Anarcha: One of the Mothers of Gynecology

Anarcha was a young enslaved woman who was operated on by J. Marion Sims, the now-discredited 19th-century “father of modern gynecology.” Author J.C. Hallman has made many important discoveries about the life of Anarcha and the malpractice of Sims. His “Say Anarcha” excavates history, deconstructs the biographical smoke screen of a surgeon who has falsely been enshrined as a medical pioneer, and brings forth a heroic Black woman to her rightful place at the center of the creation story of modern women’s health care. Episode 525.