Smarthistory – Michelle Browder, Mothers of Gynecology

warning: this video discusses racial violence

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Browder, Mothers of Gynecology

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Question 1

Which of these details in the sculptural group do not symbolize the empowerment of these three women?

A	Their posture and height.
B	The styling of their hair in Bantu knots, braids, and cornrows.
C	The metal materials and tools used to build the sculptures.
D	The Akan Adinkra symbols and inscribed names of Black American women adorning their bodies.

Question 2

Why did the artist choose to leave off the arms and lower legs of the three female figures?

A	The truncated limbs symbolize the impairment to the body created by the fistulas these and other women developed in childbirth.
B	The truncated limbs suggest the limitations imposed on these three women, whose humanity and self-determination were not recognized by Dr. Sims or their enslavers.
C	The truncated limbs reflect the physical pain endured by these and other enslaved Black women who underwent Dr. Sims’ experiments without anesthesia.
D	The artist truncated the limbs because she was more interested in portraying the torso and heads of the women, reflecting the areas of their bodies most affected by Dr. Sims’ surgical experiments.

Question 3

Why did the artist include tools and materials that represent the torture and pain inflicted by Dr. Sims on these and other enslaved women?

A	She wanted the history of these women to be known and to acknowledge the historical trauma that affects Black women today as a result of Dr. Sims’ experimentation.
B	She wanted to use found objects to create the sculptures and these were the only materials available to her.
C	She hoped the metal materials would rust and corrode over time, due to exposure to the elements, suggesting the deterioration of Dr. Sims’ reputation once the history of his torturous experiments on enslaved women becomes more widely known.
D	She felt that by using them as the materials that create the female forms in this particular monument, the tools would lose their potency as implements of female violation.

Question 4

Why is this monument titled “Mothers of Gynecology”?

A	The title refers to the three women portrayed, who each gave birth to a child who became a doctor that developed a foundational practice for the field of gynecology.
B	The title refers to these three women portrayed, who were nurses that assisted during gynecological procedures in the mid-19th century.
C	The title balances the historical narrative, celebrating the contributions of Dr. Sims as well as these three women to the development of foundational procedures in the field of gynecology.
D	The title shifts the historical narrative away from celebrating Dr. Sims and honors the women who endured pain and dehumanization to contribute to improved medical treatments for other women.

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Key points

Artist and activist Michelle Browder’s monument reclaims the history of the enslaved Black women who underwent non-anesthetized medical experimentation by Dr. James Marion Sims in the late 1840s in Montgomery, Alabama. The monument includes a sculptural group that portrays the only three enslaved women whose names were recorded in Dr. Sims’ documentation of his experiments: Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy. The identities of other enslaved women who suffered under Dr. Sims, whose names he did not record, are unknown.
Dr. James Marion Sims has long been celebrated as the father of gynecology for, among other things, developing a procedure to remedy vesicovaginal fistulas. The excruciating and repeated experimentation on enslaved Black women that led him to perfect this procedure, however, reflects the racist devaluation of Black humanity and prevailing perception of Black people as property in the mid-19th century. Sims justified these experiments in part because he, along with many other white people at the time, believed that Black people didn’t feel as much pain as white people (a racist belief which still impacts medical treatment for Black people today).
Browder’s monument includes larger-than-life-sized figures of the three women and the displaced womb of Anarcha. The bodies and womb are made from discarded metal materials that reference their inhumane treatment by Dr. Sims and other whites who perpetuated slavery. The women’s postures, hair, and adornments, however, serve to reinstate their identities and celebrate the power and resilience of Black women.

Go deeper

Learn more about the Mothers of Gynecology park at The More Up Campus

“‘Father Of Gynecology’, Who Experimented on Slaves, No Longer On Pedestal In NYC”, from National Public Radio (April 17, 2018)

Linda Matchan, “The statue of a doctor who experimented on enslaved women still stands in Alabama. But now there’s also a monument to his victims.” The Washington Post, October 2, 2021

“Remembering Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology”, episode of The Hidden Brain podcast, episode 20 (2016)

“‘The Mothers of Gynecology’ remembered in Montgomery monument,” from The Atlanta Journal Constitution (February 20, 2022)

Deirdre Cooper Owens, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology (University of Georgia Press, 2017)

More to think about

A 2017 Alabama law, enacted to safeguard Confederate monuments, states that no monuments erected on public property for more than 40 years may be removed. With her ability to advocate for the removal of a 1939 sculpture of Dr. Sims in the city of Montgomery restricted, Michelle Browder chose to make a new monument to reclaim the history of the women upon whom Dr. Sims experimented. Discuss the impact of retaining monuments to individuals who perpetuated harm verses removing them. How can Michelle Browder’s new monument function in relation to the older monument to Sims*? Consider the choices Browder made in materials, size, and composition.

*The Sims monument is discussed and shown in the Mothers of Gynecology video.

Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:

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Michelle Browder, Mothers of Gynecology

Test your knowledge with a quiz

Browder, Mothers of Gynecology

Key points

Go deeper

More to think about

Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:

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