The science of woman: gynaecology and gender in England, 1800-1929

Abstract

Introduction Part I. The Problem of Femininity: 1. Woman's sexuality and population concerns 2. Woman's place in nature 3. Nature and the environment 4. A theory of femininity 5. Physiology and social roles Part II. Men-Midwives and Medicine: The Origins of a Profession: 6. Midwives and accoucheurs 7. The 'obstetric revolution' and eighteenth-century medical politics 8. The nineteenth century: obstetrics, gynaecology and general practice 9. Educated accoucheurs Part III. The Rise of the Women's Hospitals: 10. Hospitals, specialists and nineteenth-century medicine 11. The first women's hospital 12. A moral institution 13. The Chelsea Hospital for Women Part IV. Woman and her diseases: 14. The pathology of femininity 15. Surgical analysis 16. Penetrating private parts: the 'speculum question' 17. Precept and practice Part V. The 'Unsexing' of Women: 18. Early controversies 19. A question of values 20. Pathological pregnancies 21. The triumph of ovariotomy 22. The Imlach affair Part VI. From the British Gynaecological Society to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists: 23. The 'handcuffed obstetrician' 24. The Meadows incident 25. A British gynaecological society 26. A college of obstetricians and gynaecologists 27. Restructuring the profession Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography.