Clelia Duel Mosher
Clelia Duel Mosher | |
---|---|
First World War | |
Born | Albany, New York, United States | 16 December 1863
Died | 21 December 1940 | (aged 77)
Occupation | Professor, Hygienist, Red Cross |
Genre | Health |
Clelia Duel Mosher (KLEEL-ya DUE-el MOE-sher; December 16, 1863 – December 21, 1940) was a physician,
Education
Mosher attended
Career
After her graduation as a
Mosher subsequently researched menstruation, gathering data from 2,000 women over 12,000 menstrual cycles.[2] She revealed unhygienic habits that caused painful menstruation[3] and created the Mosher breathing exercise,[4] making her possibly the first American physician to advocate core-body-strength-increasing exercises to reduce the pain of menstrual cramps.
Her most famous work, published posthumously, was a survey that she began in 1892 as an undergraduate when preparing to lecture on the "Marital Relation" before the Mother's Club of the University of Wisconsin,[5][6] and continued throughout her career. It is the only known existing survey of Victorian women's sexual habits,[5] and was initially controversial because of its frankness and the overwhelmingly sex-positive views of the participants, even including the use of "male sheaths" (now called condoms) and "rubber cap over the uterus" (either a diaphragm or cervical cap) birth control.[7][8] All this stood in high contrast to other existing historical literature of the time which held that women have no sexual desires and sex should only be used for reproduction.[7][8] One theory is because the researcher was a woman gathering data from women that knew the results would only be put forth before a purely female audience, the normal strictures of propriety of that time were let down and more realistic data was actually gathered.[1][6]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Stanford School of Medicine: Who is Clelia Duel Mosher?
- ^ Mosher, Clelia Duel: Woman’s Physical Freedom, p. 19
- ^ Mosher, Clelia Duel: Woman’s Physical Freedom, p. 28–35
- ^ Mosher, Clelia Duel: Woman’s Physical Freedom p. 26
- ^ a b Jacob, Kathryn Allamong: The Mosher Report
- ^ a b Clara Platoni, "The Sex Scholar," Archived 2010-06-16 at the Wayback Machine Stanford Magazine March/April 2010.
- ^ a b Gershaw: The First Sex Survey
- ^ a b Hyde: Understanding Human Sexuality p. 5
Bibliography
Published
- Normal Menstruation and Some of the Factors Modifying It (Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin)
- The Relation of Health to the Woman Movement (1915)
- Woman’s Physical Freedom (1923)
- Mosher, Clelia Duel (1980). The Mosher survey: Sexual attitudes of 45 Victorian women. USA: Arno Pr. ISBN 0-405-13090-2.
References
Printed
- Hyde, Janet Shebley (1990). Understanding Human Sexuality. USA: McGraw-Hill. ASIN B000KE23NI.
Web
- Jacob, Kathryn Allamong (1981). "The Mosher Report". American Heritage. 32 (4): 56–64. PMID 11614166. Archived from the originalon 25 February 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
- Museum of Menstruation. "Woman's Physical Freedom". Museum of Menstruation scans of the original book. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
- Anonymous. "Who is Clelia Duel Mosher?". Stanford School of Medicine. Archived from the original on June 28, 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
- Anonymous. "1892 image of Clelia Duel Mosher". Humboldt University of Berlin. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- David A. Gershaw, Ph.D. "The First Sex Survey". Arizona Western College. Archived from the original on 12 September 2006. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
External links
- Media related to Clelia Duel Mosher at Wikimedia Commons