Barry Vale

The influence of changing gender roles throughout the 18th & 19th Century on the position of women in the practice of midwifery and gynaecology Barry Vale

The central theme of this work will be a discussion as to whether or not changing gender roles throughout the 18th and 19th centuries influenced women wishing to have a career in midwifery and gynaecology. Midwifery in an informal sense at least has existed for thousands of years whenever women (and sometimes men) have helped other women through pregnancy and childbirth. Gynaecology as a specialist form of medicine can be traced back to the Ancient Greeks and the Romans and was traditionally dominated as a profession by men. In Western Europe gynaecology along with other medical practices had gone backwards after the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire based around Byzantine such practices continued till its fall in the 15th century. The rediscovery of Greek medicine from Arabic texts translated from Byzantine books led to the re-emergence of medical treatments on a greater scale whilst linking university education with the best-qualified practitioners.