Clelia Duel Mosher - Wikipedia

Clelia Duel Mosher conducted the first-ever American study on Victorian sexuality. Her research dispelled myths about women’s physiological inferiority to men.
Who Was Clelia Duel Mosher?
Clelia Duel Mosher, M.D. was born on December 16, 1863 in Albany, New York. In 1900 she became one of the very first female physicians in America when she graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1910 she became a professor at Stanford University where her early 1900s research dispelled myths about women’s physiological inferiority to men. She conducted the first-ever American study on Victorian women’s sexuality which was published posthumously in its entirety in 1980. Dr. Mosher died on December 21, 1940 in Palo Alto, California at the age of 77.

Early Life and Career
Mosher’s fascination with human physiology started at an early age under her father Dr. Cornelius Mosher’s tutelage. He was particularly unusual compared to most men of his time because he had a clear respect for women’s education and encouraged his daughter to read literary works, attend theatrical performances, and explore her interest in botany in a little greenhouse attached to their house which became her very own “educational laboratory.”

Mosher was a sickly child who battled tuberculosis, and her father did not want her to attend college for fear of complicating her health problems. Despite her father's wishes, she saved her earnings from working as a horticulturist to pay for college tuition, and eventually enrolled at Wellesley College as a 25-year-old freshman in 1889. She later transferred to the University of Wisconsin (where she began her first sex surveys) and finished up her physiology bachelor’s and master’s work at Stanford University in 1893 and 1894 while working in the girls’ gymnasium. Mosher became one of the first American female medical doctors when she graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1900. After working in private practice, she was a professor of hygiene at Stanford from 1910 to 1929.

Published Research
Mosher dispelled myths about women’s “natural” inferiority to men. Her master’s research at Stanford confirmed that women, just like men, breathe from the diaphragm. She subsequently concluded that women’s supposed “monthly disability” was due to constrictive clothing, inactivity, and the general assumption that pain was an inevitable accompaniment to menstruation. She even invented a set of exercises, commonly known as “Moshering,” to counteract menstrual pain and improve women’s health. Overall, her research supported women’s exercise, the abandonment of restrictive corsets, and an overall cultural shift toward women’s empowerment.