womens illness

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Recommended: Gender inequality in the late 19th century

Women’s Illnesses
In the late 19th century and into the 20th century women were still inferior to men in society. Women did not have much freedom at the time and had to listen to the head of the households for all matters. Similarly, when a woman had an illness, not only did they have to obey to a doctor, but also their husbands. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a good example of the oppression women faced when they had an illness. The narrator Jane is controlled by her husband John and diagnosis her with a mental illness. John traps his wife in a room for weeks and it causes her to become mentally unstable. As mentioned in the short story the medical community used very unorthodox and unreasonable treatments for women’s illnesses that had a passive effect on women.
During the 18th and 19th century the study of medicine was still in its infancy. Unlike today, doctors could not pinpoint the exact cause of an illness. Doctors would treat patients without much care or understanding and would many times misuse their power to falsely. One of the biggest catalysts of this problem were women. This was time period when women lacked basic equal right and were less educated. Laws were harsh against women and it gave men the right to have control over their lives. According to an article from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, a law in Illinois during that time “stated that married women could be hospitalized at the husband’s request without any evidence required in any other cases”. In the article, the wife Elizabeth Packard was “forcibly placed in an Illinois state hospital by her husband and remained there for 3 years”. This is identical to the situation that the narrator, Jane is facing where her husband John has isolated...

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...eatment for the Insane Improved in the Early 1900s." Times News Online. Pencor, 16 Oct. 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
"Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry through 1900 - 19th Century Psychiatric Debates."U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Foerschner, Allison M. "The History of Mental Illness: From "Skull Drills" to "Happy Pills"" RSS. Student Pulse, 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Martin, Diana, M.D. "The Rest Cure Revisited." PsychiatryOnline. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 2007. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Ozarin, Lucy, M.D. "Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry through 1900 - 19th Century Psychiatric Debates." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
"Rest Cure." Rest Cure. Science Museum, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

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