The Science of Woman

'Moscucci has highlighted some critical debates concerning women's bodies and medical practice. She … draws on a wide range of material and disciplines to give a focused and coherent argument which provides a stimulating and valuable discussion for anyone interested in gender, the history of medicine and cultural attitudes.' Gender and History

• 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.