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Looking through the Speculum
Examining the Women’s Health Movement
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
Highlights local history to tell a national story about the evolution of the women’s health movement, illuminating the struggles and successes of bringing feminist dreams into clinical spaces.
The women’s health movement in the United States, beginning in 1969 and taking hold in the 1970s, was a broad-based movement seeking to increase women’s bodily knowledge, reproductive control, and well-being. It was a political movement that insisted that bodily autonomy provided the key to women’s liberation. It was also an institution-building movement that sought to transform women’s relationships with medicine; it was dedicated to increasing women’s access to affordable health care without the barriers of homophobia, racism, and sexism. But the movement did not only focus on women’s bodies. It also encouraged activists to reimagine their relationships with one another, to develop their relationships in the name of personal and political change, and, eventually, to discover and confront the limitations of the bonds of womanhood.
This book examines historically the emergence, development, travails, and triumphs of the women’s health movement in the United States. By bringing medical history and the history of women’s bodies into our emerging understandings of second-wave feminism, the author sheds light on the understudied efforts to shape health care and reproductive control beyond the hospital and the doctor’s office—in the home, the women’s center, the church basement, the bookshop, and the clinic. Lesbians, straight women, and women of color all play crucial roles in this history. At its center are the politics, institutions, and relationships created by and within the women’s health movement, depicted primarily from the perspective of the activists who shaped its priorities, fought its battles, and grappled with its shortcomings.
The women’s health movement in the United States, beginning in 1969 and taking hold in the 1970s, was a broad-based movement seeking to increase women’s bodily knowledge, reproductive control, and well-being. It was a political movement that insisted that bodily autonomy provided the key to women’s liberation. It was also an institution-building movement that sought to transform women’s relationships with medicine; it was dedicated to increasing women’s access to affordable health care without the barriers of homophobia, racism, and sexism. But the movement did not only focus on women’s bodies. It also encouraged activists to reimagine their relationships with one another, to develop their relationships in the name of personal and political change, and, eventually, to discover and confront the limitations of the bonds of womanhood.
This book examines historically the emergence, development, travails, and triumphs of the women’s health movement in the United States. By bringing medical history and the history of women’s bodies into our emerging understandings of second-wave feminism, the author sheds light on the understudied efforts to shape health care and reproductive control beyond the hospital and the doctor’s office—in the home, the women’s center, the church basement, the bookshop, and the clinic. Lesbians, straight women, and women of color all play crucial roles in this history. At its center are the politics, institutions, and relationships created by and within the women’s health movement, depicted primarily from the perspective of the activists who shaped its priorities, fought its battles, and grappled with its shortcomings.
Author / Editor information
Judith A. Houck is professor of history and gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Reviews
“At a moment when reproductive and bodily autonomy are under threat more than ever, Houck tells a timely story of women’s health movement activists who demystified and transformed reproductive medicine to establish liberatory health practices and institutions. Houck’s protagonists also grappled with intersectional marginalization, leading many to demand healthcare that embraced the particular needs and demands of lesbians, trans people, and women of color.”
— Jennifer Nelson, University of Redlands“Looking through the Speculum is a gripping account of the women’s health movement and the institutions women’s health activists built and ran from the 1970s into the twenty-first century. Houck chronicles how feminist health activists established women’s health clinics to offer an alternative to the patriarchal model of medicine in which male physicians controlled procedures, information, and medications central to women’s intimate lives. Houck takes us inside the clinics to illustrate how feminist activists put into practice ideas about feminist health care and feminist leadership models. Over time, as the patient population became less white, less heterosexual, and less cisgender, clinics had to deliver more expansive services and adjust to new leadership models to appeal to poorer and less privileged women, women of color, and patients seeking trans care. This is a book not only about women’s attempts to take control of their intimate health care needs, but also about struggles for democracy and leadership these changes brought. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how political ideals were negotiated and renegotiated as women’s health activists struggled to adjust to the changing needs of their clients and the health care field at large.”
— Johanna Schoen, Rutgers University“A well-researched, eye-opening book about the evolution of the women’s health movement. Highly recommended for readers interested in feminist theory and activism. It’s also a must for people frustrated with and angered by the prevalent biases within the medical system.”
— Library Journal“In this deeply researched and engaging work, Houck examines the impact of the women’s liberation movement on healthcare options for American women over the last fifty years. . . . Extensive use of existing secondary sources as well as a wealth of primary sources, including interviews done by the author with a variety of participants and activists, makes this a compelling and informative read.”
— Choice“[Looking through the Speculum] is a meticulously researched, thoroughly engaging book organized in chapter dyads around four topics: the gynecological self-exam, feminist abortion provision, lesbian health, and Black feminist self-help. . . . Houck’s account is a reminder that activism and allyship are important social medicine skills we practice in family medicine, and it should be of particular interest to those specializing in women’s health and gender-affirming care.”
— Family Medicine“Looking through the Speculum offers a careful exploration of the history of women’s health activism in the United States, much of it anchored in the 1970s. . . . This meticulously detailed study of the feminist health movement shows the passion and commitment of its participants, as well as the numerous challenges inside and out. This history is grounded in women’s bodies, in all their messy complexity.”
— Journal of American History“Houck provides a timely analysis of how late-twentieth-century feminists challenged the patriarchal foundations of the US healthcare system. Houck . . . explores how political goals honed in the first few decades of activism (such as the right to bodily autonomy and the feminist reclamation of medical knowledge) were implemented through organization and institution building. . . . I hope that Houck’s account of the women’s health movement will reach a wide range of readers, from seasoned health justice organizers to curious undergraduates. These activists’ determined, imperfect, and willful refusal to accept the inequitable status quo of US healthcare might be just the dose of inspiration we need right now.”
— Nursing Clio“Looking through the Speculum also adds to an important trend in feminist and activist historiography as [Houck] engages with the historical stories of the women’s health movement to grapple with contemporary issues. . . . Her analysis about intersectional power dynamics within and outside of these grassroots spaces challenges contemporary readers to think about collaboration, inclusion, diversity, and solidarity within their own everyday lives and organizing spaces.”
— Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences“Both a long-awaited and definitive synthesis of the women’s health movement as a whole and a novel deep dive into some of its more neglected and complicated elements. Grounded in the grass roots—and viewed, as the title suggests, through the speculum itself—Houck’s book offers something like a historical and historiographic well-woman exam: attentive, probing and committed to uncovering what lies beneath the surface. Houck presents a carefully crafted and beautifully organized narrative of the movement’s history. In a series of paired chapters, she moves from a general history of feminist health activism to specific studies of abortion care provision, the identity politics of lesbian health and the movement’s struggle to fully translate its theories into practice when it came to issues of race and class.”
— The British Journal for the History of Science"Activists and advocates, both novice and seasoned, who strongly believe that healthcare is a human right, and that it should be accessible and affordable to all, will find Looking through the Speculum a necessary read. . . . Houck’s work is more than informative; it is a clarion call for a more unified, better organized campaign of outrage against all threats to women’s liberty."
“While [Houck’s] story shines in many places, it very much does when she uses the oral histories she obtained from people active in the clinics she discusses. While many of us are more comfortable keeping to sources that cannot talk back, this book illustrates how much richer our histories can be by using oral histories.”
— Reviews in American History“[Houck] skillfully and engagingly weaves together the history of a broad political movement in all its complexities and of local efforts in institution building.”
— Isis“Houck’s monograph serves as an example of how oral history augments traditional archives and provides much needed contextual narratives to the clinic records, newsletters, newspapers, organizational records, and personal ephemera used to frame this story. . . . While the actions needed for progressive change in our current moment cannot be copy-and-pasted from the twentieth century, Looking through the Speculum compels readers to see the power in feminist activism and community engagement to bring about concrete change.”
— Australasian Journal of American StudiesTopics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Introduction: From the Speculum to the Clinic
1 -
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1 With a Flashlight and a Speculum: Envisioning a Feminist Revolution
15 -
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2 Feminist Health Services: Moving beyond the Speculum
46 -
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3 Creating a Feminist Politics of Abortion
86 -
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4 “Will We Still Be Feminist?”: Abortion Provision at the Chico Feminist Women’s Health Center
120 -
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5 Lesbian Health Matters! Lesbians and the Women’s Health Movement
148 -
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6 A Clinic of Our Own: Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services
186 -
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7 “Any Sister’s Pain”: Forging Black Women’s Sisterhood through Self-Help
218 -
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8 “The Challenge of Change”: Feminist Health Clinics and the Politics of Inclusion
252 -
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Conclusion
281 -
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Acknowledgments
287 -
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List of Abbreviations
291 -
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Notes
293 -
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Index
359
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 23, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9780226830858
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780226830858
Keywords for this book
women's health movement; clinics; feminism; self-help; lesbian; abortion; women of color; Latinas; liberation; Black
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
