5. Imposing millennia of misogyny, science routinely produced unsubstantiated conclusions concerning the female sex, most notably spurious determinations relating to female genitalia
Enduring oppression throughout the ages, female medical treatment and knowledge invariably flagged well behind their male counterparts. Unable to separate the male anatomy from the female, in part because of a lack of actual examination and scientific understanding – take Leonardo da Vinci’s woefully inaccurate drawings of the female reproductive system for instance – reflective of his misinformation, throughout the ancient world it was assumed female genitalia equally dispensed sperm. Most representative perhaps, however, of archaic and misogynistic attitudes, throughout the Middle Ages the uterus was perceived as a “sewer”, existing to spread disease and allowing illnesses to spread throughout the female body and cause hysteria.
Even as recently as the late-19th century, the attachment of mental illness to women was a core component of scientific studies of the female body. Most famously argued by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, clitoral orgasms were considered as unnatural and harmful. Asserting such was a sign of mental illness within a woman, it was incredulously accepted medical fact that stimulation of the clitoris was a direct cause of lesbianism (as well as spiritual damnation). Perhaps this should be unsurprising, given in 1873 Harvard Medical School concluded women’s brains to be less developed than men’s and consequently, especially during menstruation, were unable to handle the rigors of higher education.
