Contraception and Conversation
Such a controversial movement generated a prolific body of literature. Proponents and opponents alike wrote treatises, pamphlets, letters, speeches and more. The written word was the primary way of spreading information at the time and the word spread fast. By 1929, approximately 15 million materials on contraception had been published in the first part of the 20th Century alone.[1] Ranging from political to religious in nature, their words unveil the misconceptions, biases, and opinions of the time.
Marie Stopes produced an impressive body of literature, publishing both pamphlets for the working class and book length treatises. Her first major work, Married Love, was published in 1918. This book was followed by numerous others, as well as brochures, speeches, letters and scholarship. It did not seem to matter that Stopes had no formal training in the field. Stopes corresponded with a variety of individuals, including birth control advocate Margaret Sanger in the United States. Instead of a transcontinental partnership, differing opinions and rivalry emerged. The two women soon dropped the correspondence. Through her works, Stopes articulated her views on marriage, sex, the female body and even her approval of eugenics.
[1] Hoggart 1998, 144.
Married Love was Marie Carmichael Stopes' first published work on sexuality. The book outlines her radical views on sex and equality in marriage. The work sold wildly from its first printing and generated a great deal of controversy. Stopes felt it was her mission to educate women about their own sexuality. "In my first marriage I paid such a terrible price for sex-ignorance that I feel that knowledge gained at such a cost should be placed at the service of humanity" (Preface, 13). In a year's time, the book went through six editions in Great Britain. In the United States it was initially labeled "obscene", but later became quite popular. Married Love remains an important historical text today for its early 20th century understanding of marriage and sex .
Stopes, Marie (1880-1958). Married Love, 1918.
London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 7th edition.
Stopes, Marie (1880-1958). Married Love, 1918.
London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 7th edition.
Stopes was a relentless champion of her cause and used propaganda, including publicly staged debates, to promote the birth control movement. On this occasion, she debated Roman Catholic barrister Charles Pilley. This was far from the first time Stopes came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Five years earlier, Stopes had sued a Catholic doctor, Halliday Sutherland, who denounced her clinic and contraceptive methods. The Roman Catholic Church would remain a staunch opponent of the birth control movement. The sponsoring organization, The Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress, stirred up controversy over favoritism of eugenics as well as the promotion of contraceptive devices.
Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress. 1928
Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress. 1928
This poster memorializes an important event in the history of women’s health. In 1921, Marie Carmichael Stopes and her husband founded the first birth control clinic in England and revolutionized the contraceptive movement well beyond the borders of Great Britain. Stopes’ stance that “motherhood should be voluntary” marked the London clinic as controversial from its opening. In addition, Stopes regularly used the clinic to test new devices on her uneducated working class patients. This exposed the movement to a great deal of criticism. Despite the controversy, her work has endured. Today this same clinic serves as the flagship for a network of Marie Stopes Birth Control Clinics throughout Great Britain.
17 March, 1921. Public Notice.
The National Birth Control Association was one of numerous organizations for contraception that came into being in the first half of the 20th century. Founded in 1930, it was established the same year the Ministry of Health passed a long-fought-for memorandum. Backed by various factions within the Labour party, this memorandum made it finally legal for local authorities to distribute advice about contraception. Of course, such advice could only be offered to married women for medical purposes.
National Birth Control Association. February 1934.
The passage of this policy at such a high level of the government demonstrated the success of Marie Carmichael Stopes' campaign begun much earlier in the century. The taboo topic of sex had become a matter of law. Though the contraceptive movement would be a source of conflict well into the 20th century, victories such as this would continue to alter perceptions of women's sexuality in Great Britain and beyond.
National Birth Control Association. February 1934.