<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Women have always been central concerning the provision of healthcare. The transitions into the modern world have been very slow for women because of how societies classify women. Starting from lay care, women provided healthcare for their family and sometimes to the members of the community in which they lived. With no formal education, women served as midwives and served in other specialised fields in medicine. They usually treated their fellow women because they saw ‘women’s medicine’ as women’s business. They were discriminated against by the opposite sex and by the church, which regarded it as a taboo to allow women to practice medicine. This study points to a Ghanaian context on how the charismas of women have made them excel in their efforts to provide healthcare for their people. The study also focused on the role of indigenous practitioners who are mostly found in the rural areas and modern practitioners who are mostly found in the peri-urban, urban areas and larger cities in Ghana.</p></abstract>

Women have always been central concerning the provision of healthcare. The transitions into the modern world have been very slow for women because of how societies classify women. Starting from lay care, women provided healthcare for their family and sometimes to the members of the community in which they lived. With no formal education, women served as midwives and served in other specialised fields in medicine. They usually treated their fellow women because they saw ‘women’s medicine’ as women’s business. They were discriminated against by the opposite sex and by the church, which regarded it as a taboo to allow women to practice medicine. This study points to a Ghanaian context on how the charismas of women have made them excel in their efforts to provide healthcare for their people. The study also focused on the role of indigenous practitioners who are mostly found in the rural areas and modern practitioners who are mostly found in the peri-urban, urban areas and larger cities in Ghana.

Women and Medicine: A Historical and Contemporary Study on Ghana

Department of History and Political Studies

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi

Ethnologia Actualis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Women and Medicine: A Historical and Contemporary Study on Ghana"}

Women have always been central concerning the provision of healthcare. The transitions into the modern world have been very slow for women because of how...

Women and Medicine: A Historical and Contemporary Study on Ghana

Published Online: Apr 13, 2020

Page range: 34 - 56

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/eas-2020-0003

Keywords
Ghana, medicine, medical practice, society, women

© 2019 Samuel Adu-Gyamfi et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Women and Medicine: A Historical and Contemporary Study on Ghana

Published Online: Apr 13, 2020

Page range: 34 - 56

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/eas-2020-0003

KeywordsGhana, medicine, medical practice, society, women

© 2019 Samuel Adu-Gyamfi et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Ghana, medicine, medical practice, society, women