• Body Image: Young women around the world are presented with unhealthy “ideal” body images. Whether this “ideal” is thin or large is irrelevant. Both extremes present unhealthy ideals that jeopardize the natural development of young women’s bodies, physically and mentally. Young women are presented with the message that how they look is more important than how they feel.
• Commitment to Programs: The commitment of governments, NGOs and community based organizations to health programs and services for young women have been erratic. For example, instead of a holistic approach to health, many programs for young women focus on the health “scare” of the moment. Rarely is there a commitment and investment in long-term programs that focus on the health and well being of the “whole” young woman: physically, mentally and socially.
• Lack of Training: Insufficient practical health knowledge and training on medical advances prevent young women from conveying important information to each other through the age-old technique of peer-based counseling or advice. Lack of recognition of peer education undermines its success as an effective and natural channel to reach young women.
  Insufficient Data: An obstacle that young women experience in light of health care promotion has been their invisibility. While there has been a big push for disaggregated data based on gender, young women and their experiences with the health care system are not visible even in these statistics. Without data that is broken down by gender, age, race, class, ethnicity and a number of other identity factors, there cannot be a clear picture of the effects of health care promotion on young women.

Case Study: Kickin’ Back With The Girls: A Young Woman’s Survival Guide (Health Initiatives for Youth)

Kickin’ Back With The Girls: A Young Woman’s Survival Guide is a health and wellness book for young women under the age of 25, with a primary target population of 15-18 year-olds. This guide was created by and for young women from different communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, in collaboration with a team of adult women. Its goal is to present important health information to young women and empower them to make their own choices, in language and visuals that appeal to their reality. Instead of employing scare tactics or making unrealistic assumptions about their behavior, the guide focuses on particular programs in the context of what young women are living through.
The survival guide was the brainchild of a 21 year-old young woman, then a health educator with Health Initiatives for Youth. It grew out of a young women’s health education program which featured a writing component. In documenting their personal experiences, the young women in essence provided the text for the guide. Their voices guided the tone and the message of the book, while adult women contributed the essential health education perspective. Young women were involved in all aspects of the decision making process: from the conception of the idea to the production of the text and images.
The survival guide is distributed through youth agencies and conferences that serve young women, mostly within the context of a health education curriculum. By reading the survival guide, thousands of young women have acquired accurate information about their bodies and are now able to share their knowledge with peers. In addition, many parents have praised the survival guide for conveying vital health information that they themselves have struggled to provide to their daughters.

For more information contact Health Initiatives for Youth.

Next: Recommendations

top