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Witches, Midwives, & Nurses (Second Edition): A History of Women Healers
Witches, Midwives, & Nurses (Second Edition): A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
15 posts | 13 read | 29 to read
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.Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, first published by the Feminist Press in 1973, is an essential book about the corruption of the medical establishment and its historic roots in witch hunters. In this new edition, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English have written an entirely new chapter that delves into the current fascination with and controversies about witches, exposing our fears and fantasies. They build on their classic expose on the demonization of women healers and the political and economic monopolization of medicine. This quick history brings us up-to-date, exploring today's changing attitudes toward childbirth, alternative medicine, and modern-day witches.
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Eeberst
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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“the witch hunts were a step back…not only for the lower-class people who lost so many of their traditional healers. Instead, what could have been a proud occupation for women and a field for lively intellectual inquiry was discredited when not actually obliterated, so that later, when…the educated elite sought to recapture some of the lost knowledge of the natural world, they had to turn to fairly marginal remnants of the old healing tradition.”

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Jen2
Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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Pickpick

So good!

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JessTedrick
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Pickpick

An interesting book. It‘s only 103 pages, and it‘s probably important to remember that it was a talk, turned pamphlet, turned book written in 1973.
The most interesting parts weren‘t what I had expected (the correlation between “witches” and practical healers) but the discussion of how class/race played into the demonization of women health care workers.

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steph_phanie
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English

In 14th century France, the upperclass female healers were the first targeted...
"Six witnesses affirmed that Jacoba had cured them, even after numerous doctors had given up, and one patient declared that she was wiser in the art of surgery and medicine than any master physician or surgeon in Paris. But these testimonials were used against her, for the charge was not that she was incompetent, but that—as a woman—she dared to cure at all." (p. 55)

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steph_phanie
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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How dare a woman do these things! What on earth were we thinking! 🤦‍♀️ Sex? Organization? The desire to heal or help others give birth? SO DANGEROUS!

#sarcasm #feminism #feminist #currentlyreading #witches #midwives #nurses #women

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steph_phanie
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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This morning I struggled picking what to read next. Do I go with something that has been in my TBR pile for way too long? Or something that has just arrived? I even had my tablet in there for good measure.

In the end I picked a new arrival and a short read: Witches, Midwives, & Nurses!

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VioletBramble
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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#screamathonphotochallenge
#ancestors
@4thhouseontheleft

This tiny (67 page) book discusses the theory that witches were the predecessors to midwives and nurses. I have the first edition, published in 1973. There is a second edition that mentions errors in their research. As a nurse and a green witch I couldn‘t pass this one up when I saw it for sale at the Brooklyn Book Festival.

alisiakae This sounds good!
5y
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ElizaMarie
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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Pickpick

So. This got me all upset at some points but also provided a great history of what women went through. As a nurse, I found it enlightening but also enraging. (I would have definitely burned at the stake)

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ElizaMarie
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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ElizaMarie
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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ElizaMarie
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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Reading by the pool :)

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elizabethlk
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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Pickpick

This book is fabulous. A second-wave feminist look into the history of women as healers with a special focus on sexism and classism in general medicine and in the women's health movements. I definitely recommend this, especially the 2010 edition with the intro featuring corrections and new sources unavailable when it was written in the 70s.

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Godmotherx5
Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers | Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
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Spine poetry challenge during #24in48:

Heartsick witches, midwives & nurses Save the cat as I lay dying 🐱 @24in48

cariashley 👏👏👏 7y
OneCent76 Love Heartsick! 7y
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