[The midwives of Guadalajara (México) in the 19th century, the plundering of their art].
This study examines the social devaluation of the knowledge and practice used by midwives in their work. The research is limited to historical events that took place during the 19th century in the city of Guadalajara, capital of the state of Jalisco in Mexico. The study shows how the displacement and subordination of these women were associated with the higher social status of physicians. Supported by advances in medicine and by the authority derived from the knowledge acquired through formal educational institutions, doctors started to undermine the value of empirical knowledge and subordinate it to the knowledge that came from these advances. It is shown how doctors detract from and subordinated the midwife to the scientific-employment field of medicine by using a discourse that degraded empirical knowledge and by institutionalizing training courses that tended to ignore the practical know-how of these women and replace it with knowledge derived from scientific medicine. The study is based on information from archives and scientific journals of the time: Archiva Fondos Especiales de la Biblioteca Pública de Jalisco, Archivo Histórico de Jalisco, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad de Guadalajara, Archivo Municipal de Guadalajara and Revista Médica.
Díaz Robles
Laura Catalina
LC
Departamento de Estudios en Educación, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. gaag4@cencar.udg.mx
Oropeza Sandoval
Luciano
L
D004501:Education, Medical / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico; D008880:Midwifery / Q000193:education / Q000266:history*; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D010820:Physicians / Q000266:history