Analysis of 15th century midwife guide
An Issue that Transcends Centuries
“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.” ~ Margaret Sanger
Life for a woman in the seventeenth century was very different than life for a woman in the twentyfirst century. There was no electricity, only carriages to get from point A to point B, and life was just less convenient. In addition, there are dramatic differences between the sexes.
Women weren’t allowed to go out without the escort of her husband or a male family member, to own land or vote, rights, women of this day in age enjoy without question. However, there is one fundamental right that continues to be a topic of debate, a woman’s body and how she uses it.
Before the seventeenth century women weren 't even allowed in the delivery room unless they were the ones having the baby. Eventually, the roles flipped with the invention of the forceps, an elongated pair of tweezers. Women were the only sex that was allowed in the delivery room but men were the only ones allowed to write literature instructing women on how to delivery infants.
Skipping ahead almost four hundred years, the twentyfirst century is still in debate on how to control a woman’s body and what she does with it. This one sided argument is on the subject of abortion or the termination of pregnancy before the twentyfourth week of pregnancy, or after the second trimester. Although life is very different for a woman in the seventeenth century versus the twentyfirst, the way society views the woman 's body as property has not changed.
In the Roman and Greek age, women were the dominating force behind women’s health.
They were the only practicing apothecaries in the city states. The roles switched in the medieval times when men were the predominant doctors. Except in the field of women’s health because the males weren’t allowed to touch a woman’s gentelia. Any touch by a man to a woman in that
area was seen as sexual. Males weren’t allowed in the
“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.” ~ Margaret Sanger
Life for a woman in the seventeenth century was very different than life for a woman in the twentyfirst century. There was no electricity, only carriages to get from point A to point B, and life was just less convenient. In addition, there are dramatic differences between the sexes.
Women weren’t allowed to go out without the escort of her husband or a male family member, to own land or vote, rights, women of this day in age enjoy without question. However, there is one fundamental right that continues to be a topic of debate, a woman’s body and how she uses it.
Before the seventeenth century women weren 't even allowed in the delivery room unless they were the ones having the baby. Eventually, the roles flipped with the invention of the forceps, an elongated pair of tweezers. Women were the only sex that was allowed in the delivery room but men were the only ones allowed to write literature instructing women on how to delivery infants.
Skipping ahead almost four hundred years, the twentyfirst century is still in debate on how to control a woman’s body and what she does with it. This one sided argument is on the subject of abortion or the termination of pregnancy before the twentyfourth week of pregnancy, or after the second trimester. Although life is very different for a woman in the seventeenth century versus the twentyfirst, the way society views the woman 's body as property has not changed.
In the Roman and Greek age, women were the dominating force behind women’s health.
They were the only practicing apothecaries in the city states. The roles switched in the medieval times when men were the predominant doctors. Except in the field of women’s health because the males weren’t allowed to touch a woman’s gentelia. Any touch by a man to a woman in that
area was seen as sexual. Males weren’t allowed in the
Cited: Green, Monica Helen. Making Women 's Medicine Masculine: The Rise of Male Authority in Premodern Gynaecology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print. "Roe v. Wade." LII / Legal Information Institute. Web. 05 May 2014. <http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/410/113>. WarholDown, Robyn. Women 's World: The McGrawHill Anthology of Women 's Writing in English across the Globe. New York: McGrawHill, 2008. Print. Weiss, Barbara. "Roe Vs. Wade at 25: The Tough Questions Linger." Medical economics 75.15 (1998): 138147+. ProQuest. Web. 5 May 2014.