Urban Women Worldwide Share Health Problems

PHILADELPHIA, -- For the first time in history, more than half of the world's population lives in urban environments, and the Penn-ICOWHI 18th Conference will explore redesigning cities for active living, increasing access to health care, treating adolescent girls in high-risk environments, eliminating policy gaps that undermine women's health, and curbing intimate-partner violence.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, with the International Congress of Women's Health Issues, will host "Cities and Women's Health: Global Perspectives," Wednesday, April 7, through Saturday, April 10, on Penn's campus to examine the health disparities shared by urban women across the world, and kicked off by President Obama's Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Health Melanne Verveer.

The Penn-ICOWHI conference will bring international experts in city planning, health policy, public policy, education, sociology, and others together to address how health issues facing women are exacerbated by city living. Speakers will include:

A refugee from Kenya who will discuss the health of women affected by post-election violence
A Women's Health Volunteer from Iran; currently, 100,000 such volunteers provide care for nearly 20 million people in the country
Mamphela Ramphele, MD, a leading anti-apartheid activist and current executive chair of Circle Capital Ventures, aCape Town-based black economic empowerment company
Sheela Patel, founder and director of a Mumbai-based NGO designed to address the needs of "slumdog's mother" – women living on pavements and in slums in different parts of India

Cities affect the health of women all over the globe, from maternal mortality rates in the slums of New Delhi – where a study to be presented at the conference found poor pregnant women were routinely refused admission and denied registration in local hospitals and forced to deliver their babies without proper medical care – to infant mortality rates in America – where another conference session will present data that show infant mortality rates are higher in poorer neighborhoods than national averages.

For more information on how cities impact women's health, visit http://pennicowhi.wordpress.com/