Birth control. What were the main factors in the spread of birth control before 1914?

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1. Introduction Inspired by the class “Gender in Britain c. 1700 – 2000” I decided to write a term paper about the main factors, which caused the spread of birth control before 1914. The focus of the class was generally put on fundamentally assumptions about female/male roles and reasons why this shows how category-pairs such as unrespectable/respectable, homosexual/heterosexual have developed or fought over during the last three centuries. (see appendix 1:course description) In 1906, John W. Taylor and some other doctors made their opinion public that a decline of birth and death rates was to recognize as cause of ‘supreme dissatisfaction and disgust’. All practices to control the growth in society or to improve the qualities of the human race seemed to be useless as the facts showed that the average births have declined from 6.16 births in 1860 to 2.43 births in 1915 (Mc Laren. BIRTH CONTROL IN THE NINTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND). Moreover, less people decided to marry than in the last years of the nineteenth century, which affected the birth rates negatively; therefore; the problem of reproductivity lay on the women in particular. However, the beginning of the birth control debate started already in the centuries before. Many types of contraception appeared and found their way into practice of the everyday life. These methods of contraception could either control women’s fertility, avoid pregnancies before hand or cured women after unprotected sexual intercourses. However, the main idea of birth control was to control over-population and human genetic qualities, moreover it offered women new opportunities to fight for their rights for a better social status. Therefore, many groups and parties formed to discuss this issue and to point out their concerns. Thus, I will focus on three main factors, which heavily influenced the spread of birth control in my eyes.

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