Women's Voices in Psychiatry

In early 2015, the Royal College of Psychiatrists had 4,640 female Members and Fellows and 6,015 male Members and Fellows, a ratio of 43.5% to 56.5%. Despite the high and increasing proportion of women in UK psychiatry over the years (relative to other medical specialties), publications about the history and practice of psychiatry have traditionally been written by men and about men, and there has been a distinct lack of commentary from the woman's perspective. Women's Voices in Psychiatry: A Collection of Essays examines the role of women in psychiatry and shares some of their key contributions to the specialty. Presented as a collection of thoughts, opinions, and experiences of women doctors specializing in modern day psychiatry, this book is intended to be accessible to all readers interested in the mind, mental health services, and women's roles in medicine. Interspersed between these essays are short biographical profiles of pioneering women who have contributed to psychiatry and mental health services. Women's Voices in Psychiatry: A Collection of Essays covers a diverse range of topics and aims to draw lessons from history, particularly about women's roles in UK psychiatry, and to make things better for psychiatrists of the future.

Gianetta Rands trained in Oxford and London and worked for 34 years in the NHS. She was Consultant in Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust, Honorary Senior Lecturer at UCL and Honorary Consultant at the Whittington and the Royal Free Hospitals. She now works with Recognition Health as a Consultant Psychiatrist with special interests in dementias and mental capacity. She has had many roles with the Royal College of Psychiatrists including College Tutor, Examiner, CPD Representative, Recruitment Committee Member, and Mental Capacity Adviser.

- Poem: Domestic confessional - 1: Gianetta Rands: Career reflections of a 1970's feminist - 2: Abi Rimmer: A history of women in British Medicine - 3: Fiona Subotsky: The entry of women into psychiatry - Profile: The life of Dr. Helen Boyle (1869-1957) - Profile: Dame Fiona Caldicott: An inspirational woman with an astonishingly impressive career - Poem: My small but significant body of work - 4: Jane Mounty, Anne Cremona, and Rosalind Ramsay: History of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' women's mental health special interest group - 5: Rosemary Lethem: Psychiatry and patienthood - 6: Jacqueline Humphreys: Perinatal psychiatry: Motherhood in mental health services - Profile: Dora Black - 7: Rupal Dave and Angela Hassiotis: The role of women in intellectual disabilities: Clinicians, scientists, parents - Profile: Helen Green Allison (1923 - 2011): A story of hope, faith, and charity - 8: Aoife Rajyaluxmi Singh: Are women's mental health units needed? - 9: Annie Bartlett: Jail birds: Challenges for prisoners and professionals - Poem: Considering the predictive value of the risk assessment score - 10: Jo O'Reilly: The maternal lap and the mental health trust - 11: Joanne Stubley, Maria Eyres, and Victoria Barker: Historical child sexual abuse - 12: Sandra Evans and Jane Garner: Old age, women, and dynamic psychotherapy - 13: Amanda Thompsell: A woman who made a difference: An interview with Nori Graham - Profile: Eluned Woodford-Williams: 12th September 1913 to 25th November 1984 - 14: Claire Hilton: A woman the government feared: Barbara Robb (1912-1976) - 15: Claire Murdoch: Change and continuity in psychiatry: One woman's reflections - Poem: The disappeared - Profile: Lisbeth Hockey and Annie Altschul - 16: Joanne Rodda: Reducing the risk of dementia - 17: Clementine Maddock: Whose life is it anyway? Life and death in the court of protection - 18: Georgina Fozard and Philippa Greenfield: Women in psychiatric training - Poem: The art of listening - 19: Hannah Fosker and Ann Boyle: Women as trainers in psychiatry - 20: Wendy Burn: How to succeed in Psychiatry without really trying: One woman's accidental pathway to the top of her profession - 21: Sue Bailey: The road less travelled - Poem: The other women in the wardrobe