Standards of morality in the 1920s and 1930s were very strict by today's standards. Having a child outside of marriage was deeply shameful. Books and films were censored, in particular for sexual explicitness.Women's magazines were still coy when discussing sexual matters. They referred to pregnancy as "that interesting condition", and advertised maternity dresses that would "keep your secret." In 1920 the Home Secretary banned mixed bathing in London's Serpentine lake, while London Underground banned an advertisement showing a woman in a backless dress. It was against this background that a campaign was waged on the controversial issue of birth control.
To a large extent, women's freedom was limited by the number of children they had. Birth control campaigners knew that there could be little improvement in a woman's life until she had control over the size of her family. Marie Stopes was one such campaigner. In 1918 she published a book called, "Wise Parenthood". She had to take care with the way she wrote the book, because anyone tackling the subject of birth control at that time was liable to prosecution under the obscenity laws. In 1921 she opened the first birth control clinic in Holloway.
Marie Stopes' work was resented and met with considerable opposition. The Government and the medical profession were not prepared to support the campaign. When women asked for advice on birth control at the Maternity and Child Welfare clinics they were turned away. A health visitor in Edmonton lost her job for giving birth control advice to one of her mothers.
In the absence of reliable birth control, many women turned to abortion. Many women wrote to Marie Stopes, asking for advice on abortion, not realising that it was illegal. In 1924 a twenty-seven year old wife of a farm labourer wrote to her asking for advice on how to stop having children. The woman was expecting her fourth child and her family had an income of one pound seven shillings (£1.35) a week. She wrote; "My children do not have enough to eat and I cannot buy boots for them to wear…. I have got into trouble with the school, because my boy did not go, as I had no boots for him to wear. I wrote and told my mother but she cannot help me because my father has died and left her with three children still going to school. She says I must stop having children… Do you think it would be best if I leave my husband and go into the workhouse … so we don’t have any more children? I have gone without food and have tried to win money but everything I try fails. If you can kindly advise me I would be very grateful.”
Some women resorted to self-inducement methods, using violent purgatives such as penny royal, slippery elm and ergot of rye, oxide of lead or the traditional combination of gin, hot baths and violent exercise. If these methods failed, all too often, women went to backstreet abortionists, with tragic results for many of them.
In 1930 the Government finally accepted the need to provide birth control advice in special cases. Clinics were allowed to advise married women whose health would be endangered by further pregnancies. In 1939 the Family Planning Association was set up. By the end of the 1930s the large families of previous decades were no longer the norm.
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| Updated: | Wed 23 Apr 2008 - 1 |
| Interpretation written by | Barbara Harris |
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