Medical Bondage

Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology

By: Deirdre Cooper Owens

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

The accomplishments of pioneering doctors such as John Peter Mettauer, James Marion Sims, and Nathan Bozeman are well documented. It is also no secret that these 19th-century gynecologists performed experimental caesarean sections, ovariotomies, and obstetric fistula repairs primarily on poor and powerless women. Medical Bondage breaks new ground by exploring how and why physicians denied these women their full humanity yet valued them as "medical superbodies" highly suited for medical experimentation.

In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white "ladies". Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities.

Medical Bondage moves between southern plantations and northern urban centers to reveal how 19th-century American ideas about race, health, and status influenced doctor-patient relationships in sites of healing like slave cabins, medical colleges, and hospitals.

©2017 the University of Georgia Press (P)2019 Tantor

An Important Read

American Gynecology was built from the blood, sweat, and tears of enslaved black women. This books takes you on a historical journey through black women's pain. It is real. It is raw, and it is detailed. Hearing about the medical subjugation these women had to endure is eye opening. Hearing about the "educated guesses" male doctors made at the expense of enslaved black women, paired with the lack of recognition that many women didn't receive for their contributions is enraging.

Very informative and makes me furious

The origins of gynecology are based on slavery, rape and obstetrical violence towards black, Irish and other unfortunate women. I’m glad to be headed towards becoming a female gynecologist to help stop these atrocities!

Gut-wrenching and so important

It's not exactly an easy listen, but it's also incredibly gratifying to hear this story told insistently with the focus on the racialized women, both Black and Irish, who were not also oppressed and suffering but also survivors. It's an incredibly complicated and nuanced story, and the huge gut-punch of the afterword really brings it home to all of us living in the 21st century.

Are you a birth worker, if so, this is a MUST read!

Excellent. Mind blowing. This is a historically accurate account of how American gynecology was built. If you work in women’s health, this is a must read.

Very educational and eye opening

This is a very moving book, especially being a female gynecologist.
What the women subjects endured, without the ability to truly consent, has allowed the progression of gynecology to it’s current level. They deserve our deepest gratitude and respect.
While progress has been made in the respect for women’s autonomy, we still have far to go in terms of women being taken seriously in the medical profession for issues related to pelvic pain.