Safe Womanhood

Women are half of the human race. By empowering them through health and educational opportunities, we increase their personal potential to contribute to the economic, political, and social advancement of societies. What society would not benefit from such contributions?  Nurses, the largest healthcare workforce in the world, see women intimately as patients, as pregnant women, as mothers caring for their children, as managers of health, and as daughters caring for their extended families. Therefore, nurses have the knowledge, the power, the voice, and the expertise to work toward safe womanhood and to advocate for women’s health, for human rights, and for having options in life.

Women must be equal partners with equal voice to have an impact on decision-making, policy-making, and development. The marginalization and disempowerment of women hinders them from their rights as human beings to reach their full potential to flourish and effectively contribute to their societies.

At the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, we have established a Center for Global Women’s Health. The Center will contribute to global research in women’s health scholarship, education, practice, and leadership using an equitable and human justice framework.

The opening of the Center corresponds with the United Nations’ initiatives for the empowerment of women globally and with national attention to women’s health from President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.  They have made girls and women central in U.S. global health programs.
 
Penn Nursing Professor Marilyn Sommers, PhD, RN, FAAN, is director of our Center for Global Women’s Health. Her research focuses on trauma, particularly injuries from rape, sexual assault, and domestic abuse. Last fall, she won the Inaugural Writing Award for Excellence in Research from the Journal of Forensic Nursing for her article “Health Disparities in the Forensic Sexual Assault Examination Related to Skin Color.” Dr. Sommers has conducted path-breaking research finding that injuries are more detectable on lighter skinned women than on darker skinned women, irrespective of race, using current exams for sexual assault injury.
 
With such innovative research, the Center for Global Women’s Health will chart new directions in the domains of safety from violence and harm, equity, empowerment, advocacy, health promotion, and disease prevention. The ultimate goal is to attain safe womanhood, which provides the context and the impetus for healthier and safer families and societies. In short, making women safe and healthy makes the world safe and healthy.