In this narrative medicine essay, a physician recalls that when she presented with a suspected appendicitis as a medical student, she repeatedly requested a con
Good for business but bad for women
In her 2021 book Unwell Women ,1 the feminist historian Elinor Cleghorn charts the long and troubling story of medicine’s approach to women, their bodies, and their illnesses. From Plato’s description of “vexed and aggrieved” wombs that wandered throughout the body wreaking physical and mental havoc, to the exclusion of women from clinical trials until the late 1980s,2 women, Cleghorn notes, have been subjected to a gender bias “ingrained in medical culture and practice for centuries.” Policies and practice in public health do not escape charges of misogyny and bias either often viewing women’s health needs as synonymous with their reproductive systems and reproductive capacity.3 In the past few years, however, a different perspective on women’s health has taken hold across large parts of medicine and medical practice: women’s health as a source of profit. And in an added twist, companies involved in the commercialisation of women�
Elinor Cleghorn, author of Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World , reflects on witch trials, birth control and fainting couches. Elinor spoke to Justine Canady. In your book you tell the story of Anne Greene, who had a stillbirth and was put on trial in 1650 for “Destroying and Murdering Bastard Children”. This would have been during the most intense stages of the witch trials. How should feminists understand this historical period?
Elinor Cleghorn, author of Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World , reflects on witch trials, birth control and fainting couches. Elinor spoke to Justine Canady. In your book you tell the story of Anne Greene, who had a stillbirth and was put on trial in 1650 for “Destroying and Murdering Bastard Children”. This would have been during the most intense stages of the witch trials. How should feminists understand this historical period?
AN actress and poet from Henley has co-edited a new anthology of poetry written by neurodivergent women. The contributors to Kaleidoscopic Minds are from a gene.