Patriarchy has health demoting effects on the health of women.

It exists in the forms of

micropatriarchy as there is hierarchy between the person treating and the person undergoing
treatment as well as macropatriarchy of how gender inequalities impact women’s
health.Patriarchy can have local connotations that might vary across places.The infertile
women face the taunts of their mother-in-law and disrespectful behaviour of their
husbands.There is nutritional neglect of females which results in problems of malnutrition
and anemia as well as cases of physical and emotional violence.

The understanding of the patriarchal nature of medicine is possible

when we look at the way in which resources are made accessible to different members of the
society. This is determined by the power possessed by individuals in the society. This divide
in the possession of control results in a situation in which a particular group holds dominance
over the process of distribution of resources. Women are considered to be the inferior sex and
this has resulted in patriarchy influencing the functioning of medicine.

Disease has a cultural construction and yet it is considered to be

something that is deviation from the regular pattern of everyday life. Sickness was being
perceived as deviance from the normal which resulted in the sick person being alienated from
the rest of the society. For instance, there was surveillance on female reproductive capacity
and taboos and prescriptions regarding menstruation. Women were considered to be more
prone to sickness and weakness which meant more in need of medical help. Hence, the
increasing medicalization led to a number of women-related phenomena being considered
under the ambit of medicine.

There was campaign against witches in European societies and this was
done in order to establish male monopoly over medicine. There was negative perception
about certain females that they were witches. These witches were considered to be influenced
by the devil and lack self-control. They possessed powers that even included healing. The
women who were suspected of witchcraft were often executed. It was done in order to
discourage women from medical practices. Female sexuality was critiqued and at the same
time any woman who possessed and practised herbal medicine was denied participation from
the profession. Medicine was considered to be the forte of men as women became labelled as
suspects in activities of witchcraft. Hence, there were attempts to exclude women
practitioners and male practitioners started dominating the field of medicine.

The practice of women engaging in midwifery faced challenges. The

task of the midwife was reduced to that of an attendant at the time of birth. The births were
mainly managed by men who possessed medical equipments. There were attempts by men to
acquire control over the midwifery profession. Hence, this indicated that even in cases when
women managed to be involved in the field of medicine, there a division of labour based on
sex and the role of women was undervalued.

Hysteria was utilized as a means for the subordination and regulation of

women’s activities. For Foucault, sexuality was historically and socially constituted. There
was anxiety about female sexuality and it was believed to be dangerous and a threat to the
moral order. In the 18th and the 19th centuries, there was medicalization of the body of
females. Hysteria meant that the womb was not functioning properly. The women with
hysteria would faint, cry, scream and laugh in an uncontrollable manner because of the state
of their physiology. The prevention of hysteria was considered to be only possible with the
woman’s marriage followed by reproduction. The prolonged education of women meant that
marriage and reproduction would be late and this was undesirable. Hysteria became deviance
from regular expected sexuality and women were considered to be in need of protection and
surveillance. For instance, in early Egypt, it was believed that the cause of hysteria was lack
of pregnancy which resulted in a womb that was dry and wandering. This meant that the
anatomy of women was understood in a manner which indicated the continuance of
patriarchy and women could only remain sane if they were pregnant at the necessary and
right time.

The role of women was considered to be the reproduction of life and the
role of men was conceptualized as the production of property. Ideology refers to a set of ideas
that legitimizes inequality and the result of this ideology was that a woman not being a
mother was considered as an abnormality The elaborate information about human anatomy
was not there. This resulted in the role of men in reproduction being highlighted. It was
considered that the men provided the seed while the bodies of the women acted as mere
vessel. The history of western sexuality and the nature-culture debate of Sherry Ortner help
us to look at the ways of functioning of patriarchy. Hence, the tasks performed by women
were considered to be less important when compared with the activites done by men and
women became subjected to patriarchal norms.

There was check on the fact that the women with whom marriage was
going to take place was not already pregnant. The women were expected to be virgin and of a
chaste character. The singular objective of marriage was reproduction. The women were
required to produce a male child who would be the heir and inherit the property. Hence,the
women were required to be confined to the household spaces and perform the task of the
care-giver.

The shift from patriarchy to patrism would witness transition in the nature of
women’s complaints.Turner gives an account of the difference between patriarchy and
patrism.Patriarchy refers to the domination of a male member with the backing of religion
and law.On the contrary,Patrism is based on prejudices towards women without the
legitimation of religion or law.The reproduction under patriarchal norms was the subject
matter of patriarchy whereas the society’s sterotype of women’s image and well-being and
how women must conform to that was dealt by patrism. Hence, Patriarchy resulted in women
considered to be untrustworthy, prone to deviance, engaging in witchcraft and patients of
hysteria whereas; Patrism resulted in concerns of how the self must be presented that is the
ways in which women should represent themselves and about such experiences.

Medical sociology requires understanding of the sociology of the body and

the dynamics of how bodies and populations are regulated. Preventive checks are required in
order to control population according to Malthus. There was surveillance of medical
institutions through medicalization according to Foucault. It was considered that women can
disturb the social stability and unproductive sexuality as well as masturbation was
discouraged. Hence, there was regulation of sexuality of women alongwith control over the
process of fertility.

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 The women in the domestic sphere had to look after nurturing their children
were considered to be more likely to need medical help and vulnerable.Under patrism,women
faced problems of agoraphobia and anorexia. Agorophobia refers to the fear of certain spaces
like the market.There was panic regarding women leaving home and being a part of public
spaces.This was considered as a sign of them being more prone to sexual advances of
strangers.A woman staying in household was considered to be good.Anorexia refers to the
desire to be thin by looking after the diet. Obesity in women meant that she was out of
control
and prestige associated with how women presented themselves in an image-conscious
society.
Hence, the women-related disorders were a result of the status given to women in the society
and attempts to preserve their moral character.

Ethnography has helped us to reflect on women’s experiences related to health.

This shows us how perceptions regarding women’s health have been shaped by western
professional considerations. There are a broad set of conditions-social, cultural, economic and
political that affect women’s lives. Hence, there have been efforts by anthropologists in
providing a definition and in contextualization of women’s health priorities by looking at the
conditions of institutions and evaluating them.

Women’s health has been primarily defined by biomedical and public health
experts and does not have the voices of women in it. They face structural problems that are
out of their control. The cause of reproductive risk can be of macrostructural character and
related to patriarchy and poverty. Obstetrics and Gynecology emphasise on the role of wife-
mother and women’s abilities in other fields are not given due attention.Hence,there is
reproductive essentialization of women’s lives and their most fundamental feature is
considered to be to nurture their children.

The women’s body is considered to be a cultural construction.Foucault dealt with

biopower in his work and how human beings are controlled by prisons,hospitals and
asylums.However,he did not pay attention how the cases are different for the body of males
and females.There have been certain metaphors used related to women’s childbearing being
managed that are problematic in nature.Hence, language should be examined in order to look
at how its usage has enhanced control over women and there is need for change of such
attitudes.

There has been increasing medicalization of the lives of women.Increased

medicalization has led to pathologization.Menarche and menopause have been considered as
a state that requires medicalization.Premenstrual syndrome is considered to be a disease.Birth
is seen as a phenomena that cannot be managed by midwives in homes and must come under
the domain of biomedicine and high technology who derive economic benefits out of
it.Hence,there has been shift from home to hospitals for delivery of children and this indicates
the existence of mechanisms of technology that are not required and is in excess in women’s
health matters.
 There is increasing biomedical hegemony over matters regarding the health of
women and the cause for this can also be assigned to women’s consent. The usage of the term
hegemony implies consent according to Antonio Gramsci.Women have accepted the
technologies and have given their consent to biomedicine. But at the same time, not all
women have expressed this desire for medicalization and there has been counter hegemonic
resistance and activism in a lot of cases.This has involved resurgence of midwifery and
regular ways of childbirth.Hence,the shift from homes to hospitals does not assure that the
delivery would be safe and the enhanced medical procedures may cause risk to life. This is
the reason for women seeking help of alternatives to hospital-delivery practices.

The production of health by women indicates that women regularly contribute

to the health and well-being of their family members but their work remains neglected. The
household production of health shows us that women are responsible for looking after the
healthcare needs of the children and the elderly. There exists intersectionality of race, class
and gender etc in women’s health.The different forms of oppression engage with each other.
The State has intervention in matters of women’s health.This can be in the form of
legislations regarding abortion or reproductive technologies.The State controls whether the
health care facility would be subsidized or not.Progressive policies about maternity leaves
and childcare can help in improving women’s wellbeing. The Politics of Women’s Health
must be looked at. Rayna Rapp and Faye Ginsburg’s article on “The Politics of
Reproduction” emphasised on examining the means by which women’s health has been
politicized and to study resistance of women.Ellen Gruenbaum in “The Female Circumcision
Controversy:An Anthropological Perspective “ highlights the ethical and human rights
perspectives associated with female circumcision.Hence,there is requirement of more
scholarship regarding the empirical realities of patriarchy and how it affects the health of
women.

From the above analysis, we can conclude that it is vital to understand women’s
subjectivities and ethnography helps us to document women’s experiences such as infertility
and pregnancy loss by including narratives. The social activities of women are restrained and
women are constantly prescribed with medicines. There are medical constructions of women
as patients-them being more vulnerable to sickness and sick role and expected to talk about
their symptoms.The low social status of women reflects dominant norms and hierarchy.The
development of medicine is connected to patriarchy and patrism as women were disqualified
from practising medicine.Women have to make tough choices at times for instance,whether
to go for abortion or not and such matters affect their own life as well.This indicates that
women should take their own decisions regarding well-being without interference.Women’s
voices should be heard and how they perceive sickness,health,oppression and resistance must
be looked at.This shall promote dialogue and conversations that would let women define their
health which is of utmost importance in the present context.