Authorized to heal : gender, class, and the transformation of medicine in Appalachia, 1880-1930 / Sandra Lee Barney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barney, Sandra.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in medicine--Appalachian Region--History.

Women in medicine.

Medicine--Appalachian Region--History.

Medicine.

History.

Appalachian Region.

Physical Description:

xiii, 222 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2000]

Summary:

In this book, Sandra Barney examines the transformation of medical care in Central Appalachia during the Progressive Era and analyzes the influence of women volunteers in promoting the acceptance of professional medicine in the region. By highlighting the critical role played by nurses, clubwomen, ladies' auxiliaries, and other female constituencies in bringing modern medicine to the mountains, she fills a significant gap in gender and regional history.

Barney explores both the differences that divided women in the reform effort and the common ground that connected them to one another and to the male physicians who profited from their voluntary activity. Held together at first by a shared goal of improving the public welfare, the coalition between women volunteers and medical professionals began to fracture when the reform agendas of women's groups challenged physicians' sovereignty over the form of health care delivery. By examining the professionalization of male medical practitioners, the gendered nature of the campaign to promote their authority, and their displacement of community healers, especially female midwives, Barney uncovers some of the tensions that evolved within Appalachian society as the region was fundamentally reshaped during the era of industrial development.

Contents:

1 Bringing Modern Medicine to the Mountains 15

2 Physicians and the Quest for Professional Identity 41

3 What the Women's Clubs Can Do 71

4 Women, Health Care, and the Community 100

5 Limiting Public Health 122.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-214) and index.

ISBN:

0807825220

0807848344

OCLC:

41238537