A Biographical Dictionary of Women Healers: Midwives, Nurses, and Physicians

Women have always been healers; they have helped each other through the birthing process, nursed the sick and wounded, and sought cures for illnesses and injuries. This book summarizes the lives of 240 significant or representative women who have engaged in the core professions of mid-wifery, nursing, and medicine (exclusive of psychiatry), and whose careers were primarily spent in the United States and Canada, from colonial times to the present. For the high school or college student, it will serve as an introduction to the lives of these healers; some students may be inspired to do further research on them or may be inspired to become healers themselves. Women’s Studies scholars, biographers, and historians of science, medicine, or nursing, will find the biographies useful starting points for more in-depth research. Each biography provides references for further reading and study.