Exhibition Launch: A Woman’s Disease? Gender and Gynaecology
Find out about fascinating aspects of the history of women’s health and view our Exhibition The Wandering Womb, exploring women’s health past and present and how nursing as a profession has challenged the myths and misconceptions around women’s health.
Drawing on patient case notes from 1890 – 1910, Morag Allan Campbell from the University of St Andrews will explore how women suffering from ‘puerperal mania’, the nineteenth century diagnosis of madness or mental illness associated with childbirth, were perceived to have deviated from notions of domesticity and femininity; how their good conduct and remorse, or lack of it, influenced their diagnosis and treatment; and how their journey towards recovery was charted in terms of their willingness to conform to middle class ideals.With the concept of ‘reproductive rights’ now widely recognised,
Dr Gayle Davis from the University of Edinburgh, will focus on ‘reproductive wrongs’ and the biological straitjacket in mid-twentieth-century Scotland, how women unable or unwilling to embrace their maternal destiny – whether unable to get pregnant or seeking a termination of pregnancy – were likely to be pathologised or psychiatrised rather than deemed capable of making their own reproductive decisions.
View a show and tell from the RCN Archives, with items on special display for the exhibition launch.
Doors open at 5pm and talks starts at 5.30pm. Refreshments provided.
Don’t forget, if you are a registered nurse, attendance at this event counts towards revalidation and certificates will be available.
Location: RCN Scotland, 42 South Oswald Road, Edinburgh EH9 2HH