Clelia Duel Mosher (KLEEL-ya DUE-el MOE-sher; December 16, 1863 – December 21, 1940) was a physician, hygienist and women's health advocate who disapproved of Victorian stereotypes about the physical incapacities of women.Stanford School of Medicine: Who is Clelia Duel Mosher?

Education

Mosher attended

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

, the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she received a bachelor's degree in zoology in 1893. In 1894, she received a master's degree from Stanford. In 1896, Mosher became a student at the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

. Mosher's Master's degree thesis disproved the then widely held belief that women were physically inferior to men because they could only breathe costally, showing instead it was only women’s fashionable

corset A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or with a more lasting effe ...

clothing of the time that prevented diaphragmatic breathing. She found that women would breathe with their

diaphragm Diaphragm may refer to: Anatomy * Thoracic diaphragm, a thin sheet of muscle between the thorax and the abdomen * Pelvic diaphragm or pelvic floor, a pelvic structure * Urogenital diaphragm or triangular ligament, a pelvic structure Other * Diap ...

with enough exercise.

Career

A Few of the Eminent Women of California and Nevada, Fannie Brown Patrick, Anne Jennings Kluegel, Clelia G

After her graduation as a

doctor of medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

, Mosher worked in private practice, until she became an assistant professor of personal hygiene at Stanford in 1910. Mosher subsequently researched

menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hor ...

, gathering data from 2,000 women over 12,000 menstrual cycles. She revealed unhygienic habits that caused painful menstruationMosher, Clelia Duel: Woman’s Physical Freedom, p. 28–35 and created the Mosher breathing exercise,Mosher, Clelia Duel: Woman’s Physical Freedom p. 26 making her possibly the first American physician to advocate core-body-strength-increasing exercises to reduce the pain of menstrual cramps. Her most famous work, published posthumously, was a survey that she began in 1892 as an undergraduate when preparing to lecture on the "Marital Relation" before the Mother's Club of the

,Jacob, Kathryn Allamong: The Mosher ReportClara Platoni
"The Sex Scholar,"
''Stanford Magazine'' March/April 2010. and continued throughout her career. It is the only known existing survey of Victorian women's sexual habits, and was initially controversial because of its frankness and the overwhelmingly sex-positive views of the participants, even including the use of "male sheaths" (now called condoms) and "rubber cap over the uterus" (either a diaphragm or cervical cap) birth control.Gershaw: The First Sex SurveyHyde: Understanding Human Sexuality p. 5 All this stood in high contrast to other existing historical literature of the time which held that women have no sexual desires and sex should only be used for reproduction. One theory is because the researcher was a woman gathering data from women that knew the results would only be put forth before a purely female audience, the normal strictures of propriety of that time were let down and more realistic data was actually gathered.

Notes

Bibliography

Published

*''Normal Menstruation and Some of the Factors Modifying It'' (Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin) *''The Relation of Health to the Woman Movement'' (1915) *''Woman’s Physical Freedom'' (1923) *

References

Printed

Web

* * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mosher, Clelia Duel 1863 births 1940 deaths Hygienists American primary care physicians American women physicians Physicians from Albany, New York American feminists Stanford University alumni Stanford University School of Medicine faculty Johns Hopkins University alumni American Red Cross personnel American sexologists