Work

Gender and Cancer in Britain, 1860–1910

Year: 2005

Type: article

Abstract: Historical work on cancer has suggested that a range of political, social, and medical concerns stimulated the emergence of cancer as a public health problem in the early 20th century.I argue that anxiety about cervical cancer mortality was instrumental in establishing cancer as a major focus of concern for the British public health service. This development was closely bound to assumptions about the association of gender with cancer, the redefinition of cancer as a surgical problem, the politics of empire, and the climate of public and medical disquiet about gynecological surgery engendered by feminist and antivivisectionist critiques of medical science.

Source: American Journal of Public Health

DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2004.046458

Author: Ornella Moscucci

Institution: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Language: English

Topic: Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes

Subfield: History

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: Wellcome Trust