Incredible Women

This book explores the 'gender pain gap'-the systemic disparities in how women's chronic pain and illness are perceived, believed, and treated. Focusing especially on conditions without visible markers, Eilidh Galbraith examines why women's pain remains socially, culturally, and theologically problematic. Through interdisciplinary analysis and qualitative storytelling, she investigates how power dynamics shape medical responses and influence women's credibility as narrators of their own suffering. Drawing on feminist theology, trauma studies, and health research, Galbraith weaves together her own experiences with those of other women to reveal how silence and disbelief impact health outcomes and identity. This deeply personal study challenges dominant narratives and calls for a more compassionate, justice-oriented approach to women's pain.

Chapter 1. Introduction. - Part I Hysteria: A HIStory of Women s Bodies. - Chapter 2. `Misbegotten Men . - Chapter 3. Wandering Wombs. - Chapter 4. Mad Women. - Chapter 5. Trauma: The Artist Formerly Known as Hysteria. - Chapter 6. Walking Wombs with Hysterical Tendencies. - Chapter 7. Reproductive Autonomy or Reproductive Control? . - Part II The Gender Health Gap. - Chapter 8. The Average Man and the Invisible Woman . - Chapter 9. `The Average White Woman . - Chapter 10. `The Average Able-bodied, neurotypical woman . - Chapter 11. The `Average cis-het Woman. - Chapter 12. The Average Young Slim Woman. - Chapter 13. The Gender Pain Gap. - Chapter 14. The Chronic Pain Gap. - Part III (In)credible Women. - Chapter 15. Incredible Women. - Chapter 16. Gaslit. - Chapter 17. Do No Harm? . - Chapter 18. The `MeToo of Chronic Pain. - Chapter 19. Not Recovery, but .