Witches, Midwives and Nurses

A History of Women Healers

By Barbara Ehrenreich and Deidre English

Summary by Alexandra Gillott

Witches, Midwives and Nurses outlines the events that have led to the masculinization of medical care
and midwifery. It accounts events over the ages where women have been delegated and expelled from
the medical world. With specific attention given to the suppression of witches in Medieval Europe and the
rise of the male medical profession in 19th century America.

Traditionally, women have paid a vital role in caring and treating the sick and of course midwifery. Their
holistic approach was based on ancestral knowledge. Today we see in the US that the majority of
healthcare professionals are women yet over 90% of all doctors are men. Leaving women with auxiliary
roles serving their male counterparts.

Political, economic, social and religious motives have led to the male dominance in the area. In the Middle
Ages male university trained doctors took prevalence and were favoured by the church and upper classes
whereas, poor, unqualified, female herbalists, midwives and healers were branded witches and
persecuted.

The "witches", vital to the health of the peasant population were tortured and killed in mass through large
campaigns governed by the state and the church. The presence of female healers was seen as a threat
to the church. To be charged as a witch could be for simply having healing, medical or obstetric skills. The
use of pagan incantations and charms, as well as healing, (even when successful), was seen as the
Devil's work. The church saw the witch's magical powers as beinh “derived from her sexuality" (11).
Women often were even charged for sex crimes against men.

In Europe during the 13th century medicine was recognized by the church as a science and a profession.
Medical schools and universities were tightly controlled by the church. Physicians were always
accompanied by priests and used little scientific practice but mainly a superstitious approach. The witches
in comparison had developed a anatomical knowledge and use of herbal remedies.

When medicine became a profession that required university training women were easily eliminated from
the practice as they were denied the right to study in the universities. The first women to be targeted by
these laws were from the upper classes. Educated Jacoba Felicie was charged with being a woman
"who dared to cure"(18).

By the 14th century the upper class medical practice was dominated by men and midwifery was the only
sector left to women. Male doctors had a very active role in the witch hunts. By the time of the witch trials
the church, state, medical relationship was strong and doctors were even used in court to determine
whether a woman's practice was witchcraft. Women were charged with healing and not being studied in
medicine and yet denied the right to study.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw the influx of men into midwifery. The introduction of forceps as a surgical
implement meant women were prohibited to use them and this opened the way for male surgeons and
eventually physicians in the 18th century. This pushed out the wise midwives with their ancestral
knowledge and practices.

At this time in the US women were practicing healing as the medical profession was only developed in the
19th century. As in Europe male doctors were accessible only by the upper and middle classes and it
became popular to receive obstetric care from men. "Heroic measures" (22) such as massive bleeding
were used as well as other dangerous methods of medical practice. Whereas the lay practitioners were
using a softer, herbal and dietary approach.

Medical Licensing laws in the US spurred The Popular Health Movement of the 1830's and 1840's which
came from "feminist and working class movements".(23) The movement reacted against the violent
techniques of the practicioners and called for a preventative care and saw the start of womens educative
health groups. It also saw a rise in natural health practices such as homeopathy. The feminist movement
which ran alongside the Popular Health Movement saw the call for women to be trained in medicine yet
this caused great opposition and outrage from the male practicioners. Eventually female medical figures
began supporting their male counterparts in the abolition of lay midwifery for a "complete medical
education".(28)

In the early 1900s money from the elite was pouring into medical schools. This money was sent to the
bigger schools and "irregular" schools which accepted women, working classes and blacks were left out
and many were forced to close. This kept white upper class men in the forefront of medicine. Midwifery
was still predominant in childbirth care often by immigrants and working class women. Yet the medical
sector saw the money and quantity of case studies that were being lost and quickly began attacking the
midwives. Blaming them for a high rate of complications including infections and neonatal ophthalmia.
The doctors proved no better at avoiding these conditions. With no improvement in care and violent
interventions which put the women and children at risk the restrictions on midwifery led to some working
class women receiving no obstetric care and a rise in infant mortality.

Women were left with nursing as the only avenue for working in health. Hospitals at the time were dark
places and nurses with a reputation for being drunks, prostitutes and thieves. Florence Nightingale led a
formal revolution in nursing which came to the US after the Civil War. Nursing schools began with upper
class women but soon only working class and lower middle class women were joining in the hope of a
better future. They were encouraged to have a lady-like, motherly posture, to be obedient to the male
counterparts and subservient. The work was low paid and comparable to heavy housework.

As the feminists of the late 19th century were less concerned with women taking up male roles and were
more focussed on glamorizing domestic roles. There was a look to professionalize domestic roles whilst
professional roles such as nursing were becoming like domestic work. As women were no longer
competing with men in the medical sector they were greatly welcomed to serve the doctors and patients.

Traditionally curing and caring were not separate and healers were depended on for both assets. When
curing and caring were separated with male doctors and female nurses much was lost from the integrated
approach of early healers and midwives.

Overall the institutionalization made the masculinization of medicine and healing possible both in Europe
and the US. Integral, holistic care was replaced by other methods which often put patients at risk. Nursing
became an outlet in the medical field for women but left them with no power in the workplace and little
more than servants caring for the sick. Midwives traditionally played a fundamental role in the history of
childbirth yet the institutionalization has made it limited and open to an infiltration of interventionist
techniques.