Gender and illness in seventeenth-century England

This dissertation analyzes how gender influenced seventeenth-century patients' perceptions and behaviors. Pioneering scholarship has revised our understanding of early modern medicine by revealing the significant ways patients defined medical care. Yet no one has assessed how gender shaped the perceptions of illness at the heart of this patient-driven system. Using over 40 seventeenth-century English diaries, as well as personal correspondence, pauper petitions, and medical case histories, the project follows the trajectory of illness---how sufferers explained the onset of ill health; articulated pain; evaluated the progression of their ailments; and defined recovery. I trace a number of differences between men's and women's accounts, such as women's tendency to describe the onset, duration, and severity of illness in more dramatic language than their male counterparts. Such differences can be related to a number of factors, including devotional practices, gender concerns, medical knowledge, and the conventions of various forms of personal writing. As such, the project contributes to the history of early modern medical care and also provides a new approach to exploring seventeenth-century gendered experiences and self-constructions. By examining the words of individual sufferers, the project reveals the influences of gender on day-to-day events and relationships; the models and scripts authors relied upon to construct narratives of their lives; and the impact of religious beliefs on men's and women's perceptions of themselves and the world.