After Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school, more women demanded a chance to study medicine but they were barred entrance to universities like Harvard sowomen built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. Their success spurred a chilling backlash from elite, white male physicians who were obsessed with eugenics and the propagation of the white race. Distorting Darwin’s evolution theory, these haughty physicians proclaimed in bestselling books that women should never be allowed to attend college or enter a profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick. Motherhood was their constitution and duty. Into the midst of this turmoil marched tiny, dynamic Mary Putnam Jacobi, daughter of New York publisher George Palmer Putnam and the first woman to be accepted into the world-renowned Sorbonne medical school in Paris. As one of the best-educated doctors in the world, she returned to New York for the fight of her life. Aided by other prominent women physicians and suffragists, Jacobi conducted the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. The results of her studies shook the foundations of medical science and higher education.

Full of larger than life characters, The Cure for Women documents the birth of a sexist science still haunting us today as the fight for control of women’s bodies and lives continues. This was a very detailed account of Mary Putnam Jacobi's efforts to refute all the male produced stories of women not being capable of being doctors because of their biology. It took me a while to read as I wanted to absorb all the facts and was appalled at whet the male doctors believed and wrote without any real evidence. Anyone interested in women's fight for equality should read this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting my request. I had read other books about women's fight to become doctors, but had never read the "why" of their struggle in such detail until reading this book. I highly recommend.

This was very complex and very long. I like nonfiction but I felt like I was reading for a college class, not reading for entertainment.

“In 1873, the Comstock laws made all forms of birth control illegal and by 1880 nearly all states had outlawed abortion. None confronted the fact that when embryos and fetuses were protected s fully human, the lives of women became dehumanized and incidental.”

This book was fascinating, enraging and inspiring. The Blackwell sisters, Mary Putnam Jacobi, etc were the trailblazers of women in medicine and it’s unfortunate that it would take 100 years after they started their careers in medicine for discrimination on the basis of sex to be outlawed. Until Title IX, only 6% of doctors were women, now more than 60% of doctors under the age of 35 are women, and 85% of obgyns are women.

This is such a triumph, because not only did gilded age doctors want to prevent female doctors, but they discredited and destroyed the profession of midwifery to line their own pockets.

The history of the criminalization of abortion is also critical to this story, as male doctors who supported the eugenics movement discovered that the majority of women obtaining abortions were married white women, they began to criminalize the practice.

This book could not be more timely as abortion rights are repealed across America. The author’s final phrase sticks out with me the most: “Risk everything, work hard and reach for the stars. But most of all, organize”

A well-researched, engaging and fascinating historical account of medical strides made by strong pioneering women.

In this brilliant new book about the history of women in medicine in the nineteenth century, Lydia Reeder introduces readers to Mary Putnam Jacobi, the first woman accepted by the Sorbonne medical school in Paris and an incredibly educated and trailblazing doctor. Following her work on women’s reproductive biology with suffragists and other women physicians, readers will discover the dramatic implications of her groundbreaking research and medical career in this detailed, immersive, and fascinating history of the sexism baked into science and healthcare. Deeply relevant to modern readers, Lydia Reeder has done a fantastic job bringing the overlooked story of Dr. Putnam Jacobi to life in this complex, well-researched, and well-written new women’s history book. In bringing the stories of Dr. Putnam Jacobi and her contemporaries in the women’s rights movement and the integration of women into the medical field to readers, Reeder has expanded the historiography of women in medicine beyond Elizabeth Blackwell and her notable contributions, a necessary and important step for women’s history. With so much historical documentation in this book, readers will greatly appreciate the depth of information and the integration of historical sources in this marvelous new history book because reading about Mary Putnam Jacobi’s research in her own words cannot be replicated.

“The Cure for Women” is a wide-ranging exploration into women’s quest to become medical doctors, the barriers they faced, and the challenges of providing medical care for women that is scientifically based. Author Lydia Reeder does an excellent job detailing the travails of early female doctors and the interconnectedness of their small community. Alternately supportive and competitive, these women fought tooth and nail to take their rightful place in medical history.

At its heart “The Cure for Women” is not just about Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, but about women’s roles in society, their right to an education, their medical treatment by the male-dominated medical establishment, and the changes that strong-willed women worked towards for decades. As Reeder says in the Epilogue to this book, Putnam Jocobi’s story is timely as we witness the ways that women’s minds and bodies are still under attack.

The book alternately makes the reader angry at the historical treatment of women and joyful that women persevered in the face of great challenges to improve the medical profession, their access to education, and women’s health. Dr. Putnam Jacobi’s steadfastness in pursuit of her goals to get women a place in medicine and improve the lives and rights of women is inspirational and aspirational.

This book is great for readers who enjoy women’s histories and medical history.

I received an advance review copy for free from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

One of my favorite things about non-fiction is the unexpected side trip an author sometimes takes. This book, for example, included a section about the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman ("The Yellow Wallpaper") and her challenges with depression and the abusive treatment she underwent at the hand of the male doctor who was one of the villians of the main story. I really enjoyed this and many other aspects of this account of the Victorian-era women who battled for the right to train and work as doctors in the US.
Reeder obviously feels passionately about her subject but this sometimes causes her to lose some objectivity. I don't think that everyone who questions the practice of abortion hates women. But Reeder seems to. She never allows anyone who stood in the way of her heroines to be misguided or undereducated. They're just evil.
This is a small thing though. Overall I liked the book, I learned a great deal about the history of women's rights, and I have a new group of women, Mary Putnam Jacobi and others, which I admire tremendously for what they sacrificed for all women who came after them.

4+ important historical stars, not rounded up

The Cure for Women is an important historical work about women physicians and the barriers they faced. Women need to remember how far they’ve come and be wary of never regressing with their hard-earned rights. We also need to remember those who helped bring us this far. The book mentions Dr. Putnam Jacobi knowing suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and the Blackwell sisters (doctors), but I had not heard of Mary Putnam Jacobi before. I am glad I got to read about her Dr. Jacobi’s life and work.

The author writes, “In a Victorian culture that valued women as ornamental birthing machines, the cutting-edge, evidence-based medicine Jacobi practiced was an act of disobedience. Her scientific research dismantled the myths about women’s bodies spread by men, transformed medicine, and laid the groundwork for the future advancements of women including suffrage. It was a turning point for women struggling to be seen as fully human. Jacobi became one of the most important physicians, male or female, of the nineteenth century. Her amazing accomplishments remain mostly unrecognized today.” Reeder’s research is amazing. The non-fiction narrative style she uses cites first-person resources extensively.

Just as the subtitle got a bit long, (Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever), so did the book. The Publisher says it’s 336 pages long; I don’t know if that includes 25% of my Advanced Reader Copy which is research footnotes. I think the book seemed long because there were some tangents besides Victorian Medicine and the topic of women’s health history is a serious topic.

I was dismayed at the male doctors who experimented on enslaved women (gynecology) without anesthesia, and the ‘rest cure’ for mental ailments/ depression that completely took away women’s autonomy and made things worse.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Stunning in its detail. Important, shocking, and moving, it is the story of the first women in medicine, moving from midwifery to physicians. Their journey is inspiring. But the equal bravery of the women upon whom male physicians performed surgery is horrifying in what they were subjected to. This is an essential book on more than just the evolution of the practice of medicine. It also reveals the venality of misogyny illuminating not only what was, and which has not been eliminated, but also how far we’ve come and the tension between Doe and post-Doe attitudes toward women in the public discourse. A important look at progress.

I received this an ARC through Netgalley. Lydia Reeder did a wonderful job of sharing detailed information in a way that was easy to digest. It read like narrative non-fiction and was easy to follow. I know there were some backwards and incorrect theories about menstruations, but did not realize the extent. All of these women should be applauded and known for all their hardwork and bravery to fight for rights we take for granted today and for making sure facts are known.

2 stars

Yes, I'm very interested in reading about the advancement of women in various scientific careers. No, I'm NOT interested in reading yet another account of how every male is to blame for everything bad that has happened in the past, current events, and probably the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This highly accessible book is a well-researched and engaging historical account of the medical strides made by not only Dr. Putnam Jacobi, but also of the other pioneering women healers and physicians in the closed-rank, male-dominated medical profession in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Embracing clinical research as her basis for the study and treatment of gynecological issues and other medical issues affecting women's health uniquely, Dr. Putnam Jacobi challenged the woefully inadequate treatment of women's issues by over-confident male physicians who were, in some cases, more concerned with their celebrity and income than they were in actually helping women, and advanced women's health, often discrediting men's misguided theories about women's physiology and debunking such popular, but often tragic, treatments as the "rest cure," removing ovaries, and just plain bad advice and bad medicine. This deep dive explains the barriers these pioneering women of science and compassion faced were soul-crushing and their successes were uniformly hard-won. Not quite five stars because it dragged in a few places, but much closer to five stars than four.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Ms. Reeder for the opportunity to read this fascinating historical account.

Full of interesting and provocative historical facts, I found The Cure for Women very intriguing and entertaining at times. There were some areas that just made me mad at the way women were treated in the past and some very good examples of how history constantly repeats itself. Definitely a thought provoking read that will stay with me awhile. Great historical nonfiction!

"The Cure for Women" is about the first women doctors in America, the men who opposed them, and the fight for women to be accepted at male medical schools. It's more about what the author felt about the various people and events than quotes of what the women themselves said. The information about Mary Putnam Jacobi only took up about a third of the book. The book started by telling about the Blackwell sisters and a couple of other prominent women doctors, then we got into Mary's life. But the author tended to digress and give biographies and backstories for anyone new introduced into the story. For example, there's a chapter detailing a male doctor's 'rest cure' for women which also told details about several woman who took his cure, one dying afterward and the others finally breaking free of all male restraints to live healthy lives.

I hadn't expected so many biographies beyond Mary's and felt like they slowed the pacing and sometimes didn't even have to do with Mary's interesting story. Also, the author portrayed men as controlling, manipulative, childishly hateful, and basically willing to torture and subjugate women to achieve their own goals. She's convinced me that some of the main male opponents were pretty horrible people, but the supportive men were barely mentioned.

As Mary apparently published a lot of her research, and a number of the women doctors were the first to do things that other schools and hospitals later picked up, I'd expected more of a focus on what they accomplished. I was fascinated by Mary's innovative research showing that the menstrual cycle did not indicate that a woman was 'in heat' nor was it a sign of reoccurring weakness. Instead, this book was written as an epic battle between clever, independent women and white supremist males determined to force women back into a role of baby-making machines.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Cure for Women
By Lydia Reeder

This book deals with two things: the horror of women's medical treatment when males – both husbands and male doctors - ran the show; and what it took for women to finally gain a place at the table of women's health care.

It was only when women began to make strides in becoming doctors that women's health care and the need for women caring for women began to be recognized.

While horrifying in many ways, this book is a must read for women.

Much like another book I read this month, the title of this book is very misleading. Is this a book about Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi? Absolutely. BUT, it is also a book about all the women who came before her [including, but not limited to Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell {there is a LOT about them, especially Emily}, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane Addams and many others who's names escape me now] and a few after as well, and helped pave the way for women in medicine and women's rights overall.

While this was an outstanding book and I learned so much [the research here is clearly extensive], I wanted to much more of Dr. Jacobi; the parts that were just her were just so fascinating and I found myself disappointed with then story veered off in another direction. So while I DID enjoy this, I ended up wishing it was so much more. I would not hesitate to recommend it though as it is a deep-dive into women in medicine and is a jumping off point to do more reading on the subject, all while getting an excellently written and researched book to start with.

I have not had the pleasure of listening to Sara Sheckells before [that I remember], and I was left hoping that this isn't my last time listening to her narration. Ms. Sheckells has a lovely quiet voice that tells this important story in such a way that keeps you fully engaged and I highly recommend this audiobook and narrator.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lydia Reeder, Sara Sheckells - Narrator, St. Martin's Press, and Dreamscape Media for providing the audiobook and eBook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fascinating look into the world of medicine during the late 1800s. A time when women were mocked, ridiculed, misunderstood, mistreated and laughed at in so many arenas, especially in the field of medicine. Well researched and well written, the author provided a detailed account of Mary Jacobi’s life and career. Her influence and impact is still being felt to this day. The women’s suffrage movement is also detailed in the book as it was tied to and occurring alongside with women’s rights in medicine. Reeder’s book reminds us how far we have come, but still the lengths needed to go for racial equality in medicine.

I wanted to like this more than I did, but even though it is well-written, and clearly well researched, I kept getting lost in all of the details.

Following the history of Dr. Mary Putman Jacobi, the author provides what is expected. It is the deviations, which I concede are important and crucial to our understanding of Victorian medicine, that seem to make it difficult to read and a bit convoluted. This is not a book I would recommend to someone that isn't a scholar with a particular focus on the topic. I did learn a lot about the topics discussed, but it was a bit rough to get through, in my opinion. I did recommend this to my mom since she has a background in medicine.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Women have really only come into their own in the past century or so, though many struggled to improve their lives, as well as those of their families, neighbors, and others like the poor or disabled, through health issues or war injuries. Till close to the end of the 1800's, women couldn't even control the money they brought into their marriages, couldn't take their children and leave an abusive marriage, couldn't, for the most part, even have much education except in the "womanly" arts! Those who struggled to learn and live a fuller life were held back by society as a whole, as well as most unenlightened parents, spouses, relatives, even friends. However, a brave few did succeed in higher learning, particularly in medicine, though many were inspired to become nurses by Florence Nightingale, after her work duing the Crimean War. That did lead the way for more to want to be schooled, even as doctors, though many schools, male students, as well as families, fought to prevent further education for women, deemed too fragile for such things. By sheer perseverance women started to succeed in achieving doctoral education, though often in Europe itself, rather than the US or Endland, and eventually paved the way for acceptance of women into university. What many went through, treated with scorn, physical and mental pain, lack of resources, would have been enough to daunt mothose early st men, let alone women, of that time, but women battled and struggled and succeeded despite efforts to stymie their progress. Today, there are as many as, if not slightly more, women attending medical schools than men, so those earlier female trailblazers succeeded in their mission to allow education for everyone.

True stories of the women who pioneered medicine. It is always fascinating to learn about the struggles and triumphs of people and if you are especially interested in learning how women have overcome social barriers, this is a great book for you. Would offer a lot of discussion points for book clubs. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC #sponsored