Able-Bodied Womanhood : Personal Health and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Boston

As urban life and women's roles changed in the 19th century, so did attitudes towards physical health and womanhood. In this case study of health reform in Boston between 1830 and 1900, Martha H. Verbrugge examines three institutions that popularized physiology and exercise among middle-class women: The Ladies' Physiological Institute, Wellesley College, and the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. Against the backdrop of a national debate about female duties and well-being, this book follows middle-class women as they learned about health and explored the relationship between fitness and femininity. Combining medical and social history, Verbrugge looks at the ordinary women who participated in health reform and analyzes the conflicting messages--both feminist and conservative--projected by the concept of "able-bodied womanhood." Frontmatter Introduction (page 3) 1. The Etiology of Dis-ease: Life and Death in Middle-Class Boston, 1830-1860 (page 11) 2. Moral Physiology and the Habits of a Healthy Life (page 28) 3. "Know Thyself": The Ladies' Physiological Institute of Boston and Vicinity, 1848-1880 (page 49) 4. In Private and In Public: The Ladies' Physiological Institute, 1880-1898 (page 81) 5. Fitness of Body and Mind: Personal Health in Late Nineteenth-Century Boston (page 97) 6. "Stronger in Body as well as in Mind": Physical Education at Wellesley College, 1875-1900 (page 139) 7. "Veritable Crusaders": The Early Graduates of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, 1889-1900 (page 162) Conclusion (page 192) Notes (page 201) Appendix (page 257) Selected Bibliography (page 267) Index (page 289) Against the backdrop of national debate about female duties and well-being, this book follows middle-class women as they learned about physiology and hygiene through popular health literature, voluntary clubs, and schools in Boston. The pursuit of health also enabled the women to explore the nature of womanhood, and discover the meanings