Roles, work, health perceptions and health resources of women: A study in an Egyptian delta hamlet

Women's health needs can only be described and programs to address them implemented with an understanding of women's multiple roles and responsibilities. A life-cycle approach to examining women's roles and responsibilities provides a useful framework to achieve such understanding. This paper describes the results of a study conducted in a rural village in Egypt that examines the daily life experiences of women, their work, their family responsibilities, their health perceptions and their health resources. We argue that programs designed to address women's health needs must consider these critical aspects of their lives. This argument is based on the premise that women's health needs have been neglected and efforts to ameliorate this situation should be a top priority in the international health care agenda of the 1990s.