Kate Fisher
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267361
- eISBN:
- 9780191708299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267361.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter explores the tension between the proliferation of information about birth control methods (condoms, caps, female pessaries, and forms of abortion) in the early 20th century, and the ...
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This chapter explores the tension between the proliferation of information about birth control methods (condoms, caps, female pessaries, and forms of abortion) in the early 20th century, and the evidence that many individuals remained bewildered about issues of sex and contraception. The gendered aspects of knowledge acquisition are discussed: whilst men actively aimed to obtain birth control information, many women sought to maintain their innocence by ignoring it, resisting the urge to rectify gaps in their knowledge and adopting an ignorant persona in social situations and personal relationships. Moreover, assertions of complete ignorance, while sometimes exaggerated, are shown to be rhetorical strategies through which respondents drew attention to the difficulties they experienced in obtaining, interpreting, and using the information they acquired. Many struggled to decode euphemisms or distrusted their sources of knowledge. Therefore, despite increased information, a feeling of profound ignorance dominated their approach to sex and birth control.Less
This chapter explores the tension between the proliferation of information about birth control methods (condoms, caps, female pessaries, and forms of abortion) in the early 20th century, and the evidence that many individuals remained bewildered about issues of sex and contraception. The gendered aspects of knowledge acquisition are discussed: whilst men actively aimed to obtain birth control information, many women sought to maintain their innocence by ignoring it, resisting the urge to rectify gaps in their knowledge and adopting an ignorant persona in social situations and personal relationships. Moreover, assertions of complete ignorance, while sometimes exaggerated, are shown to be rhetorical strategies through which respondents drew attention to the difficulties they experienced in obtaining, interpreting, and using the information they acquired. Many struggled to decode euphemisms or distrusted their sources of knowledge. Therefore, despite increased information, a feeling of profound ignorance dominated their approach to sex and birth control.
Kate Fisher
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267361
- eISBN:
- 9780191708299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267361.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter examines the reasons behind individuals' choice of method. It argues that historians and demographers have hitherto uncritically assumed individuals would welcome technological ...
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This chapter examines the reasons behind individuals' choice of method. It argues that historians and demographers have hitherto uncritically assumed individuals would welcome technological innovations, notably caps and the latex condom. They have seen any use of withdrawal, abstinence, or abortion as indicative of the persistence of barriers to the use of appliances, such as ignorance, financial constraints, embarrassment, or moral disapproval. This chapter draws attention to the positive reasons many had for adopting traditional methods and highlights the alternative sexual cultures, practices, and beliefs which informed these choices. For many, the desire for natural, private, and spontaneous sexual relations made non-appliance methods preferable, while concerns about the safety and reliability of new contraceptive technologies undermined their appeal. Above all, the ideal that contraception was a man's role fostered the use of male methods such as withdrawal, and contributed to a profound dislike of female methods such as caps.Less
This chapter examines the reasons behind individuals' choice of method. It argues that historians and demographers have hitherto uncritically assumed individuals would welcome technological innovations, notably caps and the latex condom. They have seen any use of withdrawal, abstinence, or abortion as indicative of the persistence of barriers to the use of appliances, such as ignorance, financial constraints, embarrassment, or moral disapproval. This chapter draws attention to the positive reasons many had for adopting traditional methods and highlights the alternative sexual cultures, practices, and beliefs which informed these choices. For many, the desire for natural, private, and spontaneous sexual relations made non-appliance methods preferable, while concerns about the safety and reliability of new contraceptive technologies undermined their appeal. Above all, the ideal that contraception was a man's role fostered the use of male methods such as withdrawal, and contributed to a profound dislike of female methods such as caps.
Kate Fisher
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267361
- eISBN:
- 9780191708299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267361.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter challenges the idea that by the interwar period, appliance methods of contraception were increasingly replacing ‘inefficient’, ‘unreliable’, and ‘unpleasant’ traditional forms. It ...
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This chapter challenges the idea that by the interwar period, appliance methods of contraception were increasingly replacing ‘inefficient’, ‘unreliable’, and ‘unpleasant’ traditional forms. It counters the often-made assumption that improvements in birth control technology and their greater availability improved individuals' ability to control their fertility. Although appliance methods were increasingly employed, their use did not signal the rejection of traditional forms. Contemporary social surveys, in particular the findings of the Lewis-Faning study for the Royal Commission on Population, are shown to have been misinterpreted. These surveys failed to recognize that those who experimented with modern methods, such as female caps and condoms, frequently disliked them and reverted back to ‘natural’ methods such as abstinence, abortion, and withdrawal.Less
This chapter challenges the idea that by the interwar period, appliance methods of contraception were increasingly replacing ‘inefficient’, ‘unreliable’, and ‘unpleasant’ traditional forms. It counters the often-made assumption that improvements in birth control technology and their greater availability improved individuals' ability to control their fertility. Although appliance methods were increasingly employed, their use did not signal the rejection of traditional forms. Contemporary social surveys, in particular the findings of the Lewis-Faning study for the Royal Commission on Population, are shown to have been misinterpreted. These surveys failed to recognize that those who experimented with modern methods, such as female caps and condoms, frequently disliked them and reverted back to ‘natural’ methods such as abstinence, abortion, and withdrawal.
Christine Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195156799
- eISBN:
- 9780199835218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515679X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Although engaged in questioning the precepts of the eugenics movement from its inception, Catholic leaders’ interest in the movement reached its apogee in the late 1920s, when the twin issues of ...
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Although engaged in questioning the precepts of the eugenics movement from its inception, Catholic leaders’ interest in the movement reached its apogee in the late 1920s, when the twin issues of compulsory sterilization and birth control came to dominate the debate over eugenics. Through an examination of the work of Rev. John A. Ryan and Rev. John M. Cooper, two Catholic leaders who were once members of the American Eugenics Society, this chapter describes the intellectual journey of the Catholics who eventually became the eugenics movement’s most fervent opponents. It reviews Catholic debate about eugenic sterilization, the reaction to Margaret Sanger’s fledgling birth control movement, and the lay and clerical reaction to Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Casti Connubi.Less
Although engaged in questioning the precepts of the eugenics movement from its inception, Catholic leaders’ interest in the movement reached its apogee in the late 1920s, when the twin issues of compulsory sterilization and birth control came to dominate the debate over eugenics. Through an examination of the work of Rev. John A. Ryan and Rev. John M. Cooper, two Catholic leaders who were once members of the American Eugenics Society, this chapter describes the intellectual journey of the Catholics who eventually became the eugenics movement’s most fervent opponents. It reviews Catholic debate about eugenic sterilization, the reaction to Margaret Sanger’s fledgling birth control movement, and the lay and clerical reaction to Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Casti Connubi.
Hera Cook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199252183
- eISBN:
- 9780191719240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252183.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter examines in detail the methods of contraception used from the 1890s to the 1950s, including abstaining from sexual intercourse. These include spermicides, condoms, diaphragms and other ...
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This chapter examines in detail the methods of contraception used from the 1890s to the 1950s, including abstaining from sexual intercourse. These include spermicides, condoms, diaphragms and other contraceptive devices, abortion, anal sex, and breastfeeding. The impact of poor quality rubber and the absence of quality control are considered along with the limited evidence on contraceptive effectiveness. The chapter concludes with comment on the diminished sexual pleasure that resulted from use of the methods, especially for women.Less
This chapter examines in detail the methods of contraception used from the 1890s to the 1950s, including abstaining from sexual intercourse. These include spermicides, condoms, diaphragms and other contraceptive devices, abortion, anal sex, and breastfeeding. The impact of poor quality rubber and the absence of quality control are considered along with the limited evidence on contraceptive effectiveness. The chapter concludes with comment on the diminished sexual pleasure that resulted from use of the methods, especially for women.
Hera Cook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199252183
- eISBN:
- 9780191719240
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252183.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This book describes the transformation of sexuality in England between the late 1700s and around 1975. It argues that there is a close connection between sexual attitudes and behaviour, and the ...
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This book describes the transformation of sexuality in England between the late 1700s and around 1975. It argues that there is a close connection between sexual attitudes and behaviour, and the gradual exertion of control over fertility caused by the gradual improvements in birth control over this period. It shows that the impact upon women of changes in levels of sexual activity was different from and greater than that upon men. This is because the economic and social consequences of children are the major cost of sexual activity and women bore the physical consequences of reproduction. Birth rates reached historical heights in the early 19th century and, initially, succeeding generations of women, and later men, rejected sexual expression in order to limit their fertility. Detailed use of the evidence on sexual practice and contraceptive methods, availability, and use shows that not until the early decades of the 20th century did contraception become a viable option for the majority of the population. Changes in physical sexual practice and related attitudes to the body, the resulting slow relaxation of attitudes to sexuality, and the remaking of heterosexual physical sexual behaviour during the 20th century are analysed. An innovative combination of demographic and qualitative sources are combined to chart the changes that climaxed in the sexual revolution of the 1960s.Less
This book describes the transformation of sexuality in England between the late 1700s and around 1975. It argues that there is a close connection between sexual attitudes and behaviour, and the gradual exertion of control over fertility caused by the gradual improvements in birth control over this period. It shows that the impact upon women of changes in levels of sexual activity was different from and greater than that upon men. This is because the economic and social consequences of children are the major cost of sexual activity and women bore the physical consequences of reproduction. Birth rates reached historical heights in the early 19th century and, initially, succeeding generations of women, and later men, rejected sexual expression in order to limit their fertility. Detailed use of the evidence on sexual practice and contraceptive methods, availability, and use shows that not until the early decades of the 20th century did contraception become a viable option for the majority of the population. Changes in physical sexual practice and related attitudes to the body, the resulting slow relaxation of attitudes to sexuality, and the remaking of heterosexual physical sexual behaviour during the 20th century are analysed. An innovative combination of demographic and qualitative sources are combined to chart the changes that climaxed in the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Hera Cook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199252183
- eISBN:
- 9780191719240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252183.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter explores the interaction between the need for fertility control, male and female sexual desire, and the vulnerability created by the dependent economic status of mothers. In the 19th ...
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This chapter explores the interaction between the need for fertility control, male and female sexual desire, and the vulnerability created by the dependent economic status of mothers. In the 19th century, women's economic position relative to men of their own class declined, and their need to support their children made them vulnerable to male insistence on female chastity. Few women encountered information about birth control, and those who did seemed to have little to gain from the practice. It is probable that the majority of middle-class men who wanted to control their fertility relied upon prostitution.Less
This chapter explores the interaction between the need for fertility control, male and female sexual desire, and the vulnerability created by the dependent economic status of mothers. In the 19th century, women's economic position relative to men of their own class declined, and their need to support their children made them vulnerable to male insistence on female chastity. Few women encountered information about birth control, and those who did seemed to have little to gain from the practice. It is probable that the majority of middle-class men who wanted to control their fertility relied upon prostitution.
Hera Cook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199252183
- eISBN:
- 9780191719240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252183.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter challenges Carl Degler's 1970s ‘revisionist’ approach — which claims that the image of Victorian women as repressed is inaccurate — and reaffirms the importance of the ‘double standard’. ...
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This chapter challenges Carl Degler's 1970s ‘revisionist’ approach — which claims that the image of Victorian women as repressed is inaccurate — and reaffirms the importance of the ‘double standard’. It is argued thatrejection of sexual desire was a form of radical female resistance in the context of late 19th-century gender norms. It is suggested that evidence supports the use of partial sexual abstinence to bring down birth rates in the late 19th and first third of the 20th century.Less
This chapter challenges Carl Degler's 1970s ‘revisionist’ approach — which claims that the image of Victorian women as repressed is inaccurate — and reaffirms the importance of the ‘double standard’. It is argued thatrejection of sexual desire was a form of radical female resistance in the context of late 19th-century gender norms. It is suggested that evidence supports the use of partial sexual abstinence to bring down birth rates in the late 19th and first third of the 20th century.
Ina Zweiniger‐Bargielowska
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199280520
- eISBN:
- 9780191594878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280520.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter posits women's physical liberation alongside political emancipation, greater gender equality, expanding employment opportunities after 1918. A modern femininity was constructed by means ...
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This chapter posits women's physical liberation alongside political emancipation, greater gender equality, expanding employment opportunities after 1918. A modern femininity was constructed by means of clothes and beauty products, but it also required a managed body. Building on the pioneering efforts during the Edwardian period, women enthusiastically embraced a wide range of activities including keep‐fit classes, dancing, swimming, and hiking. These provided new opportunities for female companionship and mixed‐sex sociability. The modern female body became a mass phenomenon during the interwar years. Sex reform was a prerequisite of the modernization of women's bodies and hygienists advocated birth control and sex education. Nevertheless, extreme practices such as competitive sport or slimming for the sake of fashion remained controversial. The modern woman was portrayed as a race mother whose civic duty to manage her body for the well‐being of the nation paralleled men's obligation to become healthy and fit workers and soldiers.Less
This chapter posits women's physical liberation alongside political emancipation, greater gender equality, expanding employment opportunities after 1918. A modern femininity was constructed by means of clothes and beauty products, but it also required a managed body. Building on the pioneering efforts during the Edwardian period, women enthusiastically embraced a wide range of activities including keep‐fit classes, dancing, swimming, and hiking. These provided new opportunities for female companionship and mixed‐sex sociability. The modern female body became a mass phenomenon during the interwar years. Sex reform was a prerequisite of the modernization of women's bodies and hygienists advocated birth control and sex education. Nevertheless, extreme practices such as competitive sport or slimming for the sake of fashion remained controversial. The modern woman was portrayed as a race mother whose civic duty to manage her body for the well‐being of the nation paralleled men's obligation to become healthy and fit workers and soldiers.
Hera Cook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199252183
- eISBN:
- 9780191719240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252183.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter shows that the evidence for the early use of withdrawal is minimal. The argument that withdrawal (coitus interruptus) and abortion provided an effective means of birth control in the ...
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This chapter shows that the evidence for the early use of withdrawal is minimal. The argument that withdrawal (coitus interruptus) and abortion provided an effective means of birth control in the early 19th century is rejected. The reasons why emerge in an examination of the problems of developing and using the method, based on detailed analysis of the birth control tracts produced by Francis Place, Richard Carlile, George Drysdale, Annie Besant, and Charles Bradlaugh.Less
This chapter shows that the evidence for the early use of withdrawal is minimal. The argument that withdrawal (coitus interruptus) and abortion provided an effective means of birth control in the early 19th century is rejected. The reasons why emerge in an examination of the problems of developing and using the method, based on detailed analysis of the birth control tracts produced by Francis Place, Richard Carlile, George Drysdale, Annie Besant, and Charles Bradlaugh.
Christina Simmons
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195064117
- eISBN:
- 9780199869565
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195064117.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, Social History
As a modern female style undermined a Victorian motherhood‐centered ideal, whites and African Americans debated conceptions of women's sexuality and marriage. In the 1910s social hygiene reformers ...
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As a modern female style undermined a Victorian motherhood‐centered ideal, whites and African Americans debated conceptions of women's sexuality and marriage. In the 1910s social hygiene reformers anxious about venereal disease called for scientific sex education but still romanticized motherhood, while sex radicals demanded birth control, free love, or the right to interracial relationships or homosexuality. The book emphasizes more conventional reformers, who by the 1920s hoped to contain the potential for modern women's independence from men and marriage in “companionate marriage.” This incorporated birth control, easier divorce, and intensified sexual intimacy. The most popular version involved free‐spirited flappers who did not seriously challenge male authority or women's ultimate focus on motherhood. Some more equitable minority versions were African American partnership marriage, which included wives' employment, and feminist marriage, in which white and black women imagined a more thoroughgoing equality of work and sex. Sexual advice literature flooded onto the market in the 1930s, offering women conflicting messages about achieving sexual pleasure but also pleasing husbands. Despite the unsettling of an older femininity, deep and persistent structural inequalities between men and women limited efforts to create gender parity in sex and marriage. Yet these cultural battles subverted patriarchal culture and raised women's expectations of marriage in ways that grounded second‐wave feminist claims.Less
As a modern female style undermined a Victorian motherhood‐centered ideal, whites and African Americans debated conceptions of women's sexuality and marriage. In the 1910s social hygiene reformers anxious about venereal disease called for scientific sex education but still romanticized motherhood, while sex radicals demanded birth control, free love, or the right to interracial relationships or homosexuality. The book emphasizes more conventional reformers, who by the 1920s hoped to contain the potential for modern women's independence from men and marriage in “companionate marriage.” This incorporated birth control, easier divorce, and intensified sexual intimacy. The most popular version involved free‐spirited flappers who did not seriously challenge male authority or women's ultimate focus on motherhood. Some more equitable minority versions were African American partnership marriage, which included wives' employment, and feminist marriage, in which white and black women imagined a more thoroughgoing equality of work and sex. Sexual advice literature flooded onto the market in the 1930s, offering women conflicting messages about achieving sexual pleasure but also pleasing husbands. Despite the unsettling of an older femininity, deep and persistent structural inequalities between men and women limited efforts to create gender parity in sex and marriage. Yet these cultural battles subverted patriarchal culture and raised women's expectations of marriage in ways that grounded second‐wave feminist claims.
Christina Simmons
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195064117
- eISBN:
- 9780199869565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195064117.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, Social History
By the 1920s, as sex radicals were silenced by the Red Scare, more conventional reformers—social scientists and ex‐radicals—developed the concept of companionate marriage, to adapt marriage to a ...
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By the 1920s, as sex radicals were silenced by the Red Scare, more conventional reformers—social scientists and ex‐radicals—developed the concept of companionate marriage, to adapt marriage to a growing youth culture, women's independence and civil equality, and a more consumer‐oriented middle class. Figures like Judge Ben Lindsey, author of Companionate Marriage, portrayed sexual intimacy as the cement of marriage and birth control as a necessary support; they called for greater privacy and freedom from parental control for young couples; and they demanded sexual and psychological equality for women. Companionate marriage reflected a more individualistic society and a vision of marriage as the union of two individuals bonded through sexual love, rather than the traditional institution of childbearing, kin, and property relations.Less
By the 1920s, as sex radicals were silenced by the Red Scare, more conventional reformers—social scientists and ex‐radicals—developed the concept of companionate marriage, to adapt marriage to a growing youth culture, women's independence and civil equality, and a more consumer‐oriented middle class. Figures like Judge Ben Lindsey, author of Companionate Marriage, portrayed sexual intimacy as the cement of marriage and birth control as a necessary support; they called for greater privacy and freedom from parental control for young couples; and they demanded sexual and psychological equality for women. Companionate marriage reflected a more individualistic society and a vision of marriage as the union of two individuals bonded through sexual love, rather than the traditional institution of childbearing, kin, and property relations.
David Howell
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198203049
- eISBN:
- 9780191719530
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203049.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
When women challenged their assigned place in the Labour Party, and, at least by implication, their official identity as ‘Labour Woman’, their dissent was fuelled by specific and deeply felt ...
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When women challenged their assigned place in the Labour Party, and, at least by implication, their official identity as ‘Labour Woman’, their dissent was fuelled by specific and deeply felt disagreements over policy. The provision of information on birth control by publicly funded clinics proved to be highly controversial for British Labour in the 1920s. On this issue more than any other, conflict developed between the institutions specific to Labour women and the overall party. Wartime experiences had given many working-class women a sense of their own autonomy; a change which raised the possibility of family limitation as a desirable option. As familiar routines re-emerged after the war, depression in staple and well-unionized trades provided a powerful incentive for family limitation. Such sentiments were fired by a belief that the lives of working-class women did not have to be confined and damaged by successive and frequently difficult pregnancies, each adding to the pressure on already meagre household budgets. For the politically active, their involvement in the Labour Party's Women's Sections was a declaration against passivity and acquiescence.Less
When women challenged their assigned place in the Labour Party, and, at least by implication, their official identity as ‘Labour Woman’, their dissent was fuelled by specific and deeply felt disagreements over policy. The provision of information on birth control by publicly funded clinics proved to be highly controversial for British Labour in the 1920s. On this issue more than any other, conflict developed between the institutions specific to Labour women and the overall party. Wartime experiences had given many working-class women a sense of their own autonomy; a change which raised the possibility of family limitation as a desirable option. As familiar routines re-emerged after the war, depression in staple and well-unionized trades provided a powerful incentive for family limitation. Such sentiments were fired by a belief that the lives of working-class women did not have to be confined and damaged by successive and frequently difficult pregnancies, each adding to the pressure on already meagre household budgets. For the politically active, their involvement in the Labour Party's Women's Sections was a declaration against passivity and acquiescence.
Stephen Brooke
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199562541
- eISBN:
- 9780191731167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562541.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter examines in detail the campaign spearheaded by the Workers’ Birth Control Group within the Labour Party to have access to birth control information adopted as party policy. It sets this ...
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This chapter examines in detail the campaign spearheaded by the Workers’ Birth Control Group within the Labour Party to have access to birth control information adopted as party policy. It sets this campaign in the context of both working-class life between the wars and the emergent birth control movement led by middle-class women such as Dora Russell. The chapter maps the tensions and struggles between the women’s sections of the Labour Party and the party leadership over birth control and argues that this revealed deep fissures around the conception of socialist action between the wars. It also offers an analysis of how views of maternity underpinned arguments for sexual reform.Less
This chapter examines in detail the campaign spearheaded by the Workers’ Birth Control Group within the Labour Party to have access to birth control information adopted as party policy. It sets this campaign in the context of both working-class life between the wars and the emergent birth control movement led by middle-class women such as Dora Russell. The chapter maps the tensions and struggles between the women’s sections of the Labour Party and the party leadership over birth control and argues that this revealed deep fissures around the conception of socialist action between the wars. It also offers an analysis of how views of maternity underpinned arguments for sexual reform.
Johanna Schoen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195150698
- eISBN:
- 9780199865185
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150698.003.13
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
In the 1930s, public health professionals launched birth control programs as part of their infant and maternal health measures. In addition to reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, offering ...
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In the 1930s, public health professionals launched birth control programs as part of their infant and maternal health measures. In addition to reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, offering birth control to poor women also seemed attractive for economic and eugenic reasons. Public health birth control services simultaneously offered women reproductive control and provided control over poor women's reproduction. Although clients recognized the race and class prejudices behind many family planning programs, they took advantage of the services offered, and bargained with authorities over the conditions of contraceptive advice. Women's lack of access to contraceptive services, their poverty, their race, and gender significantly influenced their decision to participate in contraceptive field trials or take advantage of birth control programs.Less
In the 1930s, public health professionals launched birth control programs as part of their infant and maternal health measures. In addition to reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, offering birth control to poor women also seemed attractive for economic and eugenic reasons. Public health birth control services simultaneously offered women reproductive control and provided control over poor women's reproduction. Although clients recognized the race and class prejudices behind many family planning programs, they took advantage of the services offered, and bargained with authorities over the conditions of contraceptive advice. Women's lack of access to contraceptive services, their poverty, their race, and gender significantly influenced their decision to participate in contraceptive field trials or take advantage of birth control programs.
Jay P. Dolan
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195069266
- eISBN:
- 9780199834143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195069269.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The five themes presented in Ch. 3 (democracy, American national identity, gender equality, devotional Catholicism, and the Americanization of Catholic doctrine) are further examined here in the ...
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The five themes presented in Ch. 3 (democracy, American national identity, gender equality, devotional Catholicism, and the Americanization of Catholic doctrine) are further examined here in the context of seeking to show how American culture shaped Catholicism in the period 1960–2001. The chapter starts by examining the role of President Kennedy in enabling Catholics to stand taller, and the changes initiated by Pope John XXIII's election in 1958, which led to the Second Vatican Council reforms (1962–65). It then examines the further emergence of a public Catholicism that sought to influence the shape and values of American society. The chapter also touches on some issues that have generated considerable controversy among Catholics in recent years – the ethical issues of abortion and birth control, the desire for more democracy in the management of parish life, the role of women in the church, the increased ethnic diversity of Catholicism, and the new rituals of prayer and worship that have emerged in the past 40 years.Less
The five themes presented in Ch. 3 (democracy, American national identity, gender equality, devotional Catholicism, and the Americanization of Catholic doctrine) are further examined here in the context of seeking to show how American culture shaped Catholicism in the period 1960–2001. The chapter starts by examining the role of President Kennedy in enabling Catholics to stand taller, and the changes initiated by Pope John XXIII's election in 1958, which led to the Second Vatican Council reforms (1962–65). It then examines the further emergence of a public Catholicism that sought to influence the shape and values of American society. The chapter also touches on some issues that have generated considerable controversy among Catholics in recent years – the ethical issues of abortion and birth control, the desire for more democracy in the management of parish life, the role of women in the church, the increased ethnic diversity of Catholicism, and the new rituals of prayer and worship that have emerged in the past 40 years.
Christina Simmons
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195064117
- eISBN:
- 9780199869565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195064117.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, Social History
Freer from censorship by 1930, reformers from the birth control and marriage education movements, many of them physicians, published a large body of sexual advice literature. Through it, they sought ...
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Freer from censorship by 1930, reformers from the birth control and marriage education movements, many of them physicians, published a large body of sexual advice literature. Through it, they sought to assist couples in finding satisfactory forms of sexual relations for the new marriage. In these writings, strains of feminist support for women's sexual pleasure contended with demands for more sexual activity in the context of ongoing male control. Advice writers separated sex from reproduction by promoting birth control and more frequent intercourse. Unlike psychoanalysts, they made the clitoris central to women's pleasure and underplayed the vaginal orgasm. Yet they also sustained male initiative and symbols of male dominance like the missionary position. The highly unequal partnership of marriage limited women's ability to act on the advice, but the books normalized a new female heterosexuality for American women.Less
Freer from censorship by 1930, reformers from the birth control and marriage education movements, many of them physicians, published a large body of sexual advice literature. Through it, they sought to assist couples in finding satisfactory forms of sexual relations for the new marriage. In these writings, strains of feminist support for women's sexual pleasure contended with demands for more sexual activity in the context of ongoing male control. Advice writers separated sex from reproduction by promoting birth control and more frequent intercourse. Unlike psychoanalysts, they made the clitoris central to women's pleasure and underplayed the vaginal orgasm. Yet they also sustained male initiative and symbols of male dominance like the missionary position. The highly unequal partnership of marriage limited women's ability to act on the advice, but the books normalized a new female heterosexuality for American women.
Alessandro Cigno and Furio Camillo Rosati
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199264452
- eISBN:
- 9780191602511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199264457.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
Decisions concerning birth control, and expenditure on pre-school children, take into account what will be done with these children if they survive to school age. Depending on whether it crowds-in or ...
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Decisions concerning birth control, and expenditure on pre-school children, take into account what will be done with these children if they survive to school age. Depending on whether it crowds-in or crowds-out parental expenditure on pre-school children’s nutrition and medical care, public expenditure on sanitation, preventive medicine, and the like can have a large or a small effect on infant mortality. Fertility tends to decrease as a woman’s bargaining power increases. Dowries, the education of girls, and the sexual division of labour are explained within the same theoretical framework.Less
Decisions concerning birth control, and expenditure on pre-school children, take into account what will be done with these children if they survive to school age. Depending on whether it crowds-in or crowds-out parental expenditure on pre-school children’s nutrition and medical care, public expenditure on sanitation, preventive medicine, and the like can have a large or a small effect on infant mortality. Fertility tends to decrease as a woman’s bargaining power increases. Dowries, the education of girls, and the sexual division of labour are explained within the same theoretical framework.
Hera Cook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199252183
- eISBN:
- 9780191719240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252183.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter examines the changes in attitudes to the body and sexual attitudes that were necessary to achieve a fall in birth rates using the limited available methods of contraception. Repressive ...
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This chapter examines the changes in attitudes to the body and sexual attitudes that were necessary to achieve a fall in birth rates using the limited available methods of contraception. Repressive attitudes to children's bodies, including rigid standards of hygiene, toilet training, bowel control, and the labelling of all genital contact as masturbation, are discussed. Adults who had been frequently subjected to such a regime viwed their genitals and physical sexual desire as disturbing, even disgusting. In this context of sexual prudery, the practice of partial sexual abstinence or low frequencies of intercourse was normalized. The chapter concludes with a discussion of a study of female vaginismus in the 1950s, which suggests levels of extreme anxiety would have been high in the interwar period.Less
This chapter examines the changes in attitudes to the body and sexual attitudes that were necessary to achieve a fall in birth rates using the limited available methods of contraception. Repressive attitudes to children's bodies, including rigid standards of hygiene, toilet training, bowel control, and the labelling of all genital contact as masturbation, are discussed. Adults who had been frequently subjected to such a regime viwed their genitals and physical sexual desire as disturbing, even disgusting. In this context of sexual prudery, the practice of partial sexual abstinence or low frequencies of intercourse was normalized. The chapter concludes with a discussion of a study of female vaginismus in the 1950s, which suggests levels of extreme anxiety would have been high in the interwar period.
Timothy Willem Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199655106
- eISBN:
- 9780191744952
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199655106.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Religion
This chapter discusses the reversal of the Church of England’s position on birth control between 1908 and 1930. It explores the formation of social policy around contraception to show how Anglican ...
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This chapter discusses the reversal of the Church of England’s position on birth control between 1908 and 1930. It explores the formation of social policy around contraception to show how Anglican understandings of the purpose of marriage and sex shifted. It argues that the decision of the 1930 Lambeth Conference to cautiously approve of the use of birth control within marriage marks a subtle but significant recalibration of Anglican understandings of gender, power, and pleasure.Less
This chapter discusses the reversal of the Church of England’s position on birth control between 1908 and 1930. It explores the formation of social policy around contraception to show how Anglican understandings of the purpose of marriage and sex shifted. It argues that the decision of the 1930 Lambeth Conference to cautiously approve of the use of birth control within marriage marks a subtle but significant recalibration of Anglican understandings of gender, power, and pleasure.
