19世紀後半アメリカにおける「月経」をめぐる論争の展開 : M. P. ジャコービーの『月経中の女性の安静にかんする問題』を中心に

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This article examines the argument concerning “menstruation” in late nineteenth-century America. With regard to an expansion of women's higher education, Sex in Education (1873) by Dr. Edward Clarke generated a controversy by stating that young women needed rest during menstruation; therefore the rigor of higher education would fail their health. Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi refuted this argument in The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation (1877). She attempted to combat the male researchers' notion that women's activities are irresistibly limited because of menstruation. Jacobi experimentally verified the theory that women gradually accumulate a supplemental nutrition and menstruation eliminates it. Women's variation of nutrition showed a wavelike pattern. She concluded that women, therefore, do not need rest during menstruation if their nutrition is normal. She conducted a questionnaire survey and found that 46 percent of the respondents had some health troubles during menstruation, which she attributed to other factors, not menstruation. Nevertheless, some researchers noted that this proportion demonstrate the need for rest and regarded this wavelike variation of nutrition as dangerous. Although gender bias in scientific discourses continues, Jacobi deepened the knowledge of menstruation from a viewpoint different from that of mainstream males.
2012-03-31