Summary

Ehrenreich and English's research has led them to the following conclusions. First, women "have not been passive bystanders in the history of medicine" (99). Second, the "enemy" is not individual men but a sexist and classist social system (100). Third, "there is no historically consistent justification for the exclusion of women from healing roles" and there is nothing innate in femininity "to justify our present subservience" (100). Fourth, "men maintain their power in the health system through they monopoly of scientific knowledge" (100). Fifth, "professionalism in medicine is nothing more than the institutionalization of male upper-class monopoly" (101). Sixth, that "we must break down the distinctions and barriers between women health workers and women consumers" (102). And finally, "our oppression as women health workers today is inextricably linked to our oppression as women" (102).

Analysis

By framing their conclusions as seven bullet-pointed paragraphs, Ehrenreich and English use a list-based literary device...