Description

Book Synopsis
From the bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed and a former editor in chief Mother Jones, this women''s history classic brilliantly uncovers the constraints imposed on women in the name of science. Since the nineteenth century, professionals have been invoking scientific expertise to prescribe what women should do for their own good. Among the experts’ diagnoses and remedies: menstruation was an illness requiring seclusion; pregnancy, a disabling condition; and higher education, a threat to long-term health of the uterus. From clitoridectomies to tame women’s behavior in the nineteenth century to the censure of a generation of mothers as castrators in the 1950s, doctors have not hesitated to intervene in women’s sexual, emotional, and maternal lives. Even domesticity, the most popular prescription for a safe environment for women, spawned legions of “scientific” experts.
 
Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English has never lost fa

For Her Own Good

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    A Paperback by Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Random House Inc
      Published 1 April 2005
      ISBN-13 9781400078004
      978-1400078004
      ISBN-10 1400078008
      Also in:
      Gender studies: women and girls

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      From the bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed and a former editor in chief Mother Jones, this women''s history classic brilliantly uncovers the constraints imposed on women in the name of science. Since the nineteenth century, professionals have been invoking scientific expertise to prescribe what women should do for their own good. Among the experts’ diagnoses and remedies: menstruation was an illness requiring seclusion; pregnancy, a disabling condition; and higher education, a threat to long-term health of the uterus. From clitoridectomies to tame women’s behavior in the nineteenth century to the censure of a generation of mothers as castrators in the 1950s, doctors have not hesitated to intervene in women’s sexual, emotional, and maternal lives. Even domesticity, the most popular prescription for a safe environment for women, spawned legions of “scientific” experts.
       
      Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English has never lost fa

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