welcome to the women's health handbook

The Women’s Health Handbook builds and shares knowledge about women’s bodies, women’s health, and the social, political, cultural and economic forces that shape women’s health -- ciswomen and trans women -- in a gendered world. We recognize that many of these issues also affect those born with vulvas, even if they do not identify as women. In these pages, we use “women” to refer to all those who identify as women, “ciswomen” to specify the experiences of those born with vulvas who identify as women, and “people born with vulvas” when we talk about issues that affect all those born with vulvas, whether or not they identify as women.

We’re interested not in identifying “women” but in identifying the ways that the category of “women” shapes health, health care, and (our relationships to) bodies themselves. We understand gender as a meaningful political and personal identity that is fluid, mutable, unfixed, multitudinal, ever-changing and uninformed by binary and mutually-exclusive bio-medically identified sex organs at birth.

The Women's health handbook is a student-led, student-created resource: for students, by students. To get involved, email lasallianwomenandgender@manhattan.edu