"From prescribing the "rest cure" to diagnosing hysteria, the medical profession has consistently treated women as weak and pathological. Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English's concise history of the sexual politics of medical practices shows how the biomedical rationale was used to justify sex discrimination throughout the culture, and how its vestiges are evident in abortion policy and other reproductive rights struggles today"--Provided by publisher.
Contents
Introduction: A perspective on the social role of medicine -- Women and medicine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- The "sick" women of the upper classes -- The "sickening" women of the working class -- Notes on the situation today (1973) -- From here on: concluding thoughts.