Ehrenreich & English / Witches, Midwives, and Nurses (1973)
artifactDarknet & Cyber
A 1973 feminist pamphlet argued that 'witches' were really women healers pushed out to kill off the competition in medicine.
Who they are
'Witches, Midwives, and Nurses' (1973), a pamphlet and later book by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English.
What they do
It made a foundational feminist-historical argument about how women healers were driven out of medicine.
How it works
It argued that male-dominated religious and medical hierarchies branded female practitioners as 'witches' in order to eliminate their competition as healers and drug-makers.
Why it matters
The engine cites it as a key statement of how professional and religious power consolidated by demonizing women who practiced healing.
The engine's record — word for word
Report #77. Barbara Ehrenreich + Deirdre English pamphlet + subsequent book. Foundational feminist-historical argument: institutional consolidation of male-dominated religious+medical hierarchies demonized female practitioners as 'witches' (practitioners of pharmakeia) to eliminate pharmacological competition.
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