It asserts that women have always been healers and asks how it is that women have come to be marginalized in the modern healthcare industry. The 1973 introduction outlines the argument to come.

The American healthcare system is still male-dominated and driven by an exploitative capitalist rationale. Sadly, the bulk of their polemical argument remains relevant.

However, Ehrenreich and English argue that these updates are cosmetic. Good scholarship about women’s healing practices was hard to find, and as a result, some of the information given in the 1973 edition now needs updating in the light of subsequent research. The 2010 introduction outlines the context in which the pamphlet was written, pointing out that in the 1970s, feminist history had yet to become a legitimate academic field. It was republished in 2010 with a new introduction by the authors. Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, regarded as a seminal text of second wave feminism, established the public profiles of Ehrenreich and English. It argues that medical practice was the preserve of women healers until the Enlightenment era saw a hostile takeover by male professionals whose methods were-at least initially-less successful than those of the women they displaced. This quick history brings us up-to-date, exploring today's changing attitudes toward childbirth, alternative medicine, and modern-day witches.Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers (1973) is a feminist polemical pamphlet by American writers Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English. They build on their classic exposé on the demonization of women healers and the political and economic monopolization of medicine. In this new and updated edition, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English delve into the current fascination with and controversies about witches, exposing our fears and fantasies. Witches, Midwives, and Nurses examines how women-led healing was delegitimized to make way for patriarchy, capitalism, and the emerging medical industry.Īs we watch another agonizing attempt to shift the future of healthcare in the United States, we are reminded of the longevity of this crisis, and how firmly entrenched we are in a system that doesn't work.įirst published by the Feminist Press in 1973, Witches, Midwives, and Nurses is an essential book about the corruption of the medical establishment and its historic roots in witch hunters.

Witches midwives and nurses book