The History Of Medicine During The Late 1840 ' S

“changing face of medicine.” She also wrote many informing publications such as, The Scientific Method In Biology, and the, Human Element in Sex. All that she had accomplished created a new chapter in medical history where women become apart of the healthcare professions.

If you think being a woman is hard these days, try being the only female in medical school in the mid-1800s. Women are not allowed to attend college let alone medical school, but the way has been paved by Elizabeth Blackwell, a recent graduate of Geneva College. Mary, at the age of 21

“Brought to Bed”, by Judith Walzer Leavitt, is the story of childbirth in America from 1750 to 1970, and details how women in America dealt with childbirth or being “brought to bed”, the fears they had and how they coped with those fears, as well as the shift from using midwives who came to your home and having a large, female support network surround you, to using doctors and moving from the home setting into a hospital. The book is divided up into several sections, and used the diaries, letters, and notes from both women who were patients and the doctors who tended to them. These chapters deal with the transition from home to hospital by outlining different reasons for why this shift may have occurred, and who the driving force behind this was. The author poses a thesis, “By examining closely the ways childbirth has changed, I hope to illuminate some basic aspects of women’s lives in the past while at the same time analyzing the evolution of medical and

Woolsey articulates, “‘these annoyances could not have been endured by the nurses but for the knowledge that they were pioneers, who were, if possibly, to gain standing ground for others-who must create the position they wished to occupy” . This excerpt exposes the true barrier between the sexes in the workplace. However, Woolsey brings up an important point- although women were treated at an unfair advantage, their persistence in the workplace paved the way for future women. Miss Bucklin recalls her first day entering the hospital thinking, “‘If any woman has done this, I can’” . Bucklin’s statement truly illuminates how one woman’s victory was a victory for all women; one female nurse or doctor inspired many more to enter the field of medicine regardless of gender

Many people think men are the ones to handle strong things like being a surgeon or diagnosing disease. According to 100 Most Important Women in the 20th century book, there is a struggle of women doctors/ nurses succeeding to become what they first intended to be. Virginia Apgar is one woman that went through this struggle. Clara Baton is another woman that is very inspiring and the founder of Red Cross. A more recent inspiring women doctor is Dr. Ronda Bondar. Not a lot of people recognize the historic women accomplishments and impacts as much as men’s accomplishments. All of these women made an impact some way, and not everyone takes the time to appreciate what females have done.

Over 5000 volunteer nurses’ north and south served in military hospitals during the Civil War. Nurses were of all sorts and came from all over. Women wanted to be involved in this national struggle in any way they could. They did not want to stay home and play their traditional domestic roles that social convention and minimal career opportunities had confined the majority of their sex to. Many women thought of nursing as an extension of their home duties, almost like taking care of “their boys.” They recall the Civil War as a time when their work as nurses made a difference. It gave them an opportunity to prove they had the ability and courage to help.

I unfortunately didn’t have enough time to of course to completely solidify my findings. But one thing that is for sure is that the Healthcare field grew in a short amount of time, there was so much intelligence back then that we only think of bone saw but in reality they had things that seemed to defy what should have been normal at the time, and this of course is just a start of my findings. For the research part on woman I found that surprisingly Florence Nightingale wasn’t technically the first Nurse. There had been a pioneer in England that you’ll find in one of my sources listed in the bibliography that isn’t necessarily relevant to make the point. Next I found that woman seemed to pioneer it as a means for a platform to build in a way the woman’s right moment and just because they wanted to help out. Especially when wars broke out there had been fewer men at home and more men in the Homefront. In total I believe that this topic could swing to a different topic in multiple ways such as Healthcare through the ages, the war, how men became nurses, the process of nursing school back then, and as you can see this also goes on. My one un-answered question is how they cured someone back then. There’s mostly home cures but no solid book from a professional that could tell me what exactly they did back then. Overall I believe I’ve covered this

Second women in medicine until the 19th century women were excluded from almost all professional medicine. Yet they provided almost all medical care. Ordinary people could not afford qualified doctors, treatment and care were provided by the woman of the house, or by a local woman skilled in the art of healing. In prehistoric, hunter-gatherer societies, women could not hunt if they were bearing or caring for children, so they collected plants and grubs. It is probable that the women had greater knowledge of the healing powers of herbs, although evidence is slight. Mothers passed down their knowledge to their daughters. In Western Europe, especially skilled healers were highly respected as ‘cunning’ wise women. Sometimes their herbal knowledge was confused with witchcraft. As most people were illiterate, there are very few records of women 's huge contribution to medicine. The surviving records were written by men, and concentrate on the all-male medical profession. In the 19th century there was a dramatic change in the status of women. Until this time, men controlled all ‘civilized’ societies. In Christian countries men used arguments from the Bible to justify women 's inferior status. Women were expected to be housewives and mothers, and were deliberately excluded from almost all other types of work. For example, by the 17th century, even professional midwives were male. In 19th-century Europe, women began to enter the male-dominated world. In

The popular portrayal of American medicine greatly evolved over the course of the 20th century in many ways. In the beginning of the century, doctors were considered hero with magical powers to heal everyone through their knowledge. This can be shown in the "men in white" clip, where doctors are portrayed as the highest level and they take charge in the operating room. Also, only men were in the medical field because being a doctor showed more power and men were considered more powerful in that era (Not As A Stranger). As the years progressed, women joined the healthcare field as a nurse and more focus

Women who worked in skilled level positions such as practicing physicians were non-existent in the 19th century. This lack of female presence in those higher levels served as the catalyst of what was arguably one of the most reprehensible misdiagnosis for women in modern times. Without an objective balance in the male dominated field, irrational theories were readily accepted as fact. While there were an abundance of nurses, woman were not encouraged to take their interest in this crucial field to a professional level.

Ever wonder what an example of a strong, independent woman was? Try the first female doctor; Elizabeth Blackwell. Blackwell’s inspiration came from a dying friend that suggested that she would have been spared less suffering if her doctor had been a woman. Originally, Blackwell was repelled by the thought of anything having remotely anything to do with medicine or the body. Thus began her search for a place to begin her new study. She did, however, get banned from practicing in most hospitals in 1849. The search a place that would accept a woman doctor was limited and hard work.

In past centuries, only women attended to women during childbirth. Men were usually not involved, unless they were needed for their strength or other emergencies. However, with the medicalization of childbirth, the presence of male physicians emerged. By the 19th century, tensions between male physicians and midwives heightened as male physicians began to introduce new techniques and anatomical knowledge that interfered with the traditional social birthing process. Much of this tension rose from the gender roles that categorized the work and success of men and women within the work of childbirth. In A Midwife’s Tale, Laurel Ulrich explores Martha’s diary to present the challenges midwives faced during the late 18th century. Midwives, such as Martha Ballard, were challenged by male physicians and diverged from the style of their work because of the perception that omen were considered more emotional, nurturing, and social in their work while men were more knowledgeable of science, anatomy, and new tools.

Scientific medicine blamed mothers for both infantile disease and mortality, yet also “devalued motherly instinct and traditional knowledge”(Apple 167) comparing motherhood to a profession, stating that they needed to learn how to raise their children through the advice of a physician.

Although never a major part, male nurses have been involved in the nursing occupation since the start. In the beginning, men provided treatment to the sick and dying as early as 400BC and 500BC. The actions that led to the profession of nursing also led to the prevention of male nurses from entering the profession. In the 1800’s Florence Nightingale believed women had a natural ability to care for the sick and dying. She established nursing schools that did not mix male and female students together. By doing this, men were barred from attending these types of nursing schools. However, men were able to work in mental hospitals where their physical strength was used to restrain patients. These types of hospitals provided men training in

Despite the fact that today in the 21st century the nursing field is unisex, there are countless women like those mentioned prior and others such as Mary Mahoney, the first credentialed African American U.S. nurse, who made it possible to have such a longstanding profession and have it branch out to the many fields of nursing careers available in 2014 (Weatherford, D., 2010). Nurses such as Florence Nightingale contributed to successfully making changes in nursing and how patients are cared for. She is also noted for her contribution to nurse research that began in 1859 through her interest and studies in environmental factors that influence the emotional and physical wellbeing of patients (Audain, C., 2014). Another contribution Nightingale made to the