Oh, To Be a Woman

American Woman and Her Political Peers, 1893, couresty Library of Congress

American Woman and Her Political Peers, 1893, courtesy Library of Congress

Women could contract pellagra or masturbate (see last two posts) and become insane, but they were thought to have specific weaknesses that made them susceptible to insanity.

An acute illness of the uterus or ovaries could cause insanity, said Dr. Alexander J.C. Skene in 1889, as could frequent childbearing. Other physicians believed that women could become insane through mistreatment, poverty, too many household cares, grief, or fear. Even the tight-lacing of corsets could lead to insanity. Half the women brought to the Athens Lunatic Asylum in its first three years were insane because of the change of life or “menstrual derangements.”

There was a wide-held belief that women were the weaker sex–physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Because women’s brains weighed less than men’s, alienists thought that they were less developed. Women were therefore more susceptible to mental problems. Anything that might tax a woman’s brain could contribute to insanity; some experts estimated that education drained away about 20% of a woman’s “vital energy.”