Dr Elinor Cleghorn is a feminist cultural historian. After receiving her PhD in 2012, Elinor spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher at the Ruskin School, University of Oxford, working on an interdisciplinary medical humanities project. She now works as a writer and researcher, and lives in Sussex. Her own pain and other symptoms were dismissed for seven years before she was finally diagnosed with lupus.
A searing, brilliant investigation, an intricate and urgent book on
how women's health has constantly been misunderstood and miscast
throughout history, how men invented theories that plunged women
into misery, pain and even death - from Anne Greene hanged for a
miscarriage to the 1940s housewives lobotomised or subject to other
operations to treat their depression, from drugs intended to
'control' women's health that were rushed to market to women
experimented upon in the name of science, the cruel differential
treatment of women of colour. Cleghorn unmasks with devastating
clarity how so much of 'women's health' has been tied into efforts
to control women, inculcate what was proper feminine behaviour and
slot them into patriarchal culture as happy reproductive units. *
Kate Williams, author of Rival Queens *
Unwell Women is one of the most important books of our generation.
I read it in a rage, and recognised myself in its pages. * Fern
Riddell, author of Death in Ten Minutes *
If doctors have ever misdiagnosed you, disbelieved your symptoms,
or discriminated against you, then Unwell Women is the holy grail
of answers you have been waiting for. Elinor Cleghorn has written a
decisive, comprehensive, well-researched, and fascinating book
about the ways in which medicine has failed women, from the 19th
century until now, and what that neglect has cost us-including our
lives. I wish I'd had this book in 2018 when I was fighting with my
gynecologist to remove my fibroids, but I am glad to have it as I
navigate two chronic illnesses; as we continually negotiate power
dynamics with doctors, Unwell Women will instantly become an
invaluable addition to the arsenal of tools we need to fight for
the care we deserve. * Evette Dionne, author of Lifting as We Climb
*
UNWELL WOMEN is a powerful and fascinating book that takes an
unsparing look at how women's bodies have been misunderstood and
misdiagnosed for centuries. From wandering wombs to demonic
explanations of menopause, Elinor Cleghorn packs each page with
disturbing historical details that will haunt your psyche for days
and weeks to come. * Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butchering
Art *
Cultural historian Cleghorn's meticulous and wide-ranging debut
examines the links between patriarchy, misogyny, and the
mistreatment of women's health needs... After building a damning
historical case against the medical field, Cleghorn shares the
harrowing story of how her symptoms were "overlooked, ignored, and
dismissed" for seven years before she was diagnosed with lupus. The
result is a deeply informed and passionately argued call for
change. * Publishers Weekly *
This book will make you angry. And so it should! Just like their
brains, women's bodies have been treated as defective and deficient
for centuries... Even in the 21st Century Cleghorn uncovers harsh
truths about medicine's continuing biases, especially in the
intersection between gender and race. Hopefully this book will be a
wake-up call to a profession that can still refer dismissively to
'women's problems.' * Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain
*
If you live in a female body, and if you've ever thought to
yourself, "Why-oh-why are doctors not taking my legitimate health
concerns seriously," this book answers that question definitively.
This history of the female patient is the one I was searching for
the entire time I was writing my own book, and I cannot recommend
it highly enough. One thousand more books like this, please. *
Sarah Ramey, author of The Lady's Handbook For Her Mysterious
Illness *
This is a fascinating look at history, UNWELL WOMEN is both
captivating and enraging - a worthy voice for so many women who
have been silenced for so long. * Catherine Cho, author of Inferno:
A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness *
At once grand in scope and deeply personal, Unwell Women is a
powerful and important exploration of the history of Western
medicine. Elinor Cleghorn lays bare centuries of unnecessary
suffering in this meticulously researched, scorching indictment of
how male-focused medicine has failed women - and shows us how far
we still have to go. * Emily Brand author of The Fall of the House
of Byron *
Feminist historian and academic Cleghorn, herself a victim of
medical misdiagnosis, brings first-hand knowledge of the gender
bias endemic in the medical profession to this scholarly yet
personal, specific yet comprehensive study of dangerously outdated
medical practices and attitudes. * Booklist *
Seamlessly melding scholarship with passion, Unwell Women is
the definition of unputdownable * Telegraph *
A richly detailed, wide-ranging and enraging history... Unwell
Women is not just a compelling investigation, but an essential
one * Observer *
A passionate and indignant history * The Times *
Eye-opening... Elinor Cleghorn uses her own misdiagnosis at the
hands of male doctors as a jumping off point for an alarming
history lesson * Guardian *
Revelatory and sometimes enraging * Sunday Express *
Powerful... It's impossible to read Unwell Women without grief,
frustration and a growing sense of righteous anger. Cleghorn's
prose is lively, and she has marshaled an enormous amount of
material. * New York Times *
A thorough compendium of women's history in the Western
world...fascinating...a laudable history of women and the Western
medical system * The I Paper *
Unwell Women is a wide-ranging history of myths and medicine...
[which] seeks to answer the question of how women should relate to
the medically trained people who are supposed to know them
best...Unwell Women does so with remarkable success. * Times
Literary Supplement *
A completely gripping look at the medicalisation of women's bodies
in the 19th and 20th centuries, Unwell Women will have you
riveted. * Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five *
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