Women Under the Knife: A History of Surgery

by Ann Dally

In the nineteenth century, major developments in internal surgery were due to operations on ovaries. Women bore the brunt of surgical experimentation and also reaped its rewards. Their need was great, but so was their compliance. From the first operation in America in 1809, much suffering was relieved at the expense of prolonged surgery endured by both black slaves and prosperous whites. Later, in the Victorian era, many surgeons looked at certain types of behavior as reasons for mutilating operations. Such procedures as "spaying" and clitoridectomies were performed to "cure" hysteria and masturbation, as well as questionable interventionalist surgery in pregnancy and childbirth which still continue today.

Women Under the Knife is an extraordinary history, giving a vivid picture--medical, literary, and sociological--of Victorian society in America and Europe.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Medicine, Feminism, Medical, Health

289 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Ann Dally, English author and psychiatrist. Her controversial treatment of heroin addicts, as part of her Harley Street practice, led to her being examined by the General Medical Council and the National Health Service. She wrote about her experience in A Doctor's Story (1990).

Reviews

[Willow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fascinating and disturbing. While parts of it are dry and tedious, other parts will stick with me forever. I'm horrified about the overall historic view that women were naturally sickly creatures. I'm also horrified about all the abuses and mutilations that took place on women’s healthy organs.

I liked how Ann Dally approached her subject. She writes analytically, not emotionally. She neither condemns historic doctors or adulates them. She attempts instead to analyze their decisions and figure out what they were trying to accomplish. She also examines the social beliefs at the time. For instance, I think her assessment of the controversial gynecologist, J. Marion Sims, is a fair account. I had always just read he was a monster, experimenting on slaves.

What did I take away from this? I think you should always question any medical procedure that is being offered to you. And I say that still, even in our age of medical advancement. I think your average doctor truly believes they are helping, and they are trying to improve your heath. So their intentions are good, but it never hurts to reexamine medical treatments and ask, is this really necessary? Stand up and look around.

[Deanne Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a person interested in reading historical things I found this fascinating to read. As fascinating as it was to read I'll admit it was hard to read as well. Some procedures I read about will stay in my memory for a long time! In the primitive days of medicine ,women and slaves were considered inferior and a lot of medical experiments were conducted on them. The inferior women were considered to feel less pain than men. Women were subject to many gynecological experiments as well. One doctor removed both of his daughter's ovaries as a way to keep her from wanting to go out at night. When primitive medicine was practiced they did not want to cut into the patient's abdomen, or brain. In the American Civil war almost all abdominal and head wounds were fatal. This book was very fascinating to read but I am so glad we have made so many medical advancements and continue to make them.
Pub Date 24 Feb 2017
Thank you to NetGalley and Endeavour Press for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-researched and engagingly and accessibly written, this account of women and surgery is at times eye-wateringly graphic but always illuminating and often fascinating. It’s also quite disturbing at times, as although attitudes to women by the medical establishment are far more enlightened these days, especially since the profession of medicine has become available to women, the book is a timely reminder that some of the barbarities women have undergone in the past are still happening in some sectors of society even today. Medicine and misogyny seem to have gone hand-in-hand throughout history, unfortunately, and some of the procedures doctors and surgeons once considered necessary to the health and well-being of women simply beggar belief. I found the book completely gripping and learnt a great deal from it

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surgery was pretty crazy in the 1800s and early 1900s and Women Under the Knife discusses cases and opinions related to it. I’m not sure if the author was trying to make the point that surgeons operated on both men and women so it really wasn’t significant that women underwent more surgeries than men (the majority of the additional surgeries were gynecological) or that men, and particularly male surgeons, were misogynists and so operated so much on women for that reason. Sometimes it felt like she was making one of those points and sometimes the other and that she didn’t really make either point in the end. It was often dreadfully boring and read like someone’s doctoral thesis. When she was discussing case studies, however, it was fabulous and very interesting. She really should have stuck more to those. I don’t really recommend or not recommend this book either way. It would probably be best skimmed to just read about the surgical cases.

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were moments of interest but the book needed a solid edit. There are lots of dull bits, rambling sections, contents which don't fit under the chapter headings, contradictions galore, unreferenced quotes, and scientific evidence that meanders between fake news and well referenced. But there are some good bits that shows how far doctors and their professionalism have come; this includes some of the conditions women suffered before surgery and medical treatments came along.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of fascinating and useful insights about the (predominantly male) medical profession and its (predominantly female) customer and research subject base, but unfortunately the author's clumsiness (she rambles, repeats herself, contradicts herself, and doesn't marshall evidence effectively) makes this book far less well known than it should be. I admit I'm still completely baffled by the idea that women are 'less evolved' than men, since every human gets half its genetic inheritance from each gender.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought the cover calls it ‘an exceptionally enjoyable read’ I didn’t find it to my taste. This was a reprint of a book first published in 1980 and I’m not sure I would have chosen this book to save from the archives. Luckily I am not in charge of all books ever and I can understand why this book would be important. The sheer amount of information and the manner that it was discussed was too much for me both as a woman and as a lover of history in general. There is no sugar-coating and no shiny veneer on this past. It is all grit and gore. Author Ann Daly has put together a number of cases and interesting people who made up the medical community and their pasts. Though one reviewer was glad to not have emotional bias behind the writing, I feel as though there needed to be some acknowledgment of emotion behind the horrors. It is our emotions AND our logic that guide our morals. I would recommend this to someone with a strong stomach and an interest in early female medical practices. I would not recommend this as someone’s first foray into that world though.

*This eBook was provided by NetGalley and The Odyssey Press in exchange for honest feedback*

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting premise--a career surgeon writing a medical history of women's surgery, focusing on the 19th century. On the whole, the book is excellent. I fear Dally isn't always up to the task of wading into contentious debates amongst professional historians, but overall, the book is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to know more about the real conditions of 19th century gynecological surgery.

[Kirsty Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I wanted to engage with this book, I just couldn't. I managed the first couple of chapters but I just don't think this book has been written for the ordinary lay person. If that was the target audience, I am surprised because this is written more like a research book and is quite dry, long winded and with a lot of medical terms. It's a shame because the subject matter has the potential to be very interesting.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Women under the Knife" gives an overview over the development of gynecological surgery. Unfortunately, the writing isn't that good and I started skimming the pages after the first couple of chapters.

[JANE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting

Very interesting book. It was awful reading about how women were operated on for ailments which did not exist. So glad I did not live in that time.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a hard read, but one every woman should read. The history of medicine, is fascinating. I know from college classes that medicine and surgeries are first designed for men, then adapted for women and children. Poor slaves! Practice patients with no one to speak for them. I am glad to be born into this times.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book received from NetGalley.

This book goes into how women have been treated historically by doctors. The start of medical science treating women's illness as hysteria and imagination. It shows how far we've actually come in women's medicine and how far we still have to go. It can be dry in parts but is something that should be read, especially by those who are still dealing with many doctors double standards.

[Aunt Meanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely fascinating book. I found it both interesting and educational. The book is a look backward at the historical approach that doctors, surgeons, and later, specialists, took to learn and treat medical illnesses and diseases that effected women.

To understand the current issues women face today, the public would need to have better knowledge of the history of how women were treated medically (and socially!) in the past. Obstetrics and Gynecology became a very important part of women's struggle for recognition as human beings with choice, access to better care and control of their own body. [Cold we ever forget the blistering and painful mechanical restraints used on women to curb masturbation?].

Very interesting reading about pioneer surgeon, J. Marion Sims, early experimental surgeries to repair vesico-vaginal fistula and recto-vaginal fistula.

After reading this book, I agree with author, Ann Dally, that previous authors in history had falsely labeled Dr Sims as a misogynist – stated that he treated black female slaves inhumanely and with contempt. He truthfully expressed that he did not “enjoy” working with the “female anatomy” in part due to the odor.
This was true of EVERY surgeon of that time period.

Untreated vesico-vaginal fistula and recto-vaginal fistula were very much more common and surgeons refused to do surgery to repair. Women spent their lives ostracized due to the constant urine and/or fecal leakage from the vagina. Imagine the humiliation and emotional as well as physical suffering these women endured.

There is no doubt that much was learned from the early surgeries, and treatment of the female disease conditions has vastly improved – yet some of the historical medical treatments were bizarre.

When previous authors state Dr J. Marion Sims “tortured” black female slaves [while performing surgical repair of vesico/recto fistula] ….. they are inaccurate. Dr Sims SAVED these women and returned them to live a normal life, no longer isolated, shamed and humiliated.

If you enjoy medical books, like history, this is an excellent book to read.

I received the book free in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my rating or review.

My review will be posted on amazon, goodreads, netgalley and moonshineartspot.blogspot