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This book offers the first in-depth investigation into the relationship between the National Birth Control Association, later the Family Planning Association, and contraceptive science and technology in the pre-Pill era. It explores the Association's role in designing and supporting scientific research, employment of scientists, engagement with manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies, and use of its facilities, patients, staff, medical, scientific, and political networks to standardise and guarantee contraceptive technology it prescribed and produced. By taking a micro-history approach to the archives of the Association, this book highlights the importance of this organisation to the history of science, technology, and medicine in twentieth-century Britain. It examines the Association's participation within Western family planning networks, working particularly closely with its American counterparts to develop chemical and biological means of testing contraception for efficacy, quality, and safety.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction. - Chapter 2. Instituting and Regulating the Contraceptive Clinic and Services. - Chapter 3. Teaching and Networking the Wright Way. - Chapter 4. Employing Pure and Applied Science to Assess Contraceptive Technologies. - Chapter 5. Contraceptive Standards in the Age of the Pill: Influencing and Exporting Formal Oversight. - Chapter 6. Conclusion: The Fittest Survived?
About the author
Natasha Szuhan is Lecturer and Researcher in Sociology at the Australian National University and teaches History at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests lie broadly within and around the history of science, technology, and medicine.
Report
The Family Planning Association is a valuable and interesting exploration of organizational history, worthy of recommendation to historians of sexuality, contraception, and public health. (Agata I gnaciuk, Technology and Culture, Vol. 65 (3), July, 2024)
