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Going With The Flow: The Evolution of Menstrual Education in England, 1850 to 1930

Authors :
Hiltz, Madeline M.
Source :
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Scholarship@Western, 2021.

Abstract

The history of menstrual education has typically been overshadowed by other aspects of Victorian sexuality and female reproductive history. This thesis seeks to shine a light on menstrual education in the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth century in England. More specifically, it examines the role that male and female physicians played producing and disseminating information on menstrual management. Despite a scarcity of documented experiences outlining the reality of menstrual education and menstrual management, an analysis of surviving literary materials, including health advice literature, periodicals and magazines, medical studies, new letters and pamphlets, help indicate cultural conceptions of menstruation. It becomes clear that there is a correlation between menstruation being promoted as an illness with females seeking employment and educational opportunities. Male physicians used educational resources on menstruation to attempt to keep women within the domestic sphere. It was not until the early twentieth century and the rise of female physicians that menstruation began to be viewed as a natural physiological process.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Accession number :
edsair.od......1548..4881f38a4daab9c23301fb876384c2f0