WaitWaitWha 4 hours ago | next |

> However, while women did take up medical roles, they could undoubtedly face animosity and suspicion as a result.

> ... without hindrance or disturbance from those people who might regard her with contempt or otherwise mistrust her medical knowledge.

> Unfortunately, we do not know any further details about the kinds of resistance Joan faced as a physician or the medical treatments she performed, or even if Henry ever granted her request.

I appreciate the historical evidence and what it means to us today. I disagree with the wild conjecture why she wrote this request.

I believe this request by Joan du Lee is more about making medicine a profession like carpetry, masonry and similar which were supported through masters, journeymen and guilds, than about hindrance based on sex.

Midwifes and doulas have been around for millennia in all cultures. In my limited knowledge, I am not aware of a culture where most of these roles are not females.

Midwifery is a narrow field, but there were lot of fully acknowledged "doctors". Our first evidence was for Peseshet (c. 2600 BC, Ancient Egypt), the "Lady Overseer of the Female Physicians", meaning that she was not only the doc but there was an entire "school" of female "docs".

There are of course also Enheduanna (c. 2300 BC, Sumer), Mesopotamian Healing Women (c. 2000 BC and earlier), and of course Agnodice, from the Greek tradition (c. 5th century BC and earlier).

watwut 3 hours ago | root | parent |

> I am not aware of a culture where most of these roles are not females.

Literally Europe, in between the time when births moved to hospitals and before women became doctors. There were no "midwifes" nor "doulas" present during birth.

Also, literally whole communist block the whole time and also long after the communism felt. While midwifes and doulas just were not a thing. The nurses are all women, doctors used to be almost only men and now are mix of men and women.

n4r9 3 hours ago | root | parent | next |

> Europe, in between the time when births moved to hospitals and before women became doctors

Don't know about the rest of Europe, but in the UK midwives became an official profession in 1902 and have consistently almost all been women, whilst most births would have been at home until the introduction of the NHS in 1948.

bloak 3 hours ago | root | parent | prev | next |

In the Soviet Union most doctors were women. Random citation: "In 1917, 17 percent of doctors were women, yet by 1940 61 percent were women. From the 1950s the figure fluctuated at around 65–70 percent (Ryan, 1989: 38)."

pbalau 2 hours ago | root | parent | prev | next |

My mom is a doctor, pediatrician, and she finished medical school end of 70s or beginning of 80s.

One of her coworkers went by the title "moaşa", the Romanian word for midwife.

throw_pm23 2 hours ago | root | parent | prev |

You are very wrong w.r. to communist block. Women's participation in medicine (and other intellectual professions) was generally high, possibly higher than in the west.

throw3883949 an hour ago | prev |

[flagged]

avs733 an hour ago | root | parent |

According to actual data rather than vague virtue signalling: There were 53,442 women students enrolled at U.S. medical schools in 2023. They made up 55% of all medical school students. Women first became the largest gender group enrolled in medical schools for the first time in 2019. There is still a shift towards men between application and enrollment, one could just wildly assert that that is either/both evidence of and/or a betrayal of meritocracy, but there is no actual evidence of any of that unless you have actually sat on a medical admissions committee.

https://www.aamc.org/news/medical-schools-fewer-apply-class-...

I doubt the fact that you believe this to be true but it is actually false will change much about your perspective. But given the throwaway nonsense I feel like its worth the time to point out.

throwudnfjrj 25 minutes ago | root | parent |

> According to actual data rather than vague virtue signalling

> They made up 55% of

You just debunked yourself. Are there any diversity program for men? They are minority, only 45% (or much lower if you count other genders)! We need mandatory quotas! In other fields like IT, it is a huge problem!!!