No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The author of In Her Own Right: The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues has astutely recognized that the explosion of information on women's health issues in recent years is often conflicting and that this, in turn, has caused confusion in women who are attempting to make health care decisions for themselves. This book's aim is to "provide a framework for thinking about these issues" by "translating the finest scholarship into terms that will help any woman ask the right questions and make the right choices" regarding her health. Benderly is described on the book's jacket as "an award winning health and psychology writer"; however, her academic credentials, research background, and job experiences are not provided. This information would aid the reader to determine whether the author is indeed qualified to evaluate the quality and timeliness of the research that has been reviewed for this text.
Benderly wrote this book under the auspices of the Institute of Medicine (IOM); therefore, the research data she employed are Institute of Medicine publications, dating from 1982 to 1994. She describes the IOM as a "scientific body chartered by the United States Congress to provide expert consultation on pressing public issues." She states that the IOM has assembled committees of recognized experts and has a "quarter century of unbiased study," which has "created a body of trustworthy information for fair, balanced and responsible considerations." It is this reviewer's opinion that all scientific research has some degree of bias. The author does not provide evidence for her conclusion that the IOM is unbiased; otherwise, she appears to have a good understanding of the issue of bias from examples she provides throughout the text, especially in her chapter entitled "Research on Women, Women in Research." In this chapter, she describes how bias has existed in both the setting of medical research priorities and subject selection, and the implication this has for women's health.
Benderly describes the book's intellectual framework as coming from three principles: 1) health is the inter-
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