In the Hands of Women - (A Gilded City) by Jane Loeb Rubin (Paperback)

About the Book

Hannah, a devoted women's advocate and suffragist, finds herself overwhelmed by the ignorance and medical needs of her patients. She is determined to fight for the rights of women.

Book Synopsis

In the Hands of Women is a suspenseful historical novel centered on the life of Hannah Isaacson, an obstetrician in training who was determined to improve medical safety for women in a time when women had few choices. This carefully researched work, set in 1900 Baltimore and New York City, when birth control and abortion were both illegal, leaves us contemplating whether history is repeating itself. 

With the advent of obstetrics and anesthesia as distinct fields of practice in 1900, hospital births rapidly gained popularity. Midwives, who previously cared for these women, began supplementing their shrinking incomes with abortions, sometimes performing dangerous midterm abortions with disastrous consequences. 

Hannah, a devoted women's advocate and suffragist, finds herself overwhelmed by the ignorance and medical needs of her patients, poor and wealthy. She is determined to make a difference and joins Margaret Sanger in her crusade to overturn the restrictive Comstock Laws prohibiting birth control. After coming to the aid of a woman dying from a botched abortion, Hannah is charged with murder and sent to the terrifying Blackwell's Prison to await her trial. With the support of influential friends, including Margaret Sanger and the female trustees of Johns Hopkins Medical School, she challenges the Governor of New York with a novel proposition.

Review Quotes

"Rubin has written a fascinating novel, well-paced and brimming with historical detail. It's 1905 in New York City, a time and place of dramatic social changes. Hannah Isaacson has graduated from a major university with an MD in obstetrics but faces widespread discrimination as a professional woman. She encounters chronic antisemitism, realistically depicted. One can't help cheering her on as she fights for decent health care for women, for equality within the medical profession, and for respect in her own personal relationships. Ultimately, In the Hands of Women is a compelling and heartwarming historical novel." - Libby H. O'Connell, Chief Historian Emeritus, History Channel, and author, The American Plate

"Vividly written and meticulously researched, In the Hands of Women is a gripping story of female friendship, the challenges women doctors faced in the early 1900s, and the noxious impact of antisemitism. Young obstetrician Hannah Isaacson returns home to her beloved sister and to a job at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital in 1905 after becoming one of the first female graduates of the Johns Hopkins Medical School. But Hannah's passion for helping pregnant women-at a time when birth control and abortion were illegal-puts her life at risk and leads to high-stake confrontations with her fiancé and some of New York's most powerful men. I lost myself in this novel as I followed Hannah from high-society restaurants and lower East Side tenements to New York City's hospitals and jails ... And I cheered for her every step of the way. I'm crossing my fingers Jane Rubin is working on her next tale starring Hannah, her family, and friends." - Mally Becker, Agatha Award-nominated author of The Turncoat's Widow and The Counterfeit Wife

"Jane Rubin's stunning debut, In The Hands Of Women, is historical fiction at its best...She confronts antisemitism and demands equal treatment in her professional and personal life. With empathy, Rubin takes us through the travails of the medical system when poor women had little access to good maternity care. Her impeccable research weaves the subjects of midwifery and abortion within the intricacies of the twentieth century class system in New York. Rubin's characters stay with me. They're compassionate, smart, and strong. Reading this page-turner gave me more than a thrilling read. It gave me a lesson on history and how we can do better. I couldn't put it down." - Julie Maloney, author and director of Women Reading Aloud, an international writing organization

"A rallying cry from the past to women of today to defend our rights, especially our medical ones-and a reminder of the horrors that can occur when we don't. An immaculately researched and immersive debut novel." - Michelle Cameron, award-winning author of Beyond The Ghetto Gates, https: //michelle-cameron.com