Synopsis:
Victorian male doctors used false science to argue that women were unfit for anything but motherhood—and the brilliant doctor who defied them. After Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school, more women demanded a chance to study medicine. Barred entrance to universities like Harvard, women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. Their success spurred a chilling backlash from elite, white male physicians who were obsessed with eugenics and the propagation of the white race. Distorting Darwin’s evolution theory, these haughty physicians proclaimed in bestselling books that women should never be allowed to attend college or enter a profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick. Motherhood was their constitution and duty. Into the midst of this turmoil marched tiny, dynamic Mary Putnam Jacobi, daughter of New York publisher George Palmer Putnam and the first woman to be accepted into the world-renowned Sorbonne medical school in Paris. As one of the best-educated doctors in the world, she returned to New York for the fight of her life. Aided by other prominent women physicians and suffragists, Jacobi conducted the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women’s reproductive biology. The results of her studies shook the foundations of medical science and higher education. Full of larger than life characters and cinematically written, The Cure for Women documents the birth of a sexist science still haunting us today as the fight for control of women’s bodies and lives continues.
My Edition:
E-ARC provided by Net Galley
My Thoughts:
Although this book ostensibly focuses on Mary Putnam Jacobi (yes, that Putnam), it also puts about as much focus on other early woman doctors such as Marie Zakrzewska and the Blackwell sisters (Elizabeth and Emily).
These are all fascinating women, who are not without their flaws, and I do appreciate that Reeder didn’t shy away from them – for example, Elizabeth Blackwell didn’t take a shine to women’s rights (they were smart enough to practice medicine, but not to have political voice [????????????]), vaccines, or birth control, for example.
It’s honestly terrifying, the parallels between the world these women had to navigate, and the world we live in today. They did SO much work to advance the rights of women (excepting ol’ Lizzy), and so much work to bring legitimacy to the practice of medicine by women (a thing women have been practing….oh, forever). And we are now absolutely barreling backward at light speed thanks to Manosphere freakshows and general Patriarchal panicking.
Like, part of me wanted to be horrified at how backward Victorians were but…we are currently well on our way to proving that we want nothing more than to be at least that backward right now. The parallels are truly disturbing. Like, men didn’t want women to be able to access birth control – check. No like the abortions – check. Women are too feeble-minded and fragile for Big Boy careers like medicine – probably doing that one again too. We’re regressive, misogynist losers just like they were. And it’s sad, frankly.
The Cure for Women is about a small number of women who were so determined to practice medicine that they smashed their way into it. I hope we can all take a lesson from them and just Hulk Smash the life out of any man who tells us we are too emotional or somehow genetically inferior to them and thus unfit to pursue the same career paths as them. Because somehow we’ve re-normalized that mindset.
I hate it here.
Rating:
A well researched and informative book that is written in a very engaging manner. The Cure for Women is a fascinating read.
The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever
By Lydia Reeder
St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 9781250284457
Published: December 3, 2024
Hardcover, E-book, Audio
320 Pages
