Prescribed norms : women and health in Canada and the United States since 1800

Warsh, Cheryl Lynn Krasnick 1957- (author.).

Summary: "By comparing ritual practices of various cultures, Prescribed Norms demonstrates how looking at women's health through a masculine lens has distorted current medical understandings of menstruation, menopause, and childbirth, and has often led to faulty medical conclusions. Warsh also illuminates how the shift from informal to more formal, institutionalized treatment impacts both women's health care and women's roles as health practitioners." -- publisher's description

Record details

ISBN: 1442600616 (pbk.)
ISBN: 1442603593 (bound)
ISBN: 9781442600614 (pbk.)
ISBN: 9781442603592 (bound)
Physical Description: print
xvii, 316 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
Publisher: Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2010]
Copyright: ©2010

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-303) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Pt. I. Rituals -- Ch. 1. Wendy's Last Night in the Nursery: The "Disease" of Menstruation and Its Treatment -- Ch. 2. Gladys, Take Your Medicine! The Culture and Business of Menopause -- Pt. II. Technologies -- Ch. 3. Traditional Childbirth: Mothers and Babies -- Ch. 4. Modern Childbirth: Mothers and Doctors -- Ch. 5. Future Childbirth: Doctors and Babies -- Pt. III. Professions -- Ch. 6. Networks of Support, Networks of Opposition:The Medical Education of Women -- Ch. 7. Nursing: The Science of Womanly Arts -- Epilogue: The Case for Chaos.