The Female Animal: Medical and Biological Views of Women and Their Role in Nineteenth-century America

Since at least the time of Hippocrates and Aristotle, the roles assigned to women have attracted an elaborate body of medical and biological justification. This was especially true in the nineteenth century as the intellectual and emotional centrality of science increased steadily. Would-be scientific arguments were used in the rationalization and legitimization of almost every aspect of Victorian life, and with particular vehemence in those areas in which social change implied stress in existing social arrangements.