Wandering Womb (Ancient belief) Ancient Egypt & Greece

Early physicians like Hippocrates blamed many female complaints on a “wandering” uterus moving around the body. Supposedly, a displaced, “hungry” womb caused choking, suffocation, and emotional distress in women. Remedies involved luring the womb back to position with pleasant scents or pregnancy. This belief illustrates the longstanding impulse to locate women’s emotional instability in their biology. It laid the groundwork for later medicalizing of women’s anger (the term hysteria comes from the Greek hystera, uterus).

“Female Hysteria” Diagnosis** c.1900 BC – 1950s

The catch-all medical diagnosis for women’s unexplained emotions or defiance. Originating with ancient theories of a “wandering uterus,” hysteria was used for centuries to label women as ill whenever they were anxious, outspoken, sexually independent, or otherwise “unfeminine.” It became an official diagnosis in 19th-century Western medicine and was considered an exclusively female malady until the 20th century. This concept pathologized normal female feelings (anger, desire, etc.) as disease, justifying countless oppressive “treatments.” The term was finally dropped from psychiatric manuals in 1980.

"Moral Insanity" 1830s

An early psychiatric label coined by Dr. James Cowles Prichard for individuals who behaved antisocially despite no intellectual impairment. In practice, it was often applied to women who violated Victorian gender norms (asserting opinions, pursuing education, etc.). Such women were deemed “morally insane”. This provided a pseudo-scientific pretext to lock up “eccentric” or independent women in asylums for re-education. Psychiatry created diagnoses to pathologize non-conformity to femininity ideals, particularly anger, self assertion and self advocacy.

Elizabeth Packard 1860s, Illinois, USA

A housewife committed to an insane asylum by her husband solely for disagreeing with his religious views and asserting her rights. Packard was declared “insane” because she was independent – doctors of the time believed “female independence was madness”. Illinois law allowed a husband to institutionalize his wife “without the evidence of insanity required in other cases”. Packard spent 3 years confined with genuinely mentally ill patients. She later proved her sanity in court, won release, and became an advocate for married women’s legal rights. Her case exemplified the institutionalization of women as a punishment for defiance, sparking public outrage and legal reforms.

British Suffragettes labeled Hysterics 1900s–1910s, UK

Women in the suffrage movement were widely dismissed as mentally unbalanced. The press and doctors called them hysterical; one physician claimed, “There is mixed up with the woman’s movement much mental disorder.” Suffragettes imprisoned for protests were sometimes sent to psychiatric hospitals or treated as insane rather than political prisoners. The term “**shrieking sisterhood**” was used pejoratively to undermine their cause. This exemplifies how women’s collective political anger was medicalized to delegitimize it. (Notably, many suffragettes actually endured forced feeding and abuse in jail, yet were labeled “hysterical” for their militant tactics.)

Lobotomy on Women 1940s–1950s, U.S. & Europe

The lobotomy – a brain surgery intended to subdue psychiatric patients – was disproportionately performed on women. By 1951, nearly 60% of lobotomized patients in the U.S. were female. Often these were women diagnosed with “agitated depression,” anxiety, or just deemed unruly or “difficult to manage.” The procedure frequently erased personality and emotion, enforcing docility at a terrible cost. E.g., Rosemary Kennedy (age 23) was lobotomized in 1941 at her father’s request due to moodiness; she emerged severely incapacitated. The overuse of lobotomy on women represents a medical means of silencing female anger (turning vibrant women into passive patients). Public revulsion at such cases eventually helped end lobotomies.

Mother’s Little Helper (Tranquilizer Ads) 1950s–1960s

Valium (diazepam) and other tranquilizers were aggressively marketed to women as a remedy for the stresses of domestic life. Advertisements in the 1960s/70s blatantly targeted anxious housewives, suggesting that sedatives would make them happy and obedient. One Valium ad described a single woman “Jan” who can’t find a husband due to neurosis – implying Valium could “save” her from a lonely life. Another showed a menopausal teacher restored to youthful vigor (and compliance) thanks to the drug. These ads, laden with sexist stereotypes, promoted the idea that a woman’s discontent or “nervousness” was a medical problem solved by pills. Valium became the top-selling US drug by 1968, with women prescribed it at twice the rate of men. The phrase “**Mother’s Little Helper**” (from a Rolling Stones song) captured how society expected women to self-medicate their anger or boredom. Feminists later criticized this trend, arguing the drugs were masking women’s oppression rather than treating an illness.

Luna, Maya.(2025). The History of Hysteria PDF. maya-s-site-7944.thinkific.com