A Historical Review of the Depiction of Women in Cardiovascular Literature

Abstract

A historical review of the literature demonstrates that women have long been acknowledged as suffering from cardiac disease and disorder. Until recently, women's experience with cardiac disease was investigated primarily as the cardiac disease impinged on pregnancy or women's ability to carry out home-related duties. Only in the last decade has a more appropriate and more holistic view of women's unique experience with cardiac disease been undertaken. The authors attribute this new perspective in health literature, in large part, to the advancement of feminist approach and critique.