“An Operation More Appropriate for Women”: The Gendering of Smallpox Vaccination in the Spanish Empire

Abstract:At the end of the eighteenth century, Edward Jenner discovered that exposure to cowpox provided safe and effective immunity to smallpox, one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Using an array of printed and archival documentation, this article explores how as word of the world’s first vaccine spread to Spain and its empire, smallpox vaccination was initially associated with women. In fact, medical practitioners initially relied on elite women to promote vaccination, advocated teaching women to vaccinate their own children, and even created pamphlets to instruct them in the procedure. However, the mechanisms that the Spanish Crown used to extend access to the vaccine both in Spain and across the Americas quickly transformed the simple procedure into a medical operation to be performed only by male medical professionals.