Birth Control and the Rights of Women Post-Suffrage Feminism in the Early Twentieth Century

by Debenham, Clare

• ISBN13: 9781780764351
• ISBN10: 1780764359
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-03-27
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

After the granting of the vote to women in 1918, the struggle for women's rights intensified with a nationwide campaign for the right to birth control. This campaign was met with a great deal of hostility; it threatened to overturn Victorian ideas about female sexuality, female empowerment and the traditional roles within the family. The most well known of the campaigners, scientist and early feminist Marie Stopes, opened clinics across England which fitted 'contraception caps' to women for free. The first history of this grassroots social movement, Birth Control and the Rights of Women offers a window into the social and cultural history of the period, and features new archival material in the forms of memoirs, personal papers and press cuttings. This is an essential contribution to the influential field of women's history and a vital addition to the history of feminism.

Author Biography

Clare Debenham recently gained a PhD in Politics at Manchester University, UK where she is currently Lecturer in Politics. This is an essential contribution to the influential field of women's history and a vital addition to the history of feminism.

Table of Contents

1. Background to my Research Interest
2. Marie Stopes - Policy Entrepreneur
3. The Popularity of Birth Control in the 1920s and Explanations for the Movement's Subsequent Obscurity
4. Eleanor Rathbone - Feminist Tactician
5. The Debate as to the Direction of Post-suffrage Feminism. The Formation of Alliances by the Society for the Provision of Birth Control Clinics with Other Women's Organisations
6. Founders of SPBCC Birth Control Clinics: Evelyn Fuller, Walworth Road, London: Mary Barbour, Glasgow; Mary Stocks and Charis Frankenburg, Manchester and Salford
7. Analysis of Who Ran the Clinics and Who Attended Them. Evaluation of how Successful the SPBCC was in Attracting Working Class Mothers
8. Pioneering Doctors in the SPBCC: Miss Hilda Shufflebotham, Consultant Birmingham; Dr Mabel May, Family Doctor, Manchester
9. The Efforts of the SPBCC to Challenge the Positions of the Medical and Religious Establishments Over Birth Control
10. Stella Brown. Dilemmas of a Socialist and a Campaigner for Reproductive Rights
11. Shifting Ideologies and Alliances: Feminists, Birth Controllers, Neo-Malthusians and Eugenicists
12. Ellen Wilkinson. Balanced Birth Control Support with Socialist Ambitions
13. How the Major Political Parties were Tested at the National Level on the Birth Control Issue. Political Activism at the Local Level by the Birth Controllers
14. Lady Trudie Denman. Head of Both the Women's Institutes and the SPBCC, Later Family Planning Association
15. Change of Tactics in the 1930s. Conciliation Rather Than Confrontation
16. Lella Secor Florence-birth Control Entrepreneur. She Started Two Birth Control Clinics in 1920s and Pioneered Trial of the Contraceptive Pill in Birmingham in 1960s
17. An Evaluation of the Effect of a Labour Minister, Mrs Barbara Castle, Making Freely Available on the NHS. How far was this in the Spirit of the Campaigning Birth Controllers of the 1920s