Witches, Midwives, & Nurses (Second Edition): A History of Women Healers

by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English

Book Overview

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses examines how women-led healing was delegitimized to make way for patriarchy, capitalism, and the emerging medical industry.

As we watch another agonizing attempt to shift the future of healthcare in the United States, we are reminded of the longevity of this crisis, and how firmly entrenched we are in a system that doesn't work.

First published by the Feminist Press in 1973, Witches,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558616616
• ISBN13: 9781558616615
• Release Date: July 2010
• Publisher: Feminist Press
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.2" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

A start, but only a start

This text is an extremely brief overview of the relationship between the witch trials, modern nursing ethics, and the oppression of women healers. I did feel that there were a lot of unsupported conjectures made on the subject of witches and midwives, which gradually became more grounded as we moved forward in time to a point where historical documentation was more solid. There were some interesting ideas, but this text is more of a theoretical starting-point than a definitive discussion of the subject of how women healers have been oppressed by the emerging medical system.

I consider this to be a wonderful 'springboard' into this topic.

A well-written, easy to read book that gives historical explanation and accounting regarding the roles of women in the beginnings, middlings, and recent history of the medical world. Even today, it's still a men's dominated field; similiar to those days long past of the lowly herb gatherers/village healers, women unfortunately STILL have far to go in so many ways; fighting for and attaining, our rightful, respected places in the world of medicine and healing...this book helps to explain why. It's difficult to think about where today's medicine COULD be, had all that 'tried and true' knowledge passed from generation to generation amongst Indigenous peoples and womenfolk been shared, rather than destroyed and lost.