@article {Hardesmedhum-2017-011379, author = {Jennifer Jane Hardes}, title = {Women, {\textquoteleft}madness{\textquoteright} and exercise}, elocation-id = {medhum-2017-011379}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.1136/medhum-2017-011379}, publisher = {Institute of Medical Ethics}, abstract = {The positive relationship between exercise and mental health is often taken for granted in today{\textquoteright}s society, despite the lack of academic literature evidencing this symbiosis. Gender is considered a significant determinant in a number of mental health diagnoses. Indeed, women are considered twice as likely as men to experience the most pervasive mental health condition, depression. Exercise for women{\textquoteright}s mental health is promoted through various macrolevel charity, as well as microlevel, campaigns that influence government healthcare policy and National Health Service guidelines. Indeed, {\textquoteleft}exercise prescriptions{\textquoteright} in the treatment of depression is not uncommon. Yet, this link between exercise as a treatment for women{\textquoteright}s mental health has not always been so pervasive. In fact, an examination of asylum reports and medical journals from the late 19th century highlights a significant shift in attitude towards the role of exercise in the treatment of women{\textquoteright}s emotional states and mental health. This paper specifically examines how this treatment of women{\textquoteright}s mental health through exercise has moved from what might be regarded as a focus on exercise as a {\textquoteleft}cause{\textquoteright} of women{\textquoteright}s mental ailments to exercise promoted as a {\textquoteleft}cure{\textquoteright}. Unpacking the changing medical attitudes towards exercise for women in line with larger sociopolitical and historic contexts reveals that while this shift towards exercise promotion might prima facie appear as a less essentialist view of women and their mental and physical states, it inevitably remains tied to larger policy and governance agendas. New modes of exercise {\textquoteleft}treatment{\textquoteright} for women{\textquoteright}s mental health are not politically neutral and, thus, what appear to emerge as forms of liberation are, in actuality, subtler forms of regulation.}, issn = {1468-215X}, URL = {https://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/21/medhum-2017-011379}, eprint = {https://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/21/medhum-2017-011379.full.pdf}, journal = {Medical Humanities} }