08/21/2026
In anticipation of our upcoming webinar, "The Femscope: Giving the Speculum a Makeover," we are taking a look at the long history of the speculum. A medical device used to see inside the vaginal canal and cervix, the speculum goes back over 2000 years. Twelve objects, and some other sources, show why a feminist reboot of the medical instrument is so needed, and so overdue.
Recent articles about the speculum have called its history "nasty" and "creepy," with good reason. For many of us undergoing pelvic exams or surgeries, the device has caused discomfort and pain. Doctors drove its design for centuries including multiple new variations in the mid-1800s. One version developed from gynecological experiments forced on Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy, and other enslaved Black women.
The speculum has been both a tool and a symbol of male domination of women's bodies. But that power dynamic has not gone unchallenged. Starting in the 1970s, feminist health activists including Our Bodies Ourselves encouraged women to wield the speculum themselves, using a flashlight and mirror to see their own cervixes. Today there are increased demands for radically better speculum technology, and a design that is trauma-informed and sensitive to our experience.
Images CC and public domain from Wellcome Trust, Science Museum Group Collection, Wikicommons, and Open Access via JSTOR.
Register for the Femscope webinar: https://ourbodiesourselves.org/events/developing-the-femscope
