ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how race and sex became such all-important, self-evident categories in 19th and 20th century biomedical thought and practice. People examine the consequences of these categories for our knowledge about health and for the provision of health care. Glance at any collection of national health data for the United States, whether pertaining to health, disease, or the health care system, and several obvious features stand out. In the 19th century, the construction of “race” and “sex” as key biomedical categories was driven by social struggles over human inequality. Before the Civil War, the dominant understanding of race was as a natural/theological category- black—white differences were innate and reflected God’s. Theories of women’s inequality followed a similar pattern. In the early 19th century, traditionalists cited scripture to prove women’s inferiority. Pregnant women and women with children continue to be excluded from most drug treatment programs.
