Women’s Mental Health: Resistance and Resilience in Community and Society

​This book focuses on the social and societal context of women’s mental health. Drawing from multidisciplinary perspectives and scholarship, it pays particular attention to how women’s mental health is experienced at the personal level, yet it is influenced by their relationships and interacts with the larger societal context (such as prevailing gender equality policies, income distribution, role burden, peace and security). Specific attention is given to the positive aspects of women’s mental health (such as agency, resilience) and how women’s personal relations across diverse domains (such as family, work, neighbourhoods) are constructed and influenced by, and in turn influence, broader societal structures/ policies/ opportunities. A unique feature of this book is that, at the end of each chapter, there is a Response section written by a non-academic such as a community member, practitioner or policy maker in which the invited authors respond to the chapter texts in the form of narrative, poetry, and/or prose, according to their various backgrounds, interests, and experiences.​

Dr. Khanlou is the women’s health research chair in mental health in the Faculty of Health at York University and an associate professor in its School of Nursing. Professor Khanlou’s clinical background is in psychiatric nursing. Her overall program of research is situated in the interdisciplinary field of community-based mental health promotion in general, and mental health promotion among youth and women in multicultural and immigrant-receiving settings in particular. Dr. Khanlou was the 2011-2013 co-director of the Ontario Multicultural Health Applied Research Network. She is founder of the International Network on Youth Integration, an international network for knowledge exchange and collaboration on youth. Dr. Pilkington is associate professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, Canada, where she has been a faculty member since 1999. From 2009 to 2012 she served as the School’s first associate director for research and graduate education, and she is currently the inaugural coordinator for an interdisciplinary BA and BSc program in global health. Dr. Pilkington’s clinical background is in maternal-newborn and women’s health. Current research includes community-based studies with youth and sole support mothers living in a marginalized neighbourhood, with a focus on resilience, health and well-being.