PDF The Folk-Element in Hindu Culture; A Contribution to Socio-Religious Studies in Hindu Folk-Institutions by Benoy Kumar Sarkar; Hemendra K Rakshit in History

Description

From the bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed and a former editor in chief Mother Jones; this women's history classic brilliantly uncovers the constraints imposed on women in the name of science. Since the nineteenth century; professionals have been invoking scientific expertise to prescribe what women should do for their own good. Among the experts’ diagnoses and remedies: menstruation was an illness requiring seclusion; pregnancy; a disabling condition; and higher education; a threat to long-term health of the uterus. From clitoridectomies to tame women’s behavior in the nineteenth century to the censure of a generation of mothers as castrators in the 1950s; doctors have not hesitated to intervene in women’s sexual; emotional; and maternal lives. Even domesticity; the most popular prescription for a safe environment for women; spawned legions of “scientific” experts. Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English has never lost faith in science itself; but insist that we hold those who interpret it to higher standards. Women are entering the medical and scientific professions in greater numbers but as recent research shows; experts continue to use pseudoscience to tell women how to live. For Her Own Good provides today’s readers with an indispensable dose of informed skepticism.