| Acknowledgement Welcome & Introduction
Two Centuries of Women's Health
Activism
The Women's Health Movement From
the 1960's to the Present, and Beyond
Response Panel:
- Judy Norsigian, Co-Founder,
Boston Women's Health Book Collective & Co-Author,
Our Bodies, Ourselves
Comments -
Secretary Donna E. Shalala
Discussion |
The
Popular Health Movement
The first of these movements, the Popular Health Movement of
1830's & 40's, was a broad-based social movement focused on educating individuals
about their health and how to prevent disease. The movement particularly targeted women,
because they were viewed as the caretakers of their families and communities. Thus, it
focused on health education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles, emphasizing such
things as proper diet, exercise, dress reform to eliminate corsets, and the use of sexual
abstinence in marriage to promote family size limitation.
The Popular Health Movement also included a reaction against
the role of elitist, formally trained physicians who promoted heroic treatments. Lay
practitioners, including midwives, were promoted as a way of returning some degree of
control to women as domestic healers and providing gentler treatments.
Women formed physiological societies that provided lectures
on health and hygiene and the opportunity to discuss their health concerns in
"conversationals". They also became avid consumers of alternative health
establishments, like water cure establishments, which became popular during this time
period.
The Post Civil War Movement |
