Skip to main content
Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health

Women's, Sexual and Reproductive Health

Sexual and Reproductive Health

The Department's Work in women's, sexual, and reproductive health seeks to ensure women’s and sexual/reproductive health and wellness for all and eliminate discriminatory barriers.

We do so by using a social determinants lens that spans biological roots, interpersonal dynamics, community attributes and norms, and structural forces. Our faculty and students work to generate the evidence, inform policies and test evidence-based strategies to overcome disparities and support rights and justice. Tools include social epidemiology, gender analysis, behavioral science and intersectionality. Key research addresses social disparities in women’s health and sexual and reproductive health including contraceptive behaviors and abortion, sexually transmitted infection including HIV, gender-based violence issues. We also lead the way in adolescent sexual reproductive health research in locations from Shanghai to Baltimore and address men’s sexual health and the impact of masculinity on health.

We inform the development of policy, programs and practice through research, community partnerships, public education, and evidence-based advocacy. We train a network of scholars and public health practitioners as the next generation of leaders in the field through a combination of scholarship, coursework, applied training, and policy leadership.

Our collaborations include work with:

  1. The Johns Hopkins Center for Women's Health, Sex, and Gender Differences, an interdisciplinary collaborative across the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing.
  2. The William H. Gates Sr. Institute for Population and Reproductive Health which conducts and facilitates cutting-edge research in family planning, reproductive health, and population dynamics and translates science into evidence-informed policies, programs, and practice.
  3. The Center for Public Health Advocacy, which facilitates innovation in advocacy research, teaching and practice; to connect leaders across public health disciplines; and to generate future public health professionals who are as skilled in advocacy as they are in science and public health practice.