This book is about Mary Putnam Jacobi, a pioneering woman in medicine. The first part of the book chronicles the difficulties of women entering the field of medicine (and universities generally). Later the book moves to describing her education and struggles to achieve acceptance at the most prestigious Ecole de Medcin at the University of Paris. She not only succeeds in gaining entrance but graduates at the top of her class. The remaining portion of the book interleaves her successes and struggles as a physician/professor in New England and her partly successful but difficult personal life. She also becomes involved in other movements of her time and the author details both these movements and the quasi-medicine being practice in that time period. Over the course of her life, while she and a handful of women made progress, the sense is that many more were turned away.

The best part of the book is the detail of the women’s issues that begin to appear at that time. Women not only had trouble attaining advanced education, they were treated as children or worse as property by the men (even well-educated men) of the time.

What I didn’t like about the book is that the author uses her last name Jacobi after she gets married to refer to Dr. Putnam. (She acquired her degrees before she was married.) At one point in the book, the author is describing an argument between Mary and her husband Abraham. She refers to Mary as Jacobi and the husband as Abraham. Oddly, she could just have used Mary and Abraham in that instance since it was a personal argument. The use of Jacobi provides some ambiguity and confusion. The other thing that was a little bit of a problem is the extensive detail about other individuals after the middle part of the book. They become eventually tied but those ties are treated in short ways. This makes the book feel long. It was more interesting, for example, to hear about Dr. Putnam’s involvement with famous suffragettes and these interactions were described in a summary fashion; however, Mitchell (a person who actually didn’t have extensive training) was covered in so much detail that it became tiring. His work and ideas could have easily been summarized and described in relation to Dr. Putnam.

Since I have been reading/researching about the suffrage movement in Boston this spring, I found the details about happenings in NYC not only interesting but sound. The author presents extensive research and should be commended for the thoroughness.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but what I got was an extensive reference guide that shed a massive amount of light on the plight of women wishing to join the medical profession in the Victorian era. As the stories of the struggles of individual notable women were told, we learn a lot about what it was like to be a female in need of medical help back then, as well.

It was a lot of information to take in, but treated as a reference book to be returned to again and again, "The Cure for Women" should find a home on the bookshelves of everyone from historians to authors to medical students and professionals to feminists and perhaps most importantly, men. Everyone can learn from the past and this is important history.

My thanks to Lydia Reeder, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

"The Cure for Women" is a thorough biography of the 19th-century physician, Mary Putnam Jacobi. Her story was new to me, and author Lydia Reeder did an excellent job of portraying how difficult it was for Jacobi to become a physician and then to practice as one. She was instrumental in helping other women to become doctors and was also an energetic believer in women's suffrage.

As if that were not enough, Mary Putnam Jacobi was also a wife and mother. She and her husband lost two children; one survived.

Several times I wondered about conclusions Reeder made. I could not find supporting statements from Jacobi for them. For example, when saying that abortion had been outlawed by nearly all states by 1880, she writes, "None confronted the fact that when embryos and fetuses were protected as fully human, the lives of women became dehumanized and incidental."

Maybe Dr. Jacobi believed this and maybe she didn't. This woman lost two young children. She may not have shared the belief that human life at any stage is disposable. While I would like to believe that Dr. Jacobi valued life at all its stages, my point is that I can't know from the information given in the book. Perhaps the author has more information on this topic that she did not include.

"The Cure for Women" was a well-written book and I enjoyed it. Some biographies bog down at some point; this one did not.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this advance reader's copy. This is my honest review.

The Cure for Women By Lydia Reeder is one of the most fascinating non-fiction books i have read in a while. I felt that the research was well done. Reading about Mary Jacobi and her trying to actually research the woman body to progress womans healthcare unlike her male colleagues just making things up as they went along which caused so much pain to women. I realized just how little men thought of women back in those times not that times have really changed all that much. The author did a wonderful job.

this was good!! I feel like I learned a whole lot. my only critique would be that it felt like the author lost the plot at times? like the book would get side tracked with giving full explanations about people who weren't the main point of the book.

Overall, would recommend

If you enjoy historical nom-fiction and learning about women throughout history, you will love this book, particularly if you enjoy medical history. The author did an excellent job of explaining the journey of women in medicine and all that they had to go through.

nonfiction, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, gynecology, medical-doctor, medical-history, medical-perspective, medical-practice, midwife*****

Self-importance and fear of change kept women's health care at risk for far too long. The change was hard won by the most brave and adamant and yet we still have work to do, especially those of us who are still discriminated against as "Old White Women". This excellent text gives an in depth study of the work done by the few for the benefit of the many in women's health.
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. THANK YOU

Well researched book about the history of women in medicine!!
A great read!

I just reviewed The Cure for Women by Lydia Reeder. #NetGalley

‘The Cure for Women’ is an incredibly in-depth, well-researched history of the fight for women in medicine. I have always found medical history to be fascinating, and I love women’s history so much that I studied it in college. This book was right up my alley!

Reeder covered many years and several female physicians in her research. I truly felt like I got to know some of the women, and I found their stories to be so intriguing. I’m ashamed to say that I knew next to nothing about Mary Putnam Jacobi before going into this. I will say that at times the book felt a little too dense. I never found it to be overly dry, but there was so much information that I occasionally had to put it down because my brain was struggling to focus on everything.

This book will have you feeling a surprising amount of emotion. You will feel rage for the women as they fought for their place amongst entitled men who thought less of them. You will feel pride for the women as they showed again and again that they knew their worth and that they were more than capable of doing the job before them. And you will be grateful for how far medicine – and women in medicine – have come in the years since the Victorian era.

This really was an exceptional book though, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in medical history and women's history, especially during the Victorian era.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free review copy in exchange for my honest review.

“The Cure for Women” by Lydia Reeder is an important book about the fight for gender parity in medicine, with emphasis on the women that fought for this equality including Mary Jacobi, Marie Zakrzewska, Emily Blackwell, among others.
Reeder describes the fight for women to pursue higher education and medical degrees with quotes from those fighting and stories about the strength and perseverance that these women continued to hold even after multiple barriers to women’s education. For example, Mary Jacobi had to fight through multiple rejections to attend the Ecole de Médecine in Paris as the first women to attend this school due to beliefs that women would cause hysteria in medical schools. On the other hand, “the women stayed calm while the men could not control their emotions”, leading to the “jeering incident” at Pennsylvania Hospital.
In addition, Reeder describes important contributions that women made in the early days of their introduction to medicine including vital hygiene measures and hospital organization through the first patient charting systems. These contributions are widely accepted today in all hospitals as basic standards of care and likely wouldn’t be available if it wasn’t for these women pioneers. It seems that, even in the first days, women being able to expand their knowledge was already leading to other outcomes than “insanity, sterility, and death” that some male physicians feared.
It was surprising to read of the acceptance of abortion in the eighteenth-century, whereas women’s reproductive rights continue to be a contentious debate today. However, women’s healthcare has also come a long way since ovariectomies and “rest cures” were provided for perceived mental illnesses which were thought to be caused by “vapor” from the spleen.
As a woman, and a medical provider, I am very appreciative of these pioneering women. In fact, anyone who enters a hospital today, that has a doctor who follows hygiene and sterility (hopefully, all providers), should be thankful to these women physicians. This book was a joy to read, and I learned a lot.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for access to this ARC!

As well as taking an in-depth look at women's health during the Victorian Era, Lydia Reeder's 'The Cure For Women' looks at their fight to enter the male-dominated medical field. This book was inspired by tape recordings of shared memories of five sisters, aged 72 to 89, of their mother, Ellen Babb. A practicing midwife and healer, Mrs. Babb cared for women and children in her rural Missouri community during the early 20th century. According to the author's research, women were barred from medical schools and most higher education until the end of the nineteenth century. During her research, she would learn about the early pioneers in medicine. Emily Blackwell, Ann Preston, and Marie Zakrzewska were a few of the female doctors.

In 1847, Emily Blackwell was admitted to Geneva Medical College after the student body jokingly voted to admit her. After voting, they realized it wasn't a joke and Emily would be enrolled. It was said that women of the day were to be: "...A proper lady did not lead an independent public life. Only poor and immigrant women who labored as servants, clerks, factory workers, or prostitutes were seen walking the streets. The refined upper-and middle-class women remained in the private sphere of home and hearth, cloistered and happy all their lives." Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree. Abolitionists, doctors, and philanthropists joined together with Ann Preston to demand more female doctors as too many women were suffering from disease. Women didn't want to compromise their virtue, purity, or expose their bodies to male physicians. Women died as a consequence of this. Preston believed that women were born to be physicians. Women cared for sick children, practiced midwifery, and treated their families' illnesses every day. Politics, harsh business dealings, and manual labor were seen as masculine roles by Preston. In terms of women and children's health, women were best equipped to take care of them.

By accident, J. Marion Sims became a woman's doctor. He is the inventor of the speculum. As far as I am concerned, that is the only thing I find positive about him. Women of the day suffered from rectovaginal fistulas, tears that extended from the rectum to the vagina. In many cases, this occurs during childbirth. Between 1845 and 1849, Dr. Sims performed experimental operations on enslaved women without their consent and without anesthesia. During hours-long operations, he would have men hold them in place while he operated and mutated them. Among them, some lived and some died. Having perfected his technique, he began performing the procedure on white women under anesthesia. However, Sims continued to operate on poor white women without anesthesia in a circus-like fashion.

When it came to women's reproductive health, Mary Putnam Jacobi was a pioneer. Her findings were published in medical journals and she won accolades. It didn't stop her male colleagues from citing her work and publishing it as their own. The study of menstrual waves proved to be a case in point. As Jacobi became intimately familiar with the anatomy of women, she used her imagination to envision possible physical causes of her patients' illness. It was her ability to conceptualize an accurate diagnosis and formulate a cure that led to her curing the most puzzling cases.

Above are only a few sobering glimpses into Victorian health that 'The Cure For Women' covers. The health concerns of women were not only not taken seriously, but so many suffered and died as a result. A prohibition on women studying in the medical sciences prevented them from getting an education. While studying medicine, women faced issues such as a lack of quality education and harassment.

The Cure for Women is an eye-opening book about the unjust treatment of women during the Victorian era regarding their health and career choices. It is a very well-written and well-researched book. The author deserves praise for not holding back. This book is highly recommended.

this is a very slow, very dense read, but worth it. it should be required reading in all medical schools, in my opinion. the importance of women in the medical field can’t be overstated. prior to reading this book, i had never even heard of Drs. Elizabeth Blackwell, Emily Blackwell, Mary Putnam Jacobi, Ann Preston, Marie Zakrzewska, or Lucy Sewall. i was amazed to learn how many women (and how many LESBIANS!) were at the forefront of the field of medicine during the suffrage era. even though this book admittedly took me quite a while to finish (it’s packed with many, many historical details) i would still recommend it to anyone interested in history.

This nonfiction book is about the battles, heckling, misogyny and more that Mary Putnam Jacobi and the female physicians before and after her faced; it includes Susan B Anthony and other woman's rights activists as well.
It is an accurately researched book that covers the span of more than 40 years. I enjoyed the parts about Mary Putnam Jacobi that flowed like a novel, however, at other times it jumps back and forth with facts of others.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
#NetGalley, #TheCureForWomen

Thanks goodness for the next one! I am on the last few pages now, and The Cure for Women will go on my list of all time favorites.

All really good nonfiction for the layperson is as readable as fiction, well-documented, and fascinating. The Cure for Women is all of that.

It begins with Elizabeth Blackwell the first woman to earn a medical degree in America in 1849. I was familiar with the name through both fiction and nonfiction, but knew nothing else about her. Her efforts (and those of her sister Emily) for the advancement of women in medicine were remarkable.

However, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, who studied privately under Blackwell and worked with Blackwell at various times throughout her career, is the main focus of the book. Both women addressed and fought for higher education for women, for the right to attend medical school, and for women's suffrage.

"Full of larger than life characters and cinematically written, 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."

I'll be reviewing the book later with some of the salient details of the tremendous obstacles these women and many others that the book discusses. Highly Recommended.

You'll probably be tired of hearing about it before I'm finished talking about it. My husband already glazes over when I say, "That reminds me of _________ in The Cure for Women.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Lydia Reeder, author for a book that I could hardly bare to put down.

A stunning look at the medical treatment of women in the 1800s. It carries the development of medicine from assumptions on what was "wrong" with female bodies and minds to increasingly scientific methods of care.

Filled with anecdotes, women's stories, and physicians' understanding - this is an exciting and stunning journey. The Epilogue updates the evolving medical fields that interact with and take care of women's physical and mental needs.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves good stories, cherishes the advances of science, and is interested in how history unfolds.

Wow! What a fantastic and interesting book! I think every woman should read this book. The struggles of females to try and become legitimate and recognized doctors. The physical pain women endured to bring forth knowledge about the female body. I'm in awe of the women who persevered and became leaders in the medical world!

This author did a superb job in her research, and the way she wrote gives personality to the characters. By the end of the book, I really felt like I knew Mary and Abraham Jacobi! I'll definitely be reading more books by this author!!

I was provided a complimentary copy of the book from St Martin's Press via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I want to thank NetGalley for an prerelease copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Cure for Women is an absorbing, often infuriating (the topic, not the book!), and always fascinating history of the obstacles women had to overcome to pursue an education and career in medicine. The book is particularly relevant due to the current revival of laws from the 1860’s & 70’s to control women’s healthcare as well as the apparent continuing lack of understanding of how the human female body actually works.

The book dicusses a number of talented female doctors and medical providers with Mary Putnam Jacobi as a prime focus, and I’m so glad to have learned about her life & legacy. She was a brilliant doctor who also fought for women’s rights. She was able convince at least a few open minded male doctors that women could be extremely talented physicians who deserved opportunities and credit for their work and achievements.

I highly recommend this book!

The Cure for Women follows the early struggles of female doctors but focuses on the life of Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi. I had never heard of Dr. Putnam, which frustrates me. Why have we not celebrated this important doctor? Well, my guess is because she focused on women while the male-dominated field of doctors wanted to silence her. She was the first doctor to conduct research, unlike her male colleagues that came up with crazy theories to keep women from higher education. Many of the male doctors had no data, but wrote books to support their ideas. I have some 19th century books on medicine that deal with women, so I knew before reading this book about men's views, but to read Dr. Putnam's story was eye opening. I am forever thankful that I read The Cure for Women, and as a society, we need to celebrate women's accomplishments instead of letting them disappear into history. Thank you, Ms. Reeder for writing this book!

It was difficult for me to read the experiments on animals. It was common, but I still struggled to read about them.

As a nurse and proud member of the health-care profession, I always enjoy good, historical novels about nurses/MD's. This one caught my attention, and I found it a very accurate history of women in the medical worlds, after Elizabeth Blackwell. Reeder tells the story very well, of women's plight to become the best MD's, and they have, in my opinion.
Thank you NetGalley for this e-book to enjoy.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very well researched and I learned a lot from this book. I would highly recommend this book.