Gender and Russian Health Care, 1880–1905: Professionalism and Practice

Abstract

This chapter will provide the pre-revolutionary context for the Soviet health system as it relates to women in the healing professions. By 1902, 64 percent of the feldshers in Moscow were women, by 1905 there were more than 10,000 practicing, trained female midwives, and by 1910 more than 6 percent of Russia’s physicians were female (the highest percentage in Europe). Additionally women practiced as dentists, pharmacists, and nurses. The chapter will begin with a brief historiography of academic work about Russian women in health care professions. It will provide a brief summary of the history of the varieties of opportunities for women in the health care professions, including Russian Sisters of Mercy, feldshers, midwives, and doctors. The chapter will attempt to analyze the variety of women’s roles in health care professions as well as examine the ways in which women’s entry into the health care professions coincided with a larger debate about professionalism and the “woman question” in late nineteenth century Russia. Finally the chapter will examine the ways in which women’s practice of medicine and health care affected the profession itself. The chapter will endeavor to engage with other chapters on nursing and gender and particularly with the chapter on Irish women in medicine.