• Thesis On Traditional Medicine Malaysia Women's Health Plan

ADVERTISEMENTS:According to Aregbeyen (1996) there is growing evidence that:i. Herbal medicine is effective and acceptable and that:ii. There is every reason to promote knowledge and understanding of which type of herb must be used for treating which ailment in the various communities.iii. He suggests that, if properly developed, herbal medicine could be used to supplement PHC, and in promoting a spirit of self-reliance.However, the LHT have moved into oblivion, with increasing access to modern medicine especially in Kerala, the state lying along the south-west coast of India.

It might seem paradoxical that Kerala blessed with rich herbal wealth, which has stepped into sectors like health care tourism, has experi­enced a tremendous decline in the population employing LHT to meet the health requirements.The excessive commercialization of the health sector is one major reason for the current health seeking pattern. The commercial­ization has also made health care unaffordable to the majority of the people. Ayurveda, the classical medicine and allopathy, the modern medicine are increasingly becoming unaffordable with increasing price of medicines (Ekbal, 2000).This coupled with the excessive privatization of the health sector and the deterioration state of the public health facilities, is pushing the rural population further into the vicious poverty trap.

The current research paper, therefore, looks into the reason for the popularity of particular medical systems and the viability of promoting LHT alongside the dominant systems of medicine.Geo-informatics has by now been used for mapping biodiversity and efficient management of the various natural resources. The herbal wealth which forms the valuable resource base for the LHT can be mapped in their habitats with the help of the local knowledge.The objectives of the study are therefore. To assess and evaluate the relationship existing between the choice of a medical system and the physical and socio-cultural space.ii. To evaluate the significance of ignorance of the local health traditions and non-availability of the resources and associated practitioners as influ­encing the limited use of the local health traditions.iii. To assess the possibilities of employing geo-informatics in the promoting the use of the local health traditions at the local level and thereby providing affordable health care options at the finger tips of the lay people. The Study Area:The study is carried out in the Kanjoor panchayat of the Ernakulam district of Kerala (Map 1). The village is bound on the east and south by the Periyar River.

Lying along the flood plains of the largest river in Kerala, the region is blessed with fertile alluvium supporting all forms of agriculture. The village also has a well divined canal system belonging to the Kodanad-Edanad canal system. ADVERTISEMENTS:Toward the north the region has vast areas under paddy cultivation. However, the region is covered with nutmeg plantations and other crops making it a rich agricultural zone.

However, tremendous land use change are taking place with more agricultural and virgin lands getting converted into residential areas, threatening the herbal population in the area.The Kanjoor panchayat occupies an area of 14.32 sq. Km and has 4,885 households. The total population of the panchayat as per the 2001 census is 21,651 of which 10,624 are males and 11,027 are females. Of the total population of 21,651 the working population is 7,793. Of this 5,858 are men and 1,935 are women. The total work participation rate therefore is 35.9 per cent. The male work participation rate is 55.1 per cent and the female work participation rate is 17.5 per cent.The panchayat is well served by educational, financial and health institu­tions (Map 2).

There is one government PHC (Primary Health Center) (modern medicine) having one doctor and one private hospital with 40 beds and four doctors. The doctor at the PHC in Puthiyedam locality of Kanjoor, visits the health centre at Thuravankara, a remote locality in the panchayat, once every month. ADVERTISEMENTS:The remoteness of Thuravankara is attributed to the absence of public transport facilities. Though, the people of Thuravankara want better access to the PHC, the non-availability of transport facilities has limited their access. There are two private clinics having one doctor each, functioning in the panchayat.There is a Government Ayurvedic dispensary with an Ayurvedic doctor and an Ayurvedic Research Centre functioning in Kanjoor, apart from a number of Ayurvedic pharmacies. There are three homeopathic clinics besides four traditional health providers who practise Ayurveda in the panchayat, though the exact number is not known.

The Methodology:The methodology employed consists of a few participatory, qualitative and quantitative tools apart from the cartographic tools employed. The partici­patory techniques were employed to enhance the quality of information and to have a wider perspective on the key issues addressed. The participatory techniques helped to ensure the participation of the stakeholders who directly influence or are influenced by the use and access to local health traditions. ADVERTISEMENTS:PRA has been described as family of approaches, behaviours and methods for enabling people to do their own appraisal, analysis and planning, take their own action, and do their own monitoring and evaluation. For the current research paper, data collected using historical profiling has been widely employed.Historical profiling is a participatory tool which helps to delve deep into the historical basis of the current socio-environmental set-up of the study area and ensures a better understanding of the major social and environmental changes and their effects on the local economy, environment and society (Bolt and Fonseca, 2001).Qualitative techniques like key-informant interviews and focus group were used to collect information from the people. Quantitative methods, in particular experimental designs concentrate on the control of extraneous variables while qualitative methods are holistic (Morse and Chung, 2003).However, the information derived from qualitative and participatory techniques are not quantifiable and are just a wealth of ideas and information which would have never crossed the minds of the researcher employing quanti­tative tools alone. A questionnaire survey (for 245 households) was used to collect quantitative information which helped to quantify the information gathered during the participatory and qualitative appraisals.This was important to perform analysis and to obtain a clear picture of the relationship existing between the ignorance of LHT, non availability of traditional practi­tioners and natural resources to the use and disuse of LHT.

The Results and Discussions:The study reaffirmed that modern medicine remains popular among other systems of medicine (Kunhikannan and Arvindam 2000). Of the total 245 households, majority preferred modern medical system when compared to other systems.

And the preference for local health traditions were limited (Figure 1).One hundred and five households preferred modern medicine solely for health care; while in 36 households Ayurveda was the most preferred medical system. In a significant number of households, more than one system of medicine was preferred.The preference for modern medicine increased during a time frame of fifty to hundred years and cannot be treated lightly.

The time lines created by the villagers during the participatory workshops shows that there was a high scale dependence on LHT in the past (before 50 years) and modern medicine was rarely employed since it was inaccessible to majority of the population at that time and people were more knowledgeable about the LHT.But the situation changed tremendously over the years, with modern medicine becoming accessible to the laymen and also popular due to the quick relief it offers to the symptoms of illnesses. The local health traditions gradually moved into oblivion with very few opting for them due to dwindling natural resources and reduced interest in the traditional knowledge.This coupled with the government strategy which gave more importance to modern medicine and sidelined all forms of traditional medicine led to the gradual decline of LHT. The choice of the medical system is a function of the socio-cultural and physical realities as existing in the neighbourhood.The findings of the historical profiling exercise showed that:i. There is tremendous change in the economic, socio-cultural and environ­mental situation as existing in Kanjoor, like other parts of the state;ii. The land reforms helped to erase the caste differences though the class differences still remain;iii.

Infrastructure has improved and modern health care facilities have become more accessible in terms of distance, but still remain inaccessible to the lay people in terms of cost;iv. Environmental changes are evident from the increasing pressure on land and the resultant land use changes from primary land uses to secondary land uses;v. The changed socio-climate has influenced the mindset of the people seeking efficient and quality health care, thus leading to a boom of private health care sector;vi.

The socio-cultural changes have led to a situation where the local health traditions are fast eroding, due to its unscientific nature and ignorance of these traditions; andvii. The resource base also is threatened by the higher pressure and a conse­quent loss of herbal wealth.These facts about the changed physical and socio-cultural space explain the current choice of modern medicine as the most preferred medical system by the people.The realities which have led to the diminishing use of the LHT are manifold, many of which were highlighted in the discussions above. Of the manifold problems, leading to disuse of LHT, ignorance of LHT, non-availability of qualified traditional practitioners and resource scarcity were identified to be the key issues which need immediate reprisal.

Ignorance of the LHT:“The rate of knowledge erosion is faster than the rate of resource erosion” (Unnikrishan, 2004). Most people are unaware of the uses of even the most commonly available herbs in their neighbourhood. Being oral traditions, the knowledge of local health traditions cannot be retrieved once it is lost.The current situation points towards the need for an initiative to codify this knowledge base at the earliest.

Creation of inventories is possible only through the active participation of the community and the traditional medicine men. Also care needs to be taken to serve the needs of the community and the tradi­tional medicine men.Ignorance as a factor controlling the use and access to the LHT is brought out clearly in the survey.

Nearly 51 per cent of the households felt that ignorance of the LHT was the major constraint in limiting their use. Another 9.1 per cent felt that it is moderately important and 12.3 per cent felt it is important. The remaining 37.6 per cent felt that it is not a significant reason for the decline of the LHT (Figure 2).Non-Availability of Qualified Practitioners:The survey pointed out that non-availability of qualified traditional practi­tioners has led to a tremendous decline in the use of local health traditions. Thirty-seven per cent of the people who responded found non-availability of traditional medical practitioners as a very important reason, 14.2 per cent as important and 13.3 per cent as moderately important reason for the decline of the LHT (Figure 3).In the words of a woman who attended the Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) at Aryankavu, a neighbourhood in Kanjoor:During early days, when I was a child, we knew many traditional practitioners, who used to provide specialized treatments for may illnesses including migraine. But now, it is difficult to locate many practitioners who used to provide effective cures for illnesses for which medicines are not available in modern medicine. Many of them have died without having passed the information to the future generations, and the knowledge which was passed down by their ancestors has died out with them.The non-availability of practitioners has resulted from:i. The governmental policies which fails to give due recognition to tradi­tional practitioners and often hindering their practice;ii.

Thesis On Traditional Medicine Malaysia Women's Health Plan

The categorization of traditional medicine as unscientific; andiii. Reluctance to share the knowledge resources with others.Though of late the government has shown interest in reviving traditional knowledge systems, there is a need for taking conservation measures on war footing (George et al., 2002).

The declining number of qualified practitioners shows that there is an urgent need to conserve the knowledge bases, which might otherwise be lost with another passing generation.In Kanjoor, there are four families who still practice traditional medicine. But at the same time the members of the younger generation of these families are quite unaware and show little interest to these valuable traditional knowledge bases.A significant reason for this being the declining interest and the declining number of people, who approach a traditional medicine man. Also their contributions are seldom given due recognition by the community.During an interview with one of the traditional medicine men in the panchayat, he expressed his deepest fears on the existing situation where none of his children or grandchildren possess any amount of knowledge which his ancestors had passed down to him. Still he is optimistic that he could find someone who will be interested in this traditional knowledge in his own family.He says that:Though I am worried that none of my children knows about this valuable knowledge, especially the panaceas, I feel that there will be someone who will be interested among my grandchildren to whom I can pass this on. However I have documented the traditional knowledge I possess and they may use it in future. Anime metal fight beyblade. But I do not know how useful it will be unless you know to diagnose diseases.

Many people have come to me to learn but I haven’t taught any of them due to time constraint. Scarcity of Resources:Closely associated with the above two factors is the scarcity of resources in terms of herbs which are widely used in the practice of LHT. The tremendous changes in land use and land cover have led to tremendous loss of herbal wealth. The high scale development coupled with ignorance of these herbal resources has led to deterioration of the herbal wealth which once formed the basis of country medicine and home remedies.Many households reported that scarcity of herbal resources and difficulty to locate them has led to reduced use of LHT.Of the total respondent, 45.9 per cent rated resources scarcity as a very important reason for the decline in use of the LHT, whereas 14.2 per cent of the population rated it as moderately important and another 14.2 per cent as important factor influencing the reduced use of LHT. A total of 24.7 per cent however rated it as slightly or not at all important (Figure 4).

According to them the disuse of LHT is primarily due to ignorance and unwillingness to use the LHT.These results emphasize the need for generation awareness on the use of particular herbs found in their neighbourhood to enhance their use by community groups. This can possibly be achieved by actively involving the community in the process for reviving LHT.The steps which will help towards attaining this end include:i. Preparation of inventories similar to the Peoples Biodiversity Registers’, for LHT and resources supporting LHT and their spatial distribution within a village;ii. Making the community aware of the importance of using LHT and the need for conserving the resources used in LHT;iii. Providing options for affordable health care by complementing modern medicine with LHT; andiv. Calling for strict legislation to revive the LHT, as a step towards providing affordable and sustainable health care. The Role of Geomatics (Figure 5):The role of geomatics in the process of reviving the LHT starts with the basic mapping of the various herbal habitats and their spatial distribution within the village.

Moving a step forward, the herbal resources can be mapped at ward levels and also the changes which have drastically affected the herbal population in the neighbourhood. Further the uses of the particular herbs found in the various localities in the panchayat can be integrated into the base map.This procedure however, calls for active participation of the community members in the various localities, with support from the local and state governing bodies. Also the community needs to be trained in identifying the herbs which need technical assistance from members of the scientific community.Also the maps developed can be used by the community for a better understanding of the problems associated with the herbal wealth in the panchayat and to adopt planning strategies to best address the problems.Thus geomatics will serve three ends:i. Creation of an information system for the herbal habitats and the uses of the herbs in LHT;ii. Identification of vulnerable ecosystems and the reasons for vulnerability; andiii. Providing spatial solutions for the problems identified.The creation of an information system at the local level will help the community to identify the herbs available in their neighbourhood and will help the people to access these resources when they need it.

Also a periodic appraisal will help them to know about the resource erosion rate and the subse­quent conservation measures to be adopted. The application of a herbal information system at the community level will help to mainstream the cause of LHT and their conservation.

.Historically and presently, in many parts of the world, women's participation in the profession of medicine (as or for instance) has been significantly discouraged. However, women's informal practice of medicine in roles such as caregivers or as has been widespread. Most countries of the world now provide women with equal access to. However, not all countries ensure equal employment opportunities, and gender equality has yet to be achieved within medical and around the world, despite studies suggesting that female doctors may be providing higher-quality care than male doctors. Is 's former Minister of Health and an international public health expert, Executive Director of the and the.In 1540, Henry VIII of England granted the charter for the Company of Barber-Surgeons; while this led to the specialization of healthcare professions (i.e. Surgeons and barbers), women were barred from professional practice.

Women did, however, continue to practice during this time. They continued to practice without formal training or recognition in England and eventually North America for the next several centuries. Women's participation in the medical professions was generally limited by legal and social practices during the decades while medicine was. However, women openly practiced medicine in the (, etc.), and throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women made significant gains in access to and medical work through much of the world. These gains were sometimes tempered by setbacks; for instance, documented a decline in women physicians in the US in the first half of the twentieth century, such that there were fewer women physicians in 1950 than there were in 1900. However, through the latter half of the twentieth century, women made gains generally across the board.

In the United States, for instance, women were 9% of total US medical school enrollment in 1969; this had increased to 20% in 1976. By 1985, women constituted 16% of practicing US physicians.At the beginning of the twenty-first century in industrialized nations, women have made significant gains, but have yet to achieve parity throughout the medical profession. Women have achieved parity in medical school in some industrialized countries, since 2003 forming the majority of the United States medical student body. In 2007-2008, women accounted for 49% of medical school applicants and 48.3% of those accepted. According to the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) 48.3% (16,838) of medical degrees awarded in the US in 2009-10 were earned by women, an increase from 26.8% in 1982-3.

While more women are taking part in the medical field, a 2013-2014 study reported that there are significantly fewer women in leadership positions within the academic realm of medicine. This study found that women accounted for 16% of deans, 21% of the professors, and 38% of faculty, as compared to their male counterparts.However, the practice of medicine remains disproportionately male overall. In industrialized nations, the recent parity in gender of medical students has not yet trickled into parity in practice. In many developing nations, neither medical school nor practice approach gender parity.Moreover, there are skews within the medical profession: some medical specialties, such as surgery, are significantly male-dominated, while other specialties are significantly female-dominated, or are becoming so.

In the United States, female physicians outnumber male physicians in pediatrics and female residents outnumber male residents in family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, and psychiatry.Women continue to dominate in nursing. In 2000, 94.6% of registered nurses in the United States were women.

In health care professions as a whole in the US, women numbered approximately 14.8 million, as of 2011.Biomedical research and academic medical professions—i.e., faculty at medical schools—are also disproportionately male. Research on this issue, called the 'leaky pipeline' by the and other researchers, shows that while women have achieved parity with men in entering graduate school, a variety of discrimination causes them to drop out at each stage in the academic pipeline: graduate school, faculty positions, achieving tenure; and, ultimately, in receiving recognition for groundbreaking work. (See for a broader discussion.)Glass ceiling The is used as a metaphor to convey the undefined obstacles that women and minorities face in the workplace.Female physicians of the late nineteenth century faced discrimination in many forms due to the prevailing Victorian Era attitude that the ideal woman be demure, display a gentle demeanor, act submissively, and enjoy a perceived form of power that should be exercised over and from within the home. The predominant, conservative viewpoint was that a woman's primary duty was to be a steward of a moral world by shaping the character of her children and being a dutiful wife. This meant that few women chose to work outside of a few specific professions, if they worked outside of the home at all, and even fewer ventured into jobs outside of teaching and nursing, especially as doctors. Female physicians were still expected to defer to the expertise of their male colleagues and were often simply tolerated at best but more so scorned and ridiculed. Medical degrees were extremely difficult for women to earn, and once practicing, discrimination from landlords for medical offices, left female physicians to set up their practices on 'Scab Row' or 'bachelor's apartments.'

One study surveyed physician mothers and their physician daughters in order to analyze the effect that discrimination and harassment have on the individual and their career. This study included 84% of physician mothers that graduated medical school prior to 1970, with the majority of these physicians graduating in the 1950s and 1960s. The authors of this study stated that discrimination in the medical field persisted after the title VII discrimination legislation was passed in 1965.According to this study, one third of physician daughters reported experiencing a form of gender discrimination in medical school, field training, and the work environment. This study also stated that both generations equally experienced gender discrimination within their work environments.This article provided an overview on the history of gender discrimination, claiming that gender initiated the systematic exclusion of women from medical schools. This was the case until 1970, when the National Organization for Women (NOW) filed a class action lawsuit against all medical schools in the United States.

More specifically, this lawsuit was successful in forcing medical schools to comply to the civil rights legislation. This success was seen by 1975 when the number of women in medicine had nearly tripled, and continued to grow as the years progressed. By 2005, over 25% of physicians and around 50% of medical school students were women. The increase of women in medicine also came with an increase of women identifying as a racial/ethnic minority, yet this population is still largely underrepresented in comparison to the general population of the medical field.Within this specific study, 22% of physician mothers and 24% of physician daughters identified themselves as being an ethnic minority. These women reported experiencing instances of exclusion from career opportunities as a result of their.In an article titled 'I'm too used to it”: A longitudinal qualitative study of third year female medical students' experiences of gendered encounters in medical education,' the author described how confidence in ability varies based upon gender.

According to this article, females tend to have lessened confidence in their abilities as a doctor, yet their performance is equivalent to that of their male counterparts. This study also commented on the impact of power dynamics within medical school, which is established as a hierarchy that ultimately shapes the educational experience.Specifically, this article described how power dynamics led to the formation of a “hidden curriculum” in medical school, which revolves around understanding the contribution of gender roles in regards to being a female doctor. According to this article, this position holds females more accountable for their actions as a result of unrealistic expectations set forth by these gender roles, which expects female doctors to take on a nurturing and matronly persona when dealing with patients. The hidden curriculum, according to this article, is an integral aspect of a female's medical education that must be learned in order to tolerate instances of gender discrimination.On the topic of power dynamics, another study commented on the nature of sexual harassment, stating that it was most commonly perpetrated within career training stages, by people in positions of power.

According to this article, instances of sexual harassment attribute to the high attrition rates of females in the STEM fields.Another study describes sexual harassment as a growing problem due to the fact that it goes widely underreported, which is said to be caused by the transient nature of career training, alongside weak policies and the perpetrators holding positions of power over the victim. Women's contributions to medicine in the United States American women have successfully provided the world with medical information not previously known. A few women who provided such knowledge were:Helen Brooke Taussig: The First Female President of the American Heart Associationwas born on May 24, 1898, in.

She is most commonly known as the first female president of the American Heart Association Taussig was diagnosed with when she was young. Around the same time, her mother, Edith Guild Taussig (1861-1909) died. Her father, (1859-1940), was an economist and educator in the United States. He was also known for creating the 'Foundation of Modern. Taussig earned a from in 1921. In 1922 she applied at, and was denied. The University was not accepting women at the time.

Instead she graduated from in 1927. In her 30s, Taussig grew deaf. In 1930, Taussig was appointed the Head of he Children's Hear Clinic at the Harriet Lane home, which was part of Johns Hopkins University. Due to her inability to hear, Taussig found an alternative method to studying the heartbeat in children by feeling the beat with her hands. This method lead her to discover ', which was termed so due to the cyanotic hue resembling babies who were thought to be ill. In 1947, a surgeon named teamed up with Taussig and wrote an article called, which explored their creation and alternative approach for a stunt-'- that would help circulate blood from the lungs to the heart.

In the article it states, 'The operation here reported and the studies leading thereto were undertaken with the conviction that even though the structure of the heart was grossly abnormal, in many instances it might be possible to alter the course of the circulation in such a manner as to lessen the 'cyanosis' and the resultant disability.' (Read before the Medical Society, March 12, 1945.) Taussig received multiple awards after 1950. In 1954, Taussig received the Albert Lasker award, which is awarded for outstanding contributions to medicine.

In 1959, Taussig was acknowledged for being one of the first women who received full professorship to Johns Hopkins University. In 1964, Taussig was awarded the from President. Finally, in 1965, Taussig was known as the first women of the, for which she is so prominently known for.

To further her interest in pediatrics, nearly a decade and a half later in the 1960s, Taussig remained to advocate for children's health. She was 'responsible for investigating the epidemic of serious congenital limb malformations'. This investigation focused on European children and Taussig had a theory that the malformations were caused by the use of. She resolved this ongoing issue by persuading the to discontinue the use and sale of Thalidomide in the U.SHelen Flanders Dunbar: The 'Mother' of Holistic Medicinewas born in on May 14, 1902, and Dunbar was the oldest child.

Dunbar's mother, Edith Vaughn Flanders (1871-1963), was an Episcopalian clergyman's daughter as well as a professional. Dunbar's father, Francis William Dunbar (1868-1939), was very much established as well due to his standing as an electrical engineer, as well as a patent attorney. In her early life, Dunbar's education was strictly limited to tutors and attending private schools. She graduated from, which was located in, in 1919, which lead to her enrollment in. At this particular point in her life her interest in, and medicine. Dunbar met at, which sparked her interest due to his standing as a psychologist of religion at the college. In the summer of 1929, after successfully receiving a bachelor's degree in mathematics and psychology from, Dunbar continued her education by spending five weeks in, Massachusetts receiving clinical training.

In 1927, Dunbar received a as ' from Union Theological Seminar. This achievement was awarded primarily due to her thesis, 'Methods Training in the Devotional Life Emphasized in the American Churches'.

Dunbar also won a travelling Fellowship due to this particular piece of writing. From 1931 until 1936, Dunbar held the position as director of Joint Committee of the Religion and Health of the Federal Council and Churches of the Academy of Medicine. From 1943 until the year before she died, Dunbar wrote an assortment of books including: ' in 1943, 'Mind, Body: Psychosomatic Medicine' in 1947, 'Your Child's Mind and Body; A practical guide for parents' in 1949, and 'Illness: the realization of an infant's fantasy with special reference to testing methods' in 1951. During the year of her death, Dunbar wrote 'Accidents of Life Experience', 'Basic aspects and applications of the psychology of safety', and 'Psychiatry in medicine specialties'. Helen Flanders Dunbar died in 1959. She was found face down in her swimming pool.

Midwifery in 18th century America As per the documentary “A Midwife’s Tale”, historian of 18th century America, follows the diary of, which proves to be a telling source of women's roles as medical practitioners. Out of the different occupations women took on around this time, was the best paid of them all. In the, households tended to have an abundance of children largely in part to have a helping hand in responsibilities and to combat high mortality rates.

Despite the high chance of complications in labor, Martha Ballard, specifically, had high success rates in delivering healthy babies to healthy mothers. Competition between midwifery and obstetrics A shift from women midwifery to male obstetrics occurs in the growth of medical practices such as the founding of the. Instead of assisting labor in the basis of an emergency, there were doctors such as Dr. Benjamin Page who wanted to take over the delivery of babies completely; putting midwifery second. This is an example of the growing sense of competition between male physicians and female midwives as a rise in obstetrics took hold. The education of women on the basis of midwifery was stunted by both physicians and public-health reformers, driving midwifery to be seen as out of practice. Societal roles also played a fact in the downfall of the practice in midwifery because women were unable to obtain the education needed for licensing and once married, women were to embrace a domestic lifestyle.

This section needs expansion. You can help. ( October 2011)In the early modern era, following the Middle Ages, accuracy in documentation of women present in the health field increased. This increase in documentation gave a clear representation of women engaged in the healthcare of London residents. The small island nation of in 2008 welcomed its first Tuvaluan female doctors as a result of Australian aid.While scholars in the history of medicine had developed some study of women in the field—biographies of pioneering women physicians were common prior to the 1960s—the study of women in medicine took particular root with the advent of the in the 1960s, and in conjunction with the.

Two publications in 1973 were critical in establishing the women's health movement and scholarship about women in medicine: First, the publication of in 1973 by the Boston Women's Health Collective, and second, 'Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Female Healers', a short paper by and also in 1973. The Ehrenreich/English paper examined the history of women in medicine as the professionalization of the field excluded women, particularly, from the practice.

Ehrenreich and English later expanded the work into a full-length book, which connected the exclusion of women from the practice of medicine to medical practices; this text and became key texts in the women's health movement. The English/Ehrenreich text laid out some early insights about the professionalization of medicine and the exclusion of women from the profession, and numerous scholars, such as, have greatly built upon and expanded this work.See also.