But capitalism also entailed the systematic plundering of natural resources and the establishment of a new conception of knowledge. The emerging new science was arrogant and imbued with contempt for femininity, which was associated with irrationality, sentimentality and hysteria, as well as with a natural world requiring domination (chapter 4). Modern medicine, in particular, was built on this model, and the witch-hunts enabled the official doctors of the period to eliminate competition from female healers—despite their being broadly more competent than the doctors.
