Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in the early part of the 20th century, family planning on a more deliberate level began to appear in England due largely to the continued efforts of birth control advocate Marie Stopes (1880-1958). However, it was not until the second decade of the 20th century that birth control began to be seen as something important, realistic and necessary. The paper then relates the history in England of birth control and the life work of Stopes. The paper concludes that, although birth control is still seen by some people, such as some extremely devout Catholics, as being wrong; overall, there is no stigma in England to purchasing birth control methods even if a woman is unmarried, which is a marked difference from what took place during Stopes' lifetime.

From the Paper:

"The idea of the importance of contraception actually began early on in the 19th century. At that time, much of the inspiration for that kind of movement came from a book called "An Essay on the Principle of Population" which was written in 1798 by a British political economist named Thomas Malthus. In his book, he argued that the population of the world would eventually grow to the point that the earth would not be able to actually support it. If this took place, famine, poverty, epidemics, and other significant and frightening problems would plague the human race."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Moscucci, Ornella. 2005. The science of woman: Gynaecology and gender in England, 1800-1929. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Lane, Joan. 2001. Social history of medicine: Health, healing and disease in England, 1750-1950. London: Routledge.
• Mort, Frank. 2000. Dangerous sexualities: Medico-moral politics in England since 1830. London: Routledge.
• Rose, June. 1992. Marie Stopes and the Sexual Revolution. London: Faber and Faber.

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