12/18/2006

Starting in Fall 2007, Suffolk University will offer the first comprehensive social science-based graduate program in the country to focus on women’s health—the Master of Arts in Women’s Health (MAWH).

In-depth study of health issues affecting women

Students in the MAWH program will gain knowledge of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, eating and body image problems, and the health concerns of our aging population.

Coursework includes skills in coalition building, community organizing, legislative advocacy, fundraising, marketing, media relations, and public presentation skills.

Academic training is combined with a hands-on community internship to give students both intellectual and practical tools for working with women of diverse ages and backgrounds.

Training researchers, policy analysts and advocates

The MAWH program is designed for recent college graduates, for people already working in fields related to women’s health and well being, and for career-changers. It prepares students for success in careers for which little formal training currently exists, such as HIV/AIDS education, women’s health policy, domestic violence prevention and intervention, and patient advocacy.

Graduates of the program will be prepared to sensitize hospitals, community organizations, courts, prisons, and schools about the social, economic, political and cultural realities that contribute to women’s health and health care challenges. The knowledge and skills acquired by program graduates will contribute to the framing of policies and programs that more fully serve women’s needs.

“As the clinical focus on women’s health care grows, a parallel need exists for educators and other professionals to develop a deeper working knowledge of, and sensitivity to, comprehensive, social science-based perspectives about women’s health issues,” said Amy Agigian, program director of the Master of Arts in Women’s Health.

“This is a crucial time to educate professionals who can speak to, help shape, and, where necessary, challenge what are emerging as the dominant discourses around women’s health.”

The MAWH can also serve as a pre-PhD degree for students unable to find such a concentration in their doctoral programs.

First of its kind program will serve as national model

“Many individuals working in women’s health-related fields desire a broader, contextual knowledge base to enable them to serve their communities and clients as fully as possible,” says Susan Sered, program co-director of the Master of Arts in Women’s Health.

Yet potential specialists in women’s health lack options when it comes to relevant graduate programs with a non-clinical focus. Very few MPH programs offer concentrations in Women’s Health, and those that do also require a majority of coursework unrelated to women’s issues.

According to the National Women’s Studies Association, 40% of U.S. colleges and universities offer undergraduate degrees in Women’s Studies, however, only 46 nationwide grant masters level degrees in that field, and, until the MAWH program, not one of these focused specifically on women’s health.

Suffolk’s Master of Arts in Women’s Health is an innovative and exciting program that will serve as a national model in the growing interdisciplinary field of Women’s Health.

Program Directors

Amy Agigian, PhD (program director) is the author of Baby Steps: How Lesbian Alternative Insemination is Changing the World. A feminist medical sociologist, Dr. Agigian maintains rich networks in the women’s health communities of Boston and beyond. She is founding director of Suffolk University’s Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights.

Susan Sered, PhD (program co-director) is the author of Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity and What Makes Women Sick: Maternity, Modesty, and Militarism in Israeli Society. Her research interests span the fields of anthropology, gender studies, sociology, and religious studies. Sered is the former director of Harvard University’s ‘Religion, Health and Healing’ research initiative.

Back to News »