This groundbreaking work examines the role of women in the Western healing traditions. Drawing on the disciplines of history, anthropology, botany, archaeology, and the behavior sciences, Jeanne Achterberg discusses the ancient cultures in which women worked as independent and honored healers; the persecution of women healers in the witch hunts of the Middle Ages; the development of midwifery and nursing as women`s professions in the ninteenth century; and the current role of women and the state of the healing arts; as a time of crisis in the health-care professions coincides with the reemergence of feminine values.