Overview
- Explores the complexities of the social mechanisms by which gynaecological cancers emerged as a public health issue.
- Employs a chronological approach to chart the evolution of medical ideas concerning women and cancer.
- Analyses, in detail, primary resources previously unstudied.
Part of the book series: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History (MBSMH)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This volume focuses on gynaecological cancer to explore the ways in which gender has shaped medical and public health responses to cancer in England. Rooted in gendered perceptions of cancer risk, medical and public health efforts to reduce cancer mortality since 1900 have prominently targeted women’s cancers. Women have also been key participants in the ‘war’ on cancer through their various roles as medical practitioners, midwives, nurses, health visitors, radiotherapists and cytotechnicians. Moscucci’s study traces this complex history from the establishment of ‘early detection and treatment’ policies aimed at cervical cancer, to the controversial development of prophylactic oophorectomy as a strategy for the prevention of ovarian cancer. Women’s cancers are highly visible in modern English society as symbols of progress in cancer therapy and prevention. The account offered in this volume reveals a different story, marked by hopes and fears, expectations and disappointments.
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Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Ornella Moscucci is an independent scholar based in London, UK. She was previously an honorary fellow of the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Gender and Cancer in England, 1860-1948
Authors: Ornella Moscucci
Series Title: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-60109-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-55423-8Published: 13 February 2017
eBook ISBN: 978-1-349-60109-7Published: 24 January 2017
Series ISSN: 2947-9142
Series E-ISSN: 2947-9150
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 342
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour
Topics: European History, Modern History, History of Britain and Ireland, Gender Studies, Social History