ABSTRACT
The Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India (AHSI), founded in 1820, remains the most important producer of English-language knowledge regarding the cultivation of plants in colonial India. Members included missionaries, colonial officials, tea and indigo planters, merchants and bankers, as well as the Bengali bhadralok elites of Calcutta and some Indian princes. The writings it produced were highly gendered. Often they focus on how "improving" the political economy and agricultural productivity would create masculine identities, such as gentlemen landowners and industrious peasant husbandman. Yet I also argue that women's agricultural work was fundamental in imagining this path towards "improvement." Using descriptions of Indian farming and labor practices from the Society's meeting minutes and published transactions, as well as additional writings by its members and missionary founders, I show how many European members of the Society viewed women working outside of domestic pursuits as a sign of Indian inferiority. At the same time, many argued for the benefits of women's work, which they viewed as fundamental in making Indian households more productive. Women and their labor were a lynchpin in creating the idea of the effeminate Indian man as well as the solution for improving him. It was this intersection of race with gender which helped to define agriculture as a discipline much closer to practical knowledge than abstract science. While some European women were able to participate in the Society's production of scientific knowledge because of agriculture's practical nature, Indian knowledge (whether from men or women) tended to be openly dismissed as tradition or habit rather than truly practical. The overlap of gender with race consequently helped to create a hierarchy between practical knowledge and tradition.
Subject(s)
Agriculture , India , Humans , Agriculture/history , Female , History, 19th Century , Male , Farmers/history , Gender Role , Gender Identity , Women, Working/historyABSTRACT
Los plátanos y los tarros de cristal fueron y son componentes de la cultura material de la genética de Drosophila, como lo fueron y son también las moscas que crecían en su interior. Estos objetos son objetos híbridos materiales, sensoriales y emocionales, que circularon entre el campo y el laboratorio, entre las aulas, puestos de investigación y cocinas de las casas de quienes se dedicaron a los estudios de la herencia y la evolución. Circularon también a través del tiempo y del espacio geográfico al formar parte del conocimiento colectivo de la comunidad de genetistas de Drosophila, de sus recuerdos y de los de sus hijas e hijos. A través de la combinación de fuentes escritas, académicas e institucionales y de otras que son orales, subjetivas y emocionales, cobran vida y con ellos las actividades y prácticas de quienes los utilizaban, casi siempre mujeres. Al evocarlos, aparecen también normas como las de género, que rodeaban a las personas en el momento de la experiencia y juicios de valor que elaboraron, y se elaboraron, sobre los objetos, sus usos y las identidades de quienes los emplearon. Este artículo pretende así, estudiando prácticas y objetos de una disciplina como la genética de Drosophila, contribuir a la construcción de una historia de la genética más inclusiva, a la historia de las mujeres científicas y a los estudios sobre el papel de las emociones, el cuerpo y la memoria en la construcción de conocimiento histórico y científico. (AU)
Bananas and glass jars were and are components of the material culture of Drosophila genetics. These hybrid (material, sensory and emotional) objects circulated between the field and the laboratory and among the classrooms, research stations, and kitchens of those who dedicated themselves to studies of heredity and evolution. They also circulated through time and geographic space as they became part of the collective knowledge of the community of Drosophila geneticists and the memories of their daughters and sons. The combination of written, objective, conceptual and, above all, oral, subjective and emotional sources brings them to life along with the activities and practices of those who used them, almost always women; they have not been erased from these emotional records as they have been from institutional records. Norms also appear, such as gender norms, which surrounded people at the time of the experience and influenced their value judgments about the objects, practices and identities of those who carried them out. Thus, by studying the practices and objects of a discipline such as Drosophila genetics, this article aims to contribute to the construction of a more inclusive history of genetics, to the history of women scientists and to studies on the role of emotions, the body, and memory in the construction of historical knowledge. (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Female , History, 20th Century , Emotions , Drosophila/genetics , Genetics/history , Physicians, Women , Women, Working/historyABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Pay tribute to Christiane Ferradini and highlight the importance of her work as a scientist. CONCLUSIONS: Christiane Ferradini was born in 1924 in the south of France. She graduated from the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France. In 1947, she joined the Curie Laboratory of the Radium Institute (which was then under the leadership of Madame Irène Joliot-Curie) to pursue her doctoral research. After her defence in 1955, she commenced her journey dedicated to the advancement of science. She became an exceptional teacher. She led a research group that contributed, through many fruitful collaborations, to the opening of a new chapter in radiation biology and medicine. Together they shed light on free radical formation and their reactions with biomolecules. Christiane published a total of 190 scientific articles and 9 books. She died in 2002.
Subject(s)
Radiobiology , Research Personnel , Women, Working , Female , France , History, 20th Century , Humans , Radiobiology/history , Research Personnel/history , Women, Working/historyABSTRACT
COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic, with frontlines that look drastically different than in past conflicts: that is, women now make up a sizeable majority of the health care workforce. American women have a long history of helping in times of hardship, filling positions on the home front vacated by men who enlisted as soldiers during World War I and similarly serving in crucial roles on U.S. military bases, on farms, and in factories during World War II. The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a novel battleground, as the first in which women have taken center stage, not only in their roles as physicians, respiratory therapists, nurses, and the like, but also by serving in leadership positions and facilitating innovations in science, technology, and policy. Yet, the pandemic has exacerbated multiple pain points that have disproportionally impacted women in health care, including shortages in correctly sized personal protective equipment and uniforms, inadequate support for pregnant and breastfeeding providers, and challenges associated with work-life balance and obtaining childcare. While the pandemic has facilitated several positive advancements in addressing these challenges, there is still much work to be done for women to achieve equity and optimal support in their roles on the frontlines.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/prevention & control , Health Workforce/statistics & numerical data , Women, Working/history , Workforce/statistics & numerical data , COVID-19/diagnosis , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/virology , Empowerment , Female , Gender Equity , Health Personnel/trends , History, 20th Century , Humans , Leadership , Personal Protective Equipment/supply & distribution , SARS-CoV-2/isolation & purification , Women, Working/statistics & numerical data , World War I , World War IIABSTRACT
Maud Leonora Menten nació en Canadá, tuvo cuatro títulos universitarios: Bachiller en Artes, Master en Fisiología, médica y Doctora en Bioquímica. Trabajó en Estados Unidos, Alemania y Canadá. Trabajó en diferentes áreas: en la distribución de los iones cloruro en el sistema nervioso central, en tumores experimentales y su tratamiento con bromuro de radio, en el equilibrio ácido-base durante la anestesia, en el mecanismo hiperglucemiante de toxinas bacterianas, en el descubrimiento de un mecanismo de acoplamiento en química orgánica y hasta en la electroforesis de las hemoglobinas humanas. Sin embargo, el aporte por el cual es más conocida es su trabajo en el estudio de la cinética enzimática junto a Leonor Michaelis en 1913. El propósito de este trabajo es exponer la vida personal y académica de una científica conocida por la gran mayoría de los profesionales de la salud. La mujer que a principios del siglo XX trabajó con grandes investigadores de Canadá, Estados Unidos y Alemania, cuyos aportes científicos fueron reconocidos muchas décadas después. (AU)
Maud Leonora Menten was born in Canada; she had four university degrees, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Physiology, Physician and Doctor of Biochemistry. She worked in the United States, Germany, and Canada. Maud worked in different areas: the distribution of chloride ions in the central nervous system, experimental tumors and their treatment with radium bromide, the acid-base balance during anesthesia, the hyperglycemic mechanism of bacterial toxins, the discovery of a coupling mechanism in organic chemistry and even the electrophoresis of human hemoglobins. However, the contribution for which she is best known is for her work in the study of enzymatic kinetics with Leonor Michaelis in 1913. The aim of this paper is to expose the personal and academic life of a scientist known to the vast majority of Health professionals. The woman who, at the beginning of the 20th century, worked with great researchers from Canada, the United States and Germany, whose scientific contributions were recognized many decades later. (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Female , Physicians, Women/history , History of Medicine , Women, Working/history , History, 20th CenturyABSTRACT
Objetivos: Refletir sobre as desigualdades que afetam a Enfermagem em sua trajetória histórica e que se acentuam durante a pandemia da Covid-19. Métodos: Método crítico-reflexivo com aporte no referencial do materialismo histórico-dialético. Foram analisados posicionamentos das entidades de classe da Enfermagem, boletins epidemiológicos e notícias sobre o contexto de trabalho de profissionais da saúde, desde março de 2020. Resultados: Foram discutidas questões acerca das desigualdades e hierarquias próprias das equipes de saúde, tendo em vista as perspectivas de classe, gênero, raça/etnia que impactam na profissão de enfermagem e no trabalho em saúde e que se acentuam no contexto da COVID-19. Os impactos da pandemia expõem a desvalorização do trabalho da enfermagem, evidenciada pela invisibilidade social da categoria e pela precarização da vida de quem a exerce. Conclusão e implicação para a prática: Torna-se urgente e necessário reconhecer que as desigualdades agravadas pela pandemia fazem parte de uma condição estrutural da sociedade que afeta diretamente trabalhadoras e trabalhadores da Enfermagem. Ademais, torna-se oportuno a enfermagem perfilhar lutas junto a sociedade civil na defesa igualitarista de justiça e pela proteção social universal e na superação dos condutores estruturais das desigualdades
Objectives: to reflect on the inequalities that affect Nursing in its historical trajectory and that are accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: critical-reflective method based on historical-dialectical materialism. Positions of Nursing class entities, epidemiological bulletins and news about the work context of health professionals were analyzed since March 2020. Results: issues about the inequalities and hierarchies specific to health teams were discussed, in view of the perspectives of class, gender and race/ethnicity that exert an impact on the Nursing profession and health work and that are accentuated in the context of COVID-19. The impacts of the pandemic expose the devaluation of the Nursing work, evidenced by the social invisibility of the category and the precariousness of the life of those who exercise it. Conclusion and implication for the practice: It is urgent and necessary to recognize that the inequalities aggravated by the pandemic are part of a structural condition of society, and that it directly affects Nursing workers. Furthermore, it is opportune for Nursing to profile struggles with civil society in the egalitarian defense of justice, for universal social protection and in overcoming the structural drivers of inequalities
Objetivos: Reflexionar sobre las desigualdades que afectan a la Enfermería en su trayectoria histórica y que se acentúan durante la pandemia Covid-19. Métodos: Método crítico-reflexivo basado en el materialismo histórico-dialéctico. Se analizaron posiciones de entidades de clase de enfermería, boletines epidemiológicos y noticias sobre el contexto laboral de los profesionales de la salud desde marzo de 2020. Resultados: Se discutieron cuestiones sobre las desigualdades y jerarquías propias de los equipos de salud, en vista de las perspectivas de clase, género, raza / etnia que impactan la profesión de enfermería y el trabajo en salud y que se acentúan en el contexto del COVID-19. Los impactos de la pandemia exponen la desvalorización del trabajo de enfermería, evidenciada por la invisibilidad social de la categoría y la precariedad de la vida de quienes la ejercen. Conclusión e implicación para la práctica: Es urgente y necesario reconocer que las desigualdades agravadas por la pandemia forman parte de una condición estructural de la sociedad y afectan directamente a los trabajadores de enfermería. Además, es oportuno que la enfermería perfile las luchas con la sociedad civil en la defensa de la igualdad y la justicia, por la protección social universal y la superación de los impulsores estructurales de las desigualdades
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Socioeconomic Factors , COVID-19/nursing , Nurse Practitioners/history , Salaries and Fringe Benefits , Women, Working/history , Work Hours , Racism/history , Personal Protective Equipment , Gender-Based Division of LaborABSTRACT
The period during and after World War II saw enormous changes in the practice and status of anaesthesia, as well as in female participation. This article offers an account of three South African (SA) women who trained in anaesthetics before and during the War and participated in these changes. By the mid-1960s, they presided over the three independent anaesthetic departments at Johannesburg's three main teaching hospitals, teaching generations of junior doctors. The first woman to register as a specialist anaesthetist in SA, Miriam (Mollie) Barlow, broke the glass ceiling in her own career by lobbying for the professional rights of medical women, although working within the constraints of the medical and political establishment. She also contributed to important SA research on malignant hyperthermia. Hilde Ginsberg collaborated with Barlow in the 1950s, reducing intraoperative and perioperative mortality at Coronation Hospital, and fought for key interventions in anaesthetic practice and policy through the South African Society of Anaesthetists (SASA), becoming its most long-serving and honoured female member. Kathleen Barbara Vetten's exemplary career in academic medicine, including pioneering animal research (developing anaesthetic techniques for open-heart surgery in dogs and protocols for liver transplantation in primates) and a successful operation to separate craniopagus twins, shows both the achievement of and limits to female achievement at the end of this period. This article also offers a short account of factors that hindered black women from entering anaesthesia training, contributing to this history before the 1990s.
Subject(s)
Anesthesia/history , Anesthesiology/history , Medical Staff, Hospital/history , Women, Working/history , Female , History, 20th Century , Humans , South AfricaABSTRACT
Introducción. El trabajo ocupa un lugar clave en la vida de la mujer, y a su vez comprende varias dimensiones. Dos de ellas son el trabajo doméstico no remunerado (TDNR) e invisibilizado, y el trabajo productivo remunerado (TPR) fuera dela casa. El objetivo de esta investigación fue comprender cómo es la percepción de salud en la mujer actual de clase media urbana con doble jornada laboral y cómo ella jerarquiza su TPR. Métodos. Investigación con enfoque cualitativo realizada en un hospital privado universitario de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, mediante entrevistas individuales a mujeres adultas y alfabetas de 30 a 60 años de edad, seleccionadas a través del método de bola de nieve a partir de sus médicos de cabecera. Se utilizaron fichas demográficas estructuradas y entrevistas en profundidad. Se registraron datos personales y prácticas médicas realizadas en los últimos años. Se realizó un análisis de contenido. Resultados. Entrevistamos a 47 mujeres, la mayoría con hijos y la mitad, a cargo de las tareas domésticas en su hogar. Ninguna de ellas reconoció la tarea doméstica (TDNR) como trabajo, 76 % refirió no realizar controles habituales de salud,aunque más del 90 % hizo las prácticas preventivas recomendadas para su edad. Las mujeres entrevistadas expresaron diferentes significados atribuidos por ellas al TPR como independencia, desarrollo personal, mejoría en autoestima, calidad de vida, y sociabilidad. Sin embargo, ante su ausencia en el hogar se mostraron ambivalentes y con sentimientos de culpabilidad. Conclusiones. Este estudio permite reconocer que las mujeres con trabajo TDNR y TPR valoran positivamente a este último, pero se cuestionan que éste les quite tiempo a su participación en el ámbito familiar. Esto resulta en una mayor autoexigencia y perpetúa la invisibilidad del TDNR. En relación al autocuidado, sienten que no realizan sus cuidados médicos, pero tienen buenos indicadores de prácticas preventivas. Quizás sea necesario propiciar la reflexión acerca del rol que tiene el TPR en su bienestar. (AU)
Introduction. Work occupies a key place in the life of women, and in turn, comprises several dimensions. Two of them are unpaid domestic work (UDW) and paid productive work (PPW) outside the home. The objective of this research was to understand how the perception of health is in the current urban middle-class woman with a double working day and how she prioritizes her PPW. Methods. Research with a qualitative approach carried out in a private university hospital in the City of Buenos Aires, through individual interviews with adult and literates women aged 30 to 60, selected through the snowball method from their general practitioners. Structured demographics and in-depth interviews were used. Personal data and medical practices carried out in recent years were recorded. A content analysis was performed. Results. We interviewed 47 women, the majority with children and half of them, in charge of housework in their home. None of them recognized housework (UDW) as work, 76 % reported not doing regular health checks, although more than 90 % did the recommended preventive practices for their age. The women interviewed expressed different meanings attributed bythem to the PPW such as independence, personal development, improvement in self-esteem, quality of life, and sociability. However, in their absence at home, they were ambivalent and guilty. Conclusions. This study allows us to recognize that women with UDW and PPW value the latter positively, but question whether it takes time away from their participation in the family environment. This results in increased self-demand and perpetuates the invisibility of the UDW. In relation to self-care, they feel that they do not perform their medical care, buthave good indicators of preventive practices. It may be necessary to encourage reflection on the role of the PPW in theirwell-being. (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Female , Adult , Middle Aged , Women, Working/statistics & numerical data , Women's Health/statistics & numerical data , Gender-Based Division of Labor , Quality of Life , Self Concept , Social Class , Social Perception , Socioeconomic Factors , Tobacco Use Disorder/psychology , Women, Working/history , Work Hours , Exercise , Child Rearing , Preventive Medicine/trends , Interviews as Topic/statistics & numerical data , Qualitative Research , Alcoholism/psychology , Violence Against Women , Papanicolaou Test , Literacy , Healthy Lifestyle , Gender-Based Violence , Gender Stereotyping , Guilt , Hypertension/psychology , Obesity/psychologyABSTRACT
Objetivos: Con el objetivo de ponerla en valor ante la sociedad, presentamos la biografía de Gertrudis Martínez Otero. Gertrudis era natural de Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz) y tiene el honor de ser, aparte de una de las primeras alumnas de la Licenciatura de Farmacia en la Universidad de Granada, la primera mujer licenciada en Farmacia por dicha universidad, lo que la permitió convertirse en la primera boticaria andaluza y la tercera de España, además de ser la primera mujer de la provincia gaditana en ir a la universidad. Material y métodos: La metodología ha girado en torno a fuentes orales a través de conversaciones particulares, tanto con vecinos actuales del pueblo de Sanlúcar de Barrameda que mantienen una cierta relación de vecindad con familiares y descendientes de ella como con una de sus biógrafas, que nos ha facilitado nuevos datos de Gertrudis procedente de sus últimas investigaciones. Hemos completado con nuestra propia investigación algunos aspectos biográficos que no se encuentran ni en las referencias archivísticas ya conocidas del expediente personal de Gertrudis Martínez Otero en la Universidad de Granada ni en otras biografías suyas ya publicadas. Resultados: Como resultado del estudio se completan con datos originales las escasas biografías existentes de Gertrudis Martínez Otero, que permiten realzar su figura y destacar la importancia que tiene por haber sido la primera mujer que ejerció como farmacéutica en la comunidad autónoma de Andalucía
Objectives: With the aim of doing her figure most well-known for the society, the biography of Gertrudis Martínez Otero is presented. She was a native of Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), who has the honor of being, apart from one of the first female students at the University of Granada, the first woman licensed in Pharmacy by that university, which allowed her to become the first Andalusian apothecary and the third in Spain, besides being the first woman in the province of Cadiz to go to the university. Material and methods: The methodology followed has consisted in complementing with our own research some biographical aspects that are not found in the already known archival references of the personal expedient of Gertrudis Martínez Otero in the University of Granada or in other biographies of hers already published. The sources managed have been mainly private conversations with both current neighbors of the town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda that maintain a certain neighborhood relationship with relatives and descendants of her and with one of her biographers, who has provided us with new data from Gertrudis from further research. Results: As a result of the study, the existing biographies of Gertrudis Martínez Otero are completed with original data, which allows to establish a before and an after of the History and Pharmacy in Andalusia, due to that Gertrudis was the first woman who worked as a pharmacist in that autonomous community, after the end of her studies at the University of Granada
Subject(s)
Humans , Female , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Pharmacists/history , Women, Working/history , SpainABSTRACT
This first serious attempt at an autobiographical accounting has forced me to sit still long enough to compile my thoughts about a long personal and scientific journey. I especially hope that my trajectory will be of interest and perhaps beneficial to much younger women who are just getting started in their careers. To paraphrase from Virginia Woolf's writings in A Room of One's Own at the beginning of the 20th century, "for most of history Anonymous was a Woman." However, Ms. Woolf is also quoted as saying "nothing has really happened until it has been described," a harbinger of the enormous historical changes that were about to be enacted and recorded by women in the sciences and other disciplines. The progress in my chosen field of study-the chemical basis of enzyme action-has also been remarkable, from the first description of an enzyme's 3D structure to a growing and deep understanding of the origins of enzyme catalysis.
Subject(s)
Coenzymes/chemistry , Enzymes/chemistry , Women, Working/history , Biocatalysis , Career Choice , Coenzymes/metabolism , Enzyme Assays , Enzymes/metabolism , Female , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Kinetics , Quantum TheoryABSTRACT
In this article we test the hypothesis that the secular increase in heights in the course of the second half of the nineteenth century was associated with the rise of the breadwinner-homemaker household. In these 'modern' households, women raised the living standards (quality and quantity of food, hygiene and care) for all members, especially the children. We model the assumed contributions to the family budget by age and gender of household members, and find that a strong imbalance between consumers and producers in the household put severe strains on effective resource allocation, leading to lower net nutrition and lower young adult heights. We suggest a carefully calibrated consumer/producer ratio as an indicator to capture these effects. The ratio is not meant to replace others, and we show that sibling rank order as well as gender preferences also played a role in intra-household resource allocation. For our research, we have used a database with reconstructed life histories (including co-residence) of 3003 Dutch army recruits. Our results indicate that the consumer/producer ratio as experienced by recruits in their early life indeed had a strong impact (-1,8 cm) on their heights. However, this effect differed by social class, which can be explained by differences in acceptance of the income pooling model.
Subject(s)
Body Height , Family Characteristics/history , Socioeconomic Factors/history , Birth Order , Food/economics , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Male , Military Personnel , Netherlands , Nutritional Status , Sex Factors , Women, Working/history , Women, Working/statistics & numerical data , Young AdultABSTRACT
Este artigo analisa os acidentes de trabalho envolvendo mulheres que trabalharam na mineração de carvão no município de Criciúma, localizado no estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil, na década de 1940. A partir dos processos de Justiça, é problematizado como os acidentes impactavam a vida dessas trabalhadoras, afetando suas atividades de trabalho dentro e fora dos espaços de produção. Além de refletir sobre um aspecto pouco estudado pela literatura, este artigo também faz um balanço quantitativo dos processos envolvendo mulheres trabalhadoras, a fim de analisar quais são os resultados alcançados pelos mesmos
This article analyzes work accidents involving women in coal mining in the city of Criciúma in the state of Santa Catarina (Brazil) during the 1940s. Based on court cases, we address the question of how accidents impacted on the life of these workers, affecting their work activities within and outside production spaces. Besides reflecting on an aspect that has been little studied in the literature, this article also makes a quantitative assessment of cases involving workers, analyzing the results obtained
Subject(s)
Humans , Female , Mining/history , Women, Working/history , Women, Working/statistics & numerical data , Accidents, Occupational/history , Accidents, Occupational/statistics & numerical data , Workers' Compensation , Legislation, Labor , BrazilABSTRACT
Resumen A lo largo del siglo XX se sucedió una serie de cambios en la forma de concebir el parto que pasó de ser un fenómeno reproductivo natural propio del ámbito doméstico y femenino a un asunto médico y profesional del ámbito institucional. A través de procedimientos como el uso de anestesia, la cesárea, el ultrasonido y otras intervenciones técnico-científicas se han generado rápidas e importantes mejoras y cambios para la salud y vida de la sociedad y las mujeres. La medicalización del parto a comienzos del siglo XX fue parte de un proceso más amplio de construcción del Estado e institucionalización del patriarcado común en la región.
Abstract Over the course of the twentieth century, a series of changes occurred in the understanding of childbirth, which went from being a natural reproductive phenomenon belonging to the female, domestic sphere to a professional medical matter handled in an institutional setting. Through procedures like the use of anesthesia, Cesarean sections, ultrasound and other techno-scientific interventions, rapid and significant improvements and changes took place in the health and life of society and of women. The medicalization of childbirth in the early twentieth century was part of a broader process of constructing the state and institutionalizing the patriarchy that was common throughout the region.
Subject(s)
Humans , Female , Pregnancy , Infant, Newborn , History, 20th Century , Parturition , Medicalization/history , Peru , Prenatal Care/history , Women, Working/history , Attitude of Health Personnel , Cesarean Section/history , Abortion, Criminal/history , Ethical Theory/history , Perinatal Mortality/history , Hospitals, Maternity/history , Obstetric Labor Complications/history , Midwifery/historyABSTRACT
McLaughlin studies how neurons respond to acute and chronic stress.