The Pain Gap | |
Author: | Anushay Hossain |
Audio Read By: | Priya Ayyar |
Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
Pub Date: | 2021 |
Pages: | 288 |
Isbn: | 9781982177775 |
The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women is a nonfiction book about women's healthcare in the United States, written by Anushay Hossain and published by Simon & Schuster in 2021.[1]
Anushay Hossain previously worked as a policy analyst with the Feminist Majority Foundation, and as of 2021 was working as a freelance journalist and podcast host of Spilling Chai.[2] After her experience with healthcare related to pregnancy and giving birth in the United States, she began conducting research and interviews for a book with a focus on those issues, but as her research developed, she expanded her focus to women's healthcare more generally.[2]
The book includes Hossain's description of her childhood in Bangladesh, and the influence from her mother Tasmima Hossain.[3] She also describes her own experience with United States healthcare related to giving birth, descriptions of other cases, and statistics related to national and global disparities in healthcare.[4] [5]
In a review for Library Journal, Elizabeth Eastwood writes, "The book's tone effectively conveys Hossain's determination to change Western medicine's model of care, particularly for patients who are women of color; it's a call to arms for patients, to advocate for themselves and others", and "Hossain synthesizes a great deal of qualitative and quantitative data in this effective overview of bias in American medicine, particularly women's and maternal healthcare."[6]
In The Daily Star, Jackie Kabir writes, "One of the most striking pieces of information we get from her book is that the USA, which seems to be a vehement advocate of human rights and equality, in reality does not take women patients very seriously."[3] In South Asia Journal, Arnold Zeitlin writes, "Hossain has written an angry book that sheds light on an issue that confronts families the world over."[4]