Women, Body, Illness

This provocative and moving work explores concepts of body and space to better understand the daily lives and struggles of women with chronic illness. Moss and Dyck show how such women—coping with associated notions of illness, health, and being female—restructure their physical and social environments through the strategies they choose to accommodate disabling illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis. Strategies might include disclosing or concealing illness from employers and friends; seeking or rejecting emotional support through old friends and new contacts; and pursuing or resisting specific diagnoses from the biomedical community. Featuring a wealth of original research and personal stories, Women, Body, Illness tells the tales of chronically ill women forging networks of support, redefining themselves, and challenging what it is to be ill.

This provocative work explores concepts of body and space to understand the daily struggles of women with chronic illness. Moss and Dyck show how such women—coping with notions of illness, health, and being female—restructure physical and social environments through strategies to accommodate disabling illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis. Featuring original research and personal stories, Women, Body, Illness tells the tales of women forging networks of support, redefining themselves, and challenging what it is to be ill.

Pamela Moss is a feminist geographer in the faculty of human and social development at the University of Victoria. Isabel Dyck is a social geographer in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences and a faculty associate in women's studies at the University of British Columbia.