Clelia Duel Mosher (KLEEL-ya DUE-el MOE-sher; December 16, 1863 – December 21, 1940) was a physician,

hygienist Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

and women's health advocate who disapproved of

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

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 university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

, the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, 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. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, th ...

. 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 /ˈkɔːrsɪt/ is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and Posture correction, posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of Baleen, whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in th ...

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

After her graduation as a

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

, 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 Mucous membrane, mucosal tissue from the endometrium, inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized ...

, 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.

Selected works

*''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

Sources

Printed

Web

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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