Caring and curing: historical perspectives on women and healing in Canada

Introduction -- Helpers or heroines? The National Council of Women, nursing, and "woman's work" in late Victorian Canada -- Shifting Professional boundaries: gender conflict in public health, 1920-1925 -- Science and technique: nurses' work in a Canadian hospital, 1920-1939 -- "Larger fish to catch here than midwives": midwifery and the medical profession in nineteenth-century Ontario -- Helen MacMurchy: popular midwifery and maternity services for Canadian pioneer women

This collection of essays takes the reader from the early 19th century struggle between female midwives and male physicians right up to the late 20th century emergence of professionally trained women physicians vying for a place in the medical hierarchy. The bitter conflict for control of birthing and other aspects of domestic health care between female lay healers, particularly midwives, and the emerging male-dominated medical profession is examined from new perspectives