Homeopathic Medicine And Gender Analysis

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The past shapes the present. Learning about the history of a subject can be key in explaining how and why certain structures and practices exist the way they do now. How the history of medicine has been gendered provides insight in explaining how various aspects of medicine are gender-marked and segregated.
The professionalization of medicine is a prominent aspect of medicine that has been gender-marked and segregated. The process is white-coded and equated with refeminization (Koblitz, "Women as Healers", 2016). As medicine and healing became more institutionalized, prominent positions within the industry were filled by upper-class white men who became the stereotypical image of what a medical professional should be. Refeminization can play …show more content…

During lecture, Koblitz stated that allopathic medicine defined itself as the antithesis of homeopathic medicine: scientific and evidence-based instead of superstitious; institutionalized with laws and regulations instead of unorganized and unregulated; and masculine instead of feminine (Koblitz, "Women as Healers", 2016). Allopathic medicine presents a case where reputation precedes results. It receive prominence of being more effective than homeopathic medicine before there was evidence proving the efficiency of its practices (Koblitz, "Women as Healers", …show more content…

As socially prominent and successful African-American woman homeopath, McKinney “…further reinforced homeopathy’s liberal image…”(Kirschmann, 2004, p. 46). She was active in her profession, building a reputation in skillful treatment of children’s diseases and having patients of various races, ages, and genders. Allopathic practitioners held her in high esteem as evidenced by one reporter’s testimony that “it was an allopathic physician of highest standing who bade me by all means to see Dr. McKinney” (Kirschmann, 2004, p. 48). Still despite her being a pioneer in homeopathic medicine, her identity as a homeopathic physician was relatively unknown. Referred to either a “female doctor” or “a graduate of Boston University Medical College”, her identity as a homeopath was only known to those having historical knowledge of medical institutions (Kirschmann,

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