Médicamenteuses

Médicamenteuses is a historical French term used to refer to women who prepared, dispensed, or administered medicines. The word combines médicament with the feminine suffix -euse, and in historical texts it describes female practitioners who operated in domestic or informal settings, as well as in shops or markets, often outside the formal medical guilds.

Role and activities: They prepared remedies such as decoctions, salves, tinctures, and syrups, advised patients on dosages and usage, kept stock of medicinal ingredients, and sometimes provided basic diagnosis and care. Their knowledge drew on botanical, chemical, and traditional healing practices and overlapped with that of herbalists, healers, apothecaries, and midwives. They could be family members, itinerant sellers, or practitioners in small communities.

Context and decline: In Europe, the professionalization and licensing of medicine and pharmacy from the 17th through 19th centuries narrowed opportunities for independent practice by women. As apothecaries and licensed pharmacists became the gatekeepers of medicines, the term "médicamenteuse" faded from formal usage and is now primarily of historical or sociological interest.

Modern usage: Today, the term is rarely used, and when it appears it is in historical discussion or in analyses of gendered labor in medicine. It helps illuminate how women contributed to medical care outside of formal institutions, and how professionalization reshaped those roles.

See also: History of pharmacy; Herbalism; Women's history in medicine; Apothecary.