An analysis of the women's health movement and its impact on the delivery of health care within the United States.

Active in the United States for the past 25 years, the women's health movement was originally an outgrowth of the larger feminist movement and shares many of the same assumptions. The women's health movement has been successful in increasing public awareness of the problems involved in the delivery of health care to women and effecting changes in that health care. This article seeks to identify societal contributions and specific events that resulted in the occurrence of this social reform movement, enumerate some of the accomplishments, and suggest why health care providers would benefit by understanding this phenomenon.