Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology

"This book is particularly fascinating to me. Deirdre Cooper Owens reexamines the familiar narrative about modern gynecology techniques like the surgical repair of vesico-vaginal fistulae, a common condition caused in childbirth. These techniques were developed using the bodies of enslaved women or poor women, with J. Marion Sims usually credited for these advances and hailed as the so-called father of modern American gynecology. Medical Bondage turns the story on its head by focusing on the women whose bodies were the subjects of the research over the years. Owens shows the experiments were part of a history of the misuse of Black bodies and how the research was driven by deep racial misperceptions, such as the idea that Black women were less sensitive to pain when compared to white women. Across gynecology, she shows that Black women and immigrant women were frequently subject to an unforgiving medical gaze that denied their full humanity. And she positions their suffering and sacrifice, as well as their work as nurses, as central to the development of these pioneering experiments. By focusing on the women, rather than J. Marion Sims, she inverts the traditional story of discovery and heroism. That would take a long time to explain; that question is central not only to my work, but the work of legions of other historians. We’re at a very important moment in society, in healthcare, and in biomedical sciences. Experts are looking closely at how structural racism and racism impinge on health. Fortunately, over the last 30 years an incredible range of scholarship has spoken to this question, documenting how flawed ideas about racial difference led to medical malpractice and maltreatment, examining segregation and its impact on health outcomes, and so on. Historians of medicine have spent decades examining the different ways in which racism and racial hierarchies impact healthcare. In this moment, one hope is that this scholarship will help guide our way to a more just and equitable future for healthcare."