TY - JOUR
T1 - The politics of birth control, 1920-1940
T2 - the impact of professionals
AU - Gordon, L.
PY - 1975
Y1 - 1975
N2 - The birth control movement in the U.S. originated in the years before the 1920s as a movement concerned with women's rights and sexual freedom. Demands for the legalization of birth control came from feminists and other radical political activists. During the 1920s, however, the movement became respectable and nonradical. Women's rights became a secondary concern, shoved aside by concern with medical health and population control. This transformation was achieved through the professionalization of the movement. 2 groups who were particularly influential were the doctors and the academic eugenists. The doctors ma de birth control a medical issue, held back the development of popular sex education, and stifled a previously developing feminist approach to the birth control needs of women. The academic eugenists helped transform the movement into a population control movement with racist and anti-feminist overtones. While both groups contributed to the technology of contraception, they retarded its popular acceptance by transforming it from a popular movement into a professional staff lobbying operation. author's modified
AB - The birth control movement in the U.S. originated in the years before the 1920s as a movement concerned with women's rights and sexual freedom. Demands for the legalization of birth control came from feminists and other radical political activists. During the 1920s, however, the movement became respectable and nonradical. Women's rights became a secondary concern, shoved aside by concern with medical health and population control. This transformation was achieved through the professionalization of the movement. 2 groups who were particularly influential were the doctors and the academic eugenists. The doctors ma de birth control a medical issue, held back the development of popular sex education, and stifled a previously developing feminist approach to the birth control needs of women. The academic eugenists helped transform the movement into a population control movement with racist and anti-feminist overtones. While both groups contributed to the technology of contraception, they retarded its popular acceptance by transforming it from a popular movement into a professional staff lobbying operation. author's modified
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U2 - 10.2190/BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W
DO - 10.2190/BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W
M3 - Article
C2 - 1102468
AN - SCOPUS:0016752125
SN - 0020-7314
VL - 5
SP - 253
EP - 277
JO - International Journal of Health Services
JF - International Journal of Health Services
IS - 2
ER -