Medical Knowledge and Practice

Family stood at the centre of a woman’s knowledge collation practices – not only was the recording of the information intertwined, but family members, far and wide, also provided her with important information. Family and household, as social structures and communities of actors, particularly framed and shaped women’s medical practices, including knowledge practices, both in and outside the home. Women’s quotidian medical practices not only required them to possess knowledge, but were one of the main ways in which they gained and produced medical and natural knowledge. Embedded in prescriptive encouragements of female medical knowledge was a thinly veiled attempt by male authors to delineate women’s medical knowledge from men’s and to demarcate ‘feminine’ from ‘masculine’ medical activities. The wide range of medical activities performed by suggests that many had in-depth knowledge in a number of medical areas, from pharmacy to nursing and caring, and to specialist knowledge such as midwifery or sexual health.