Before the 1850s, abortion was an accepted practice and midwives held valued positions in their communities. Women had to fight to pursue medical professions. Places like Harvard refused to admit women into their medical schools, so women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals.
There was bound to be a backlash.
Distorting Darwin's theory of evolution, the top male physicians of the day wrote bestselling books which stated women should never be allowed to attend college or enter any profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick.
Through exhaustive research, Lydia Reeder's The Cure for Women shows how gifted women like Mary Putnam Jacobi fought back. Her arsenal of weapons included things that the male physicians' did not: the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. Jacobi fought back with the facts, and the medical profession has never been the same.
I learned so much from reading The Cure for Women, unfortunately, a great deal of it with my teeth clenched. Men writing "learned" treatises on women's reproductive organs when they wouldn't know an ovary or a uterus if one came up and punched them in the nose. Why? Because they'd never seen any of these organs and had no idea how they worked. You would think that we would have all the misinformation squared away here in the twenty-first century, but we don't. The fight for control over women's bodies is still happening, proving that we need more people like Mary Putnam Jacobi-- and more people to read this marvelously researched book.
The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine that Changed Women's Lives Forever
by Lydia Reeder
eISBN: 9781250284464
St. Martin's Press © 2024
eBook, 336 pages
Non-Fiction
Rating: B+
Source: Net Galley
It does sound very, very well researched, Cathy! And it's a part of history that we need to remember and teach. But I think t his one would absolutely make my blood boil. It's one of those books I should read, but I'd have to wait until I can handle that aspect of it...
ReplyDeleteI understand completely. Many times as I read, my teeth were clenched and my blood trying to boil.
DeleteMary Putnam Jacobi sounds like an amazing woman! And I often get angered my how men have treated women over time in such condescending ways. I'll have to put this book on my TBR list. Happy Monday! :D
ReplyDeleteShe was amazing, and I had to smile (as a voracious reader) that Jacobi's father was founder of the G.P. Putnam publishing house.
DeleteThat's a fascinating story. We must never forget how much we owe to our sisters who have fought battles over the years to give women equal opportunities with men and equal recognition for their accomplishments. And the fight goes on.
ReplyDeleteAnd on and on...
DeleteI know the feeling of being angry and realising the futility of it.
ReplyDeletei think many of us do.
DeleteSounds very good, but I'd have to worry about my blood pressure. I didn't know about the heroine Mary Putnam Jacobi, but I'd like to learn about her. Putting this on my TBR list.This is so relevant today when men are passing laws to deny women bodily autonomy and essential health care. And there have been dire results and also cover-ups of the truth of the bad policies denying women necessary health care. I don't think that being angry necessarily leads to futility. After all, anger got women the right to vote, divorce, get our own credit cards, own property and have reproductive health care, fight back against sexual abuse, get higher pay and better jobs. No way are these rights guaranteed, but women are and will fight back.
ReplyDeleteI thought of you when I read this, Kathy.
DeleteThsnks, Cathy. I'm reading a novel, second in a series, about women doctors in the 1880s in New York, who could not attend classes, procedures, autopsies in many hospitals. But from reading the review, it seems as if Mary Putnam Jacobi was one great fighter for women doctors and women's health care. This book sparks interest in me.
ReplyDeleteShe was a great fighter.
DeleteA terrific review for this book and for Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi in the NY Times yesterday. Also, she is mentioned in "Where the Light Enters," by Sara Donati, the second of two novels set in 1880s NYC about two women doctors. She seemed pretty stern, as did her spouse, Dr. Jacobi, who encouraged women doctors.
ReplyDeleteYes, he did encourage women doctors... but he didn't react well when his wife started getting more notice than he did.
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