Women have always been healers, and medicine has always been an arena of struggle between female lay practitioners and male professionals. This work explores two important phases in the male takeover of health care: the suppression of 'witches' in medieval Europe and the rise of the male medical profession in the United States.

Women have always been healers, and medicine has always been an arena of struggle between female lay practitioners and male professionals. This fascinating account explores two important phases in the male takeover of health care: the suppression of 'witches' in medieval Europe and the rise of the male medical profession in the United States.