For Girls: A Special Physiology

For Girls: A Special Physiology was published in 1882. It was donated to the Women’s
Department by the state of Iowa. For Girls is broken into several chapters concerning female
physiology, including puberty, menstruation, dress code, “general organ function,” and sex. Although
the book presents itself as scientific, the subjects covered in its pages range from the biological to the
sociological to spiritual questions relating to God’s intentions and the essential nature of woman.
For Girls promotes many arcane beliefs regarding women’s physiology. Shepherd details the
causes and consequences of uterine prolapse (the slipping of the uterus into different positions),
asserting that everything from running to walking with wet shoes might cause prolapse. A prolapsed
uterus can also cause many ailments, including backaches, headaches, depression, nervousness,
consumption, heart disease, dyspepsia, constipation, sciatica, and cramps. Masturbation (“self-abuse”)
and constipation (“foul, decaying, waste” that might return to the bloodstream) can also cause various
maladies. By avoiding these triggers, For Girls asserts, a woman will remain in perfect, rosy health. The
text pays repeated attention to styles of dress, particularly the practice of corsetry. Shepherd cites the
wearing of corsets as a cause of uterine prolapse, sterility, and consumption. She offers alternative
styles, complete with instructional illustrations and advice on patterning.
There are moments of almost progressive sentiment in For Girls. Shepherd insists that young
girls should be informed about female anatomy before they reach womanhood and that knowledge of
their bodies is an essential education. She asserts that outdoor activity and exercise are key to a woman’s
vitality. In her chapter “Love, Passion, and Marriage,” Shepherd offers a kind of anti-abuser logic that
anticipates modern-day feminism, asserting that women should have firm boundaries and that men who
do not respect those boundaries are of the worst moral character. It is unjust, Shepherd argues, that
“seduced” woman carry all the blame for their seduction, and this blame reflects a problematic attitude
from society as a whole: “It certainly is not fair to expect women to govern their own passions and
men’s too, and then, when they fail to do so, heap the sins of both upon her head alone—she who
belongs to the weaker sex (?)” (206).
Alongside its antiquated Judeo-Christian arguments, For Girls also asserts, at times, ideals of
equality. Like many novels in the bildungsroman genre, For Girls reads sometimes as a contradiction. It
often values a young woman’s physiology, but shows signs of the burden of its conservative era,
espousing what early feminism it can within the confines of nineteenth-century science.
Mrs. E. R. Shepherd was a noted female author, penning titles including For Girls: A Special
Physiology (1882), For Boys: A Special Physiology, and True Manhood. She is listed in her titles as a
“Noted Author and Physiologist.” Her work was happily received by parents and teachers; one female
teacher and lawyer in Washington wrote to the Phrenological Journal to say that For Girls “solved a
problem over which many a teacher’s head and heart have ached.” Another female doctor from New
York wrote, “It is a book that every mother and daughter ought to read…. Really it is the book for the
age” (“For Girls”). An article in the Chicago Tribune includes her in a list of “Notable Women of Iowa”
and notes that she was from Marengo, a small town on the banks of the Iowa River.

Works Cited
“For Girls.” Publisher’s Section in The Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated, vol. 27, no. 6, 1883,
p. 2.
“Notable Women of Iowa.” Chicago Tribune, 8 Jul 1888, p. 14. Newspapers.com,
newspapers.com/image/28663305.