tender_onion's review

Go to review page

informative medium-paced

3.5

With the exception of quoting others, the language chosen by the author is cisheteronormative, and almost exclusively describes experiences of cisgender women. 

This was a bit of a let down for a book that was otherwise intersectional, as it failed to share/reflect on how many of the topics discussed also impact trans people, and not just people who were assigned female at birth (including trans men, trans women, nonbinary folks, two-spirit people, agender people, gender nonconforming folks, and everyone else whose gender resides outside of the gender binary). 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jrrrck's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

thanks to netgalley & tiller press for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women is just okay. As other reviewers have pointed out, the marketing is a bit off. The title and description should have made it more clear that Hossain's dominant focus is sexism and racism within maternity healthcare. Most of the stories, policies, statistics, and suggestions related specifically to maternal health which is just one aspect of women's health and a facet that many women do not experience! She's also notably focused specifically on cisgender women's experience; at no point are there stories or reference points that introduce how anti-trans bias affect women's healthcare (or, on the flip side, care related to pregnancy).

There's also no substantive exploration of how either anti-fat bias affects healthcare access for women or women of color, especially black women. This is a huge point of health inequity and there are resources available to address it; it's a glaring omission and weakens the overall introduction and analysis of the topic. The primary mention of it was towards the end when she quotes Regen Chastain's advice about avoiding anti-fat bias at the doctor's office (which just amounts to ... look up doctor's ahead of time? lmao). For a more helpful resource for this specifically, I really recommend What's Wrong with Fat? by Abigail Saguy.

Finally, there's very little exploration of how financial inequity within healthcare and how that negatively impacts women and women of color. Again, really surprising especially given that she correctly identifies and highlights how much the United States underperform when it comes to maternity health. But believing women and women's pain isn't the only point of inequity within women's healthcare. The prohibitive cost of healthcare in the United States is part of the inequity that is almost completely ignored in The Pain Gap

If this book were to serve as an introduction to the topic, it would be missing major facets of the issue. I wouldn't recommend it, unfortunately. I had much higher hopes!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sisakat's review

Go to review page

informative sad medium-paced

2.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jackie_reads_314's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative fast-paced

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

raemow's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging hopeful informative slow-paced

3.5

This book wasn’t really about pain. It was about pregnancy and maternal health, how racism impacts women’s health, and the impact of Covid and the pandemic on pregnancy. There was really only one chapter about pain. The content is definitely important and a topic the author is obviously passionate about, but the title was misleading. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tmchopra's review

Go to review page

challenging informative fast-paced

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

selenaskitels's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark hopeful informative medium-paced

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

triple_m's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative

4.0

This book had good, useful information, but was definitely repetitive at times. The overall topics were focusing on the high childbirth mortality rate in America, racism, and healthcare, and how COVID is forcing women to stay home, further reinforcing dated gender roles and setting back progress. Rather than focusing on one topic at a time, the book jumps back and forth quite a book, leading to some of the repetitiveness.

I wish I had the authors optimism for the future. Even though she had written an entire book on fatal flaws of American practices, I still felt she looked at the country with rose-colored goggles.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

misssleepless's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings