Abstract

HILLESHEIM, Betina; SOMAVILLA, Vera da Costa; DHEIN, Gisele  and  LARA, Lutiane de. Women’s health and government practices in public policies. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2009, vol.15, n.1, pp. 196-211. ISSN 1677-1168.

This paper results from the research work Health policies: a study on daily practices in a maternity facility, developed in a regional hospital in Rio Grande do Sul State between 2004 and 2005. Starting from Michel Foucault’s perspective, it discusses how knowledge and power relations organized around the subject “women” are produced, considering certain government technologies aimed at women’s health. Understanding the field of health as a historically unique experience, it questions how some government procedures objectify that subject. Therefore, it considers how discourses present in health public policies dictate certain forms of life by prescribing the care women should have with their bodies and appropriate procedures, as well as relations with their children, families and the health team.

Keywords : gender; identity; health public policies; women’s health.

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