1st Edition

Women's Health and Corporate Marketing Our Bodies, Their Business

Edited By Mary Hunter Copyright 2025
    162 Pages
    by Routledge

    162 Pages
    by Routledge

    This compelling collection of essays examines how historically significant marketing schemes have profoundly impacted women’s health and healthcare across the world.

    Written by scholars and activists from a range of disciplines, including law, sociology and the health sciences, the book spotlights a range of products that have had a damaging impact on women’s health, unpicking the values and assumption engrained within the marketing campaigns which promoted them. Examples include the advertisement of household and personal care products which expose users to toxic chemicals, empowerment messaging to persuade women to use tobacco products in low and middle income countries, and the deceptive marketing of benzodiazepines and opioids that disproportionately impacts women and their families.

    A powerful critique of the unethical and paternalistic approach of some corporations, this book will find readers among students taking courses in Public Health, Allied Health, Gender Studies, Sociology and beyond, as well as interested professionals and lay readers.

     

    Preface   

    Introduction                                                                                                                                                           

     Chapter 1. The Stink of Clean   

    Elizabeth Conway                                                                              

    Chapter 2. Tobacco Industry Corporate Malfeasance and Women’s Rights Violations: Are Human Rights Mechanisms the Antidote?  

    Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy

    Chapter 3. Mothers' Little Helpers and Opioids: Women, Addiction, and the Legacy of Arthur Sackler     

    Mary Hunter                                        

    Chapter 4. Under the Influence: Pharmaceutical Relationships &
    Their Impact on Endometriosis Care                      

    Heather Guidone                                                                             

    Chapter 5. Menstruation Repression Discourse in Advertisements: An Ecofeminist Investigation

    Anna Kubovski                                                                                                

    Chapter 6. Hot and Bothered by the Menopause Industry                           

    Mary Hunter                     

    Conclusions                                                                                                                                                       

     

     

    Biography

    Mary Hunter is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing. Her current research focuses on the prescription of potentially inappropriate medications associated with cognitive decline in women, including estrogen, benzodiazepines, and opioids. As a nurse practitioner who has dealt with problems related to addiction both in and out of a clinical environment, she understands that drug dependence is everywhere, and finding appropriate treatment for victims is problematic.