The Oppression of Women

The Oppression of Women

As I was growing up, a recurring theme of feminist literature was that throughout history, women have been oppressed, preventing from holding any jobs of importance outside the home. And yet, I keep running into these reminders that if this was really the case, the system of organized oppression wasn't doing its job very well. I was surprised to find a Boston city directory from 1800 that listed Hannah Pope, whose occupation was "cancer doctor." (I have since found this directory online.) And indeed, she seems to have been regarded as such. I was also surprised to find a woman gunsmith in early Philadelphia.

I was reading through an old issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry while looking to verify and enhance research for my next book. While it wasn't germane to my research, I was struck by the name and title of the author of one of these articles: Esther Loring Richards, M.D., Instructor in Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University. So, do you want to guess what year this article was published? Was it 1970? Or 1960? Maybe, 1950? Nope. This is in the January, 1919 issue.

Now, I won't claim that Dr. Richards was typical. But it does raise serious questions as to how much the status of women was part of some intentional effort to keep them down, and how much was assumptions that were widely held, not only by men, but by women. Certainly, the conspiracy model of organized oppression doesn't much explain Dr. Richards, does it?