This paper discusses issues that surround educational actions in the health field, based on the proposal included in the materials from the PAISM - Programa de Atenção Integral à Saúde da Mulher (Complete Attention to Women's Health Program), published during the eighties, which was developed and implemented with substantial articipation of the feminist movement. The advances brought about by the participation of the social movement in the development and implementation of health policies are discussed, as well as those impasses in providing assistance that resulted from participation. The conclusion reached is that the program did not fail to confront and to indicate risks and possibilities in the integration of the question of power within health-care services, whether through reference to male-female issues in society, or whether through reference to the relationship between health care and women, raising important ethical and political issues with regard to the internal operation of the services. The potential technical interpretation of this matter - a possibility given both socially and historically - revealed itself, however, pretermitted by conflicts and dilemmas, from the ethical and political to the scientific and technological, such as the difficulty in balancing quality and quantity, technical knowledge and folk wisdom, as well as in questioning the power relations within institutions acknowledged by society to hold great technical and moral authority.
women's health; community health service; health education
