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9 - Gender Norms and Early Modern Healthcare : Barber-Surgeons in Sweden c. 1600–1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2024

Mari Eyice
Affiliation:
Stockholms Universitet
Charlotta Forss
Affiliation:
Stockholms Universitet
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Summary

Abstract

In this article, gender coding will be analysed from a long-term perspective, c. 1600–1900. By following barber-surgeons, a male-coded and guild-based occupation, from 1600 to 1900, it is possible to infer what the gender norms were and how they changed. In Sweden, it seems clear that the regulations of the guild, on a formal level, included everyone in the household of the barber-surgeon; if necessary, the wife could take over her husband's business. This changed over time. At the end of the nineteenth century, it became formally permitted for women to train as barber-surgeons in their own right. Consequently, a long-term perspective reveals that preconceived notions concerning gender order have varied throughout history.

Keywords: gender, early modern, healthcare, barber-surgeon

Health and healthcare in the past

The World Health Organisation's 1946 definition of health, often referred to as fundamental in modern societies, embraces ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.’ This definition is vague. Exactly what should be included in these three named aspects and with which strategies health is to be achieved can be widely discussed. The point here, however, is that the definition includes more than just the absence of disease. Irrespective of the debate surrounding how the definition should be perceived or practised, it is clear that, since the 1940s, concepts of health emphasise the experience of health conditions. This view proclaims a distinct shift in thoughts and attitudes, from a perspective in which disease and illness were natural parts of human life, as was the case in early modern times, towards a perspective in which the normal human condition is the absence of disease. In earlier periods, the overall responsibility for a subject's health was obscure, and the possible measures to ensure health are at best a matter of relief and remedy. In more recent times, health has become a governmental responsibility with attempts for treatment improvements as well as preventive measures. This shift can also be illuminated linguistically. In the Swedish language of the sixteenth century, the concept of health alludes primarily to material welfare and prosperity – something desirable but almost completely dependent on God's will. In the early modern era, disease and poverty were inextricably linked.

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Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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