Judith A. Houck

Dr. Judith A. Houck is Professor and Chair of Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with joint appointments in History and affiliate status in Medical History and Bioethics. Her scholarship critically examines the historical intersection of gender, medicine, and bodily autonomy.

Education:

• Ph.D. in History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998
• M.A. in History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994
• B.A. in Liberal Arts, St. John's College, 1985

Her research centers on feminist health activism, particularly the women's health movement (1969-2010), medicalization of women's bodies, and historical constructions of menopause. She analyzes how cervical self-exam practices, feminist clinics, and lesbian health advocacy challenged medical authority through embodied knowledge and community-based care.

Recent publications including her 2024 monograph Looking Through the Speculum reveal consistent themes: the transformation of menopause from natural life stage to medical condition, institutionalization of feminist health practices, and the political dimensions of bodily knowledge. Her work demonstrates how race, sexuality, and class shaped divergent feminist health trajectories across U.S. clinics.

Dr. Houck has advised graduate students including Isobel Ashby, Kyle Miron, Suzanna Schulert, Emma Wathen, and Nathan Coonts. She serves as associate editor of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences and is not accepting new graduate students for 2025-26.