Women in Medicine

Broomhall, Susan. “Women and the medical guilds.” In Women’s medical work in early modern France. Manchester: Manchester University Press ;, 2004. 16-43.

This text focuses on the medical work that women did in Early Modern France. There is focus on the actual work they did and also on how men felt about women’s roles. It gives detail accounts of court cases and publishing put forth by men on the subject matter. The specific chapter chosen concentrates primarily on midwives, their experience, and the scrutiny they faced in society as well in court for their incompetence due to their lack of education.

Green, Monica H.. “Men’s Practice of Women’s Medicine in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.” In Making women’s medicine masculine: The rise of male authority in pre-modern gynecology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 246-285.

This entire book consists of different articles written by different authors who are analyzing the shift of women’s medicine becoming masculine in the early modern Europe. Green starts the book with presenting a case that was presented in court against a female practitioner. This case lays out the foundation for the rest of the book. In the chapter selected, the focus is on male perspective of medical matters during the 13th and 14th centuries. After over a hundred years, this is the first time there is real interest in gynecology and women’s medicine. The chapter details on what the universities and the physicians who attended them were dedicated to.

Green, Monica H.. The Trotula: a medieval compendium of women’s medicine. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2001.

This source was originally written in Southern Italy consists of a group of three books that deals with women’s medicine in the 12^th century.  The texts eventually went on to circulate all through medieval Europe during the Middle Ages. Conditions of Women, Treatments for Women, and Women’s Cosmetics are the three books that are under The Trotula. The books were a guide to women for everything from childbirth to cosmetics.

Long, Kathleen P.. “Touching and Telling: Gendered Variations on a Gynecological Theme.” In Gender and scientific discourse in early modern culture. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2010. 259-278.

This book consists of articles that illustrates the narrowing of women’s roles in medicine during the early modern time. The chapter concentrates on gynecology and how it shifted into the control of men during the sixteenth century and how women felt about it. The chapter heavily focuses on two narratives – one from male physician and the other from a female poet – both using Agnodice, the first female gynecologist to put forth their arguments.

Wiesner, Merry E.. “Women’s Economic Role.” In Women and gender in early modern Europe. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 114-116.

This source serves as a foundation for the research paper as it gives basic information on women’s everyday roles in medical facilities. The few pages refer to what the expectations were for women. These expectation included roles within an institution – like a church or a hospital, and also their role outside institutions. Also, the excerpt addresses the more economical aspects such as what women who fulfilled these roles were paid.