Medical dominance: the Division of Labour in Australian Health Care

Historical Significance: This book considers the dominance in medicine in its attempts to constrain the development of and subordinate other health professions. It takes midwifery, optometry and chiropractic as examples. It was Professor Willis' PhD thesis, a copy of which is held in the Nathan Library. The book argues that 'hierarchy preceded technology' with the medical profession achieving its dominance over the Australian health system by the 1930s, and that it has defended this dominance against other health care occupations since. In 2003, TASA nominated it in the top 10 books published since 1963 that most profoundly shaped Australian sociological scholarship. The book had a revised edition in 1989 and a follow-up was 'Medical Dominancee Revisited' (ISBN 0-9757422-6-4), a comprehensive special issue of Health Sociology Review that reviews almost 20 years of literature since the revision, then revisits, updates and expands Medical Dominance in eight chapters of invited papers from international experts.