Prescribed Norms

Cheryl Krasnick Warsh is Professor of History at Vancouver Island University and Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History / Bulletin canadien d'histoire de la medecine.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Rituals1. Wendy's Last Night in the Nursery: The "Disease" of Menstruation and Its Treatment 2. Gladys, Take Your Medicine! The Culture and Business of Menopause Part II: Technologies 3. Traditional Childbirth: Mothers and Babies 4. Modern Childbirth: Mothers and Doctors 5. Future Childbirth: Doctors and Babies Part III: Professions 6. Networks of Support, Networks of Opposition: The Medical Education of Women 7. Nursing: The Science of Womanly Arts Epilogue: The Case for Chaos References Index

The inclusion of a variety of women's experiences and the question of difference make this book a useful tool for teaching undergraduate women's health courses. Warsh's attention to the contemporary dimensions of women's health and recent debates around the HPV vaccine and alternative health practices is likewise a valuable teaching tool, as is her attention to discrepancies and limitations of historical sources on women's health. The book points to a need for future research on the expansion of health care and wellness practices in the late 20th century, including the rise of eating disorders and the physical fitness movement, as the very definition of health and normality continues to transform. - Canadian Bulletin of Medical History The elegant scholarship, cogent arguments, and wit of Prescribed Norms provide illuminating perspectives that broaden the histories of women, gender, medicine, science, and technology. - Canadian Historical Review For not only tackling a gargantuan body of secondary literature, but then wrestling it into a sweeping synthesis as insightful and delightful as this, Cheryl Krasnick Warsh deserves a medal... maybe even two. This book will be particularly welcomed by teachers of the history of health, women's history, and women's studies. - Social History In a tidy 300-or-so pages, Warsh lights candles into the darker corners of women’s medical history, the areas whose historically-perceived impoliteness made even medical professionals bristle. - Watermark