A trailblazing conversation-starting history of women’s health–from Ancient Greece to hormones and autoimmune diseases—brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative
In thirteenth-century Europe, Roman Catholicism decreed that menstruation was the curse of Eve, part of the punishment issued by God to all earthly women. In the 1860s, female circumcision was considered a respective cure for misunderstood diseases including endometriosis and epilepsy. At the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, between 1950 and 1954, three women aged twenty-eight, thirty-two, and forty-three and identified only as housewives, underwent prefrontal lobotomies as cures for ulcerative colitis. Initial clinical trials of birth control were conducted in Puerto Rico, on some of the poorest residents of the United States. Of those who participated in the trial, many suffered debilitating side effects and three died–but their deaths were never reported in the subsequent release of the pill. In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn explores this almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women, and shows how the legacy of disenfranchisement and discrimination is alive and well in the contemporary relationship between women and sickness.
CW: sexism, racism, gore elements
Rating
Review
I was a little afraid to read this book, and at the same time was dying to read it as I was sure it was an interesting one.
This book confirms how society and medicine are linked together and how they see women as just diseases that need to be treated. But we don’t care about the consequences. I liked to see how the whole society, and in every aspect of it, make women like puppets and the impact it has on medicine. This will make you roll your eyes a hundred times per page; I was afraid they would be stuck at some point. But, you feel that the author is interested in this subject, as she lived it and want to share her feeling toward it and show that it’s not new for a woman to be treated like that. The element I really liked was the way she isn’t shy about racism and sexism, and neither is she skittish about the gory side of their consequences.
However, the structure wasn’t for me. I found that the three parts and the chapters weren’t enough. The book is first and foremost divided by centuries, then in those significant parts, you have how medicine sees women. That way creates some interesting and compelling features. Other parts are a little long, making them dense to read and sometimes repetitive, especially when you have many groups formed to tackle a subject. Also, even if I was listening to the book while I was reading it, I was quickly losing my focus on it as you sometimes don’t have anything that will renew my interest. It also lacks connection from time to time, making a chapter hard to understand and what the author wants to say.
This book helps to have a more comprehensive sight of how medicine sees and treats women globally. Although it’s not a book for everyone as it can be complicated to read as the writing is unequal following the chapter you are in, sometimes it’s easy to read and understand, but it also feels like a thesis.
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