RCN celebrates history of women's health and nurses' role in championing better health care for women
The 天美传媒 (RCN) is celebrating the leading role of nurses, past and present, in championing better health care for women at the launch of its new exhibition.
The Wandering Womb, Women鈥檚 health nursing past and present, highlights key health issues affecting women throughout history, such as menstruation, contraception and miscarriage. It explores how these have often been linked to cultural expectations of women and the leading role nurses have had in challenging generalisations about women鈥檚 health.
The exhibition charts the evolution of women鈥檚 health care from ancient amulets to prevent miscarriage to present day hormone replacement therapies. It also highlights the social effects of historical thinking about women鈥檚 health, such as menstruation and childbearing which were thought to make women weaker and less rational than men, by featuring John Hooper鈥檚 鈥榓nti-hysteria pills鈥� and Dr William鈥檚 鈥楶ink Pills for Pale People鈥�.
Launching tonight (Thursday) on World Menopause Day, the RCN鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Health Forum in collaboration with the Vagina Museum will host activities and talks at the RCN Library and Heritage Centre. Guest speakers, Katharine Gale, Nurse Consultant in Gynaecology, Dr Anne Hanley, Lecturer in History of Science and Medicine at Birkbeck, University of London, Dr Tracey Loughran, Reader in History and Deputy Dean (Research) in Humanities at the University of Essex, will share their reflections on gender, medicine and the clinical experiences of women.
The exhibition also reveals the significant changes to the way women鈥檚 health is treated by medical practitioners, including when Dublin nurse Alice Beatty took her surgeon Charles Cullingworth to court in 1895. Cullingworth operated on Beatty for 鈥榦varian disease鈥� but removed both her ovaries rather than the one she had consented to. Beatty, engaged to be married and keen to start a family, lost her case claiming damages for a wrongly performed operation despite arguing for "a right over my own body".
The RCN will host further events inspired by the exhibition until it closes next March, including a community fundraiser to raise awareness of period poverty in February, a comedy night in which female comedians discuss their periods, a debate on the availability of fertility treatments and a discussion with cancer nurse specialists on the history and modern day treatment of female cancers.
Debra Holloway, Chair of the 天美传媒鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Health Forum, speaking at the launch, will say:
鈥淭his exhibition shines a light on the barriers women faced to understanding how their bodies worked and to challenging how they should be treated by society and in health care.
鈥淚t recognises the pivotal role of nurses in changing opinions about how women鈥檚 health is understood from embracing and delivering new treatments to supporting them to make decisions about their own care.
鈥淢yths and misconceptions about women鈥檚 bodies remain widespread and in a field previously dominated by the perspectives of male doctors and physicians, all nurses now have a responsibility to advocate for women today.鈥�
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The exhibition is open to the public at the RCN Library and Heritage Centre from 18 October 2018 until 15 March 2019.
