Table Of ContentFeminist Global Health Security
oxford studies in gender
and international relations
Series editors: J. Ann Tickner, American University, and Laura Sjoberg,
University of Florida
Gender and Private Security in Global From Global to Grassroots: The European
Politics Union, Transnational Advocacy, and
Maya Eichler Combating Violence against Women
Celeste Montoya
This American Moment: A Feminist
Christian Realist Intervention Who Is Worthy of Protection? Gender-
Caron E. Gentry Based Asylum and US Immigration Politics
Meghana Nayak
Troubling Motherhood: Maternality in
Global Politics Revisiting Gendered States: Feminist
Lucy B. Hall, Anna L. Weissman, and Imaginings of the State in International
Laura J. Shepherd Relations
Swati Parashar, J. Ann Tickner, and
Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies: A
Jacqui True
Gendered Analysis of Women in Combat
Ayelet Harel- Shalev and Shir Out of Time: The Queer Politics of
Daphna- Tekoah Postcoloniality
Rahul Rao
Scandalous Economics: Gender and the
Politics of Financial Crises Narrating the Women, Peace and Security
Aida A. Hozić and Jacqui True Agenda: Logics of Global Governance
Laura J. Shepherd
Rewriting the Victim: Dramatization as
Research in Thailand’s Anti- Trafficking Gender, UN Peacebuilding, and the Politics
Movement of Space: Locating Legitimacy
Erin M. Kamler Laura J. Shepherd
Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping: Women, Capitalism’s Sexual History
Peace, and Security in Post- Conflict States Nicola J. Smith
Sabrina Karim and Kyle Beardsley
A Feminist Voyage through International
Gender, Sex, and the Postnational Relations
Defense: Militarism and Peacekeeping J. Ann Tickner
Annica Kronsell
The Political Economy of Violence
The Beauty Trade: Youth, Gender, and against Women
Fashion Globalization Jacqui True
Angela B. V. McCracken
Queer International Relations: Sovereignty,
Global Norms and Local Action: The Sexuality and the Will to Knowledge
Campaigns against Gender-B ased Violence Cynthia Weber
in Africa
Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied
Peace A. Medie
Subjects in International Relations
Rape Loot Pillage: The Political Economy of Lauren B. Wilcox
Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict
Sara Meger
Feminist Global Health
Security
CLARE WENHAM
1
3
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the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
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Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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© Oxford University Press 2021
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Wenham, Clare, author.
Title: Feminist global health security / Clare Wenham.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021] |
Series: Oxford studies in gender and international relations |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020048717 (print) | LCCN 2020048718 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780197556931 (hardback) | ISBN 9780197556955 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: World health. | Women—Health. | Health policy. |
Women—Diseases—Prevention. | Equality—Health aspects.
Classification: LCC R A441 .W398 2021 (print) | LCC R A441 (ebook) |
DDC 613/.04244—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048717
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048718
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780197556931.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
For Scarlett
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Acronyms xiii
1. Introduction: Where are the women? 1
2. Theorizing Feminist Health Security 31
3. The Zika Virus 53
4. Zika and In/v isibility 81
5. Clean Your House and Don’t Get Pregnant: Reproduction
and the State 107
6. Violence and Everyday Crises 139
7. Conclusion: Making feminist global health security 165
Epilogue: COVID-1 9 191
Bibliography 207
Index 267
Acknowledgements
This book has been through several iterations. It started whilst I was preg-
nant in 2016 and recognising my good fortune to be pregnant in the UK, safe
from the “threat” of Zika. Due to unforeseen stressors, and a second preg-
nancy of my own, this became a larger theoretical, and considerably longer,
project, with a better result. Taking three years to write a book and reflect on
the issues raised by Zika has allowed me time to consider the outbreak and
feminist knowledge in the context of global health security more broadly. As
I simultaneously become more disillusioned with global health security as a
concept, and in particular as a policy space for women, Zika has offered the
“perfect” viewpoint to assess these concerns, notably those of representation,
the failure to serve those who are most at risk, and the lack of sustainability
in securitized activity. Whilst I don’t assume to have the complete picture,
my only request for this book is that whoever reads it questions the inherent
assumptions of global health security and what is missed when this frame is
applied to a global health issue.
The first thanks must go to all those people who agreed to talk to me as
part of the process, whether formally or informally. It is these conversations
that inspired me, challenged me, and made me reflect over the years. I hope
I have represented our conversations fairly, and any errors are exclusively
mine. This book is the product of several conversations with colleagues,
without which it would have been infinitely inferior. The second big thank
you goes to Sophie Harman and Sara Davies; they allowed me to brainstorm
ideas with them over lunches, drinks, Whatsapps and emails off and on for
three years which has significantly improved this book and kept me motiv-
ated to see it through to the end. Sophie Harman read an earlier iteration
of the first chapters of this book and suggested a significant restructure that
made so much sense. For having friends willing to support and provide such
sage advice, I shall forever be grateful.
A Wellcome Trust funded project “Zika and the Regulation of Health
Emergencies: Medical Abortion in Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador”
(210308/ Z/ 18/ Z) facilitated much of the learning for this book. My col-
leagues in this work, Sonia Corrêa, Sandra Valongueiro, Camila Abagaro,
