摘要:Women's health is multidimensional and involves a myriad of d physical, emotional, and social issues. While women's health is clearly influenced by broader social, econ omic and political forces, this broader context has generally been neglected. The tradi tional focus tends to be on lifestyle or behavioural change to reduce physiological risk factors for a host of afflictions such as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, an d cancers, among others. Lifestyle change is advocated to improve the health of populations. This has contributed to medicalizing—an d pathol ogizing—women's heal th, and in particular natural phases in women's l ives such as the onset of menopause and associated issues such as loss of bone density. It also leads to the individualizing of issues surrendering the respon si bility for health to individual women and thei r physicians. The emphasis on behavioural changes and health care interventions neglects how public policy influences the h ealth of women. This special issue on women's health and public policy examin es women's health issues in a broader political, social and economic context, thereby attempting to sh ift the paradigm in women's health