Women's Health: Contributions From Human Biology

Abstract

The purpose of this review was to examine how human biologists have contributed to the field of women's health over the past 50 years. Prompted by the increasing international interest in gender equality during the 1970s and the beginning of the Human Biology Council in 1974, studies published in Human Biology (1974-1979) were reviewed for topical content. Based on the increasing national attention to the study of women's health and the inclusion of women in research during the 1990s, as well as the start of the American Journal of Human Biology in 1989, a topical review was carried out for articles published in the AJHB (1989-1995). Current topics in women's health, targeting the past decade, were organized in relation to biocultural perspectives, evolutionary approaches (life history and evolutionary medicine), and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. Central questions include whether the contributions of human biologists reflect changing levels of political interest in women's health across time, which topics remained the same across the 50 years, and which topics were added. Topics that held steady across time include pregnancy and lactation, bone mineral density, and blood pressure. Among the changes over time, girls and women were more likely to be included in research, studies of pregnancy were more likely to include maternal health, studies of nutrition became more common, and human biologists expanded their repertoire of explicit theoretical perspectives. Finally, this review ends with worries about the future.

Keywords: DOHaD; biocultural; evolutionary medicine; life history theory; menopause; women's health.