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Women have long been crucial
to the provision of medical services, both in the treatment of
sickness and in maintaining health. In this study, Susan Broomhall
situates the practices and perceptions of women's medical work
in France in the context of the sixteenth century and its medical
evolution and innovations. She argues that early modern understandings
of medical practice and authority were highly flexible and subject
to change. She furthermore examines how a focus on female practitioners,
who cut across most sectors of early modern medical practice,
can reveal the multifaceted phenomenon of these negotiations
for authority.
To uncover the medical work of women and to elucidate contemporary
responses to female practitioners, Broomhall employs sources
produced by a variety of authors and institutions, and a diverse
range of materials such as manuscript and early printed works,
personal correspondence, hospital and poor relief ledgers, and
hagiographic and legal commentaries. Her research reveals that
the medical care contributed by women encompassed such varied
domains as surgery, child health, dietetics, primary emergency
treatment, palliative care, culinary therapy, and hospital nursing.
Moreover, Broomhail demonstrates not only the breadth of the
medical situtations in which women worked, but also the differences
in practices and perceptions -produced by varied social and economic
levels.
Women's medical work in early modem France skilfully combines
new and detailed research with a clear presentation of the existing
literature of women's medical work, making it invaluable to students
of gender and medical history.
Susan Broomhail is an Australian Research Council Fellow in the
School of Humanities at the University of Western Australia
(Prix spécial pour les membres de la SIEFAR, 35% de réduction,
soit £32.49 : contacter Jenny
Howard (Marketing and Publicity Assistant), jennifer.howard@man.ac.uk)
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