The contributors to this volume have written a synthetic overview of the history of the health experience of women in America. We see women as actors and reactors, as healers and patients, as well as objects of medical and sociological research. The contributors emphasize the theme of medicalization, that is, the increasing reach of professional medicine into areas previously considered outside the domain of medical practice. They also highlight the enlargement of our conceptions of health and medicine. We learn of the ideological, social, cultural, economic, technological, and scientific factors that influence our health beliefs and medical values.