Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women's Health in the Second Wave

by Wendy Kline

Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, women argued that unless they gained access to information about their own bodies, there would be no equality. In Bodies of Knowledge, Wendy Kline considers the ways in which ordinary women worked to position the female body at the center of women’s liberation.

As Kline shows, the struggle to attain this knowledge unified women but also divided them—according to race, class, sexuality, or level of professionalization. Each of the five chapters of Bodies of Knowledge examines a distinct moment or setting of the women’s movement in order to give life to the ideas, expectations, and pitfalls encountered by the advocates of women’s health: the making of Our Bodies, Ourselves (1973); the conflicts surrounding the training and practice of women’s pelvic exams; the emergence of abortion as a feminist issue; the battles over contraceptive regulation at the 1983 Depo-Provera FDA hearings; and the rise of the profession of midwifery. Including an epilogue that considers the experiences of the daughters of 1970s feminists, Bodies of Knowledge is an important contribution to the study of the bodies—that marked the lives—of feminism’s second wave.

Genres: History, Feminism, Gender Studies, Nonfiction, History Of Medicine

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2010

Reviews

[Liz]

A thoughtful and detailed exploration of second wave feminism through the lens of female health activists. This was a deep-dive into the history of 1970s and 80s debates between feminists in the fight against binary and distinctly gendered approaches to science with a particular focus on women's health activism.

[Maisie Jepson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading this ready to write a book review for one of my assignments and I must say, I really enjoyed it! I rarely read academic books in full (usually just odd chapters here and there) but this is very interesting and engaging.

[saizine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great collection of interrelated essays/chapters on second wave feminism and its conflicts both with the medical profession and within the movement itself. The first two sections, 'Transforming Knowledge: The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves' and 'Reexaming the Pelvic: The Pelvic Instruction Controversy of the 1970s', are perhaps the most innovative or groundbreaking sections, while the chapter 'Bodies of Evidence: Depo-Provera and the Public Board of Inquiry' is a dymanic retelling and examination of the injectable contraception controversy. This was recommended to me by a tutor on my course and I certainly second her opinion: highly recommended.

[Sally Kenney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned a lot about Our Bodies Ourselves and self exam, but I other chapters covered familiar territory. A good introduction.