The Family Planning Association and Contraceptive Science and Technology in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain by Natasha Szuhan (review)

IF 0.8 3区 哲学 Q2 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Technology and Culture Pub Date : 2024-07-19 DOI:10.1353/tech.2024.a933124
Agata Ignaciuk
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Pp. 294. <p>Natasha Szuhan’s objective in this history of the Family Planning Association (FPA), a leading organization in the British contraceptive arena, established in 1931 and absorbed into the NHS during the 1970s, is to highlight the FPA’s role in demystifying and legitimizing contraception and sex as medical and social phenomena (p. 1). Drawing on the archives of the FPA held in the Wellcome Collection and dialoguing with the recent expansive wave of scholarship on contraceptive technologies, markets, and expertise in Britain during the central decades of the twentieth century (including Claire Jones, <em>The Business of Birth Control</em>, 2020; Jessica Borge, <em>Protective Practices</em>, 2020; and Caroline Rusterholz, <em>Women’s Medicine</em>, 2020), the distinctive value of Szuhan’s contribution lies in her crafting of the FPA story as a scientific and, to a lesser extent, social biography. Chapters are themed around the organization’s involvement in developing standards for contraceptive-gynecological care, testing and endorsing specific contraceptive technologies, conducting public health research into contraceptive practices and effectiveness, and lobbying on medical issues. While exploring relations between the FPA and the British government, the contraceptive industry, and medical lobbying groups, Szuhan also highlights the contributions made by individual physicians, researchers, and leading contraceptive firms. <strong>[End Page 1035]</strong></p> <p>Drawing on a vast and meticulously documented source base, <em>The Family Planning Association</em> imaginatively contributes to many key themes in the social history of mid-twentieth-century contraceptive technologies, such as the design of spaces and protocols for birth control clinics during the 1930s (ch. 2), the testing of barrier methods and spermicides (ch. 4), the uneasy relationships between family planning organizations and manufacturers (chs. 3–5), and how contraceptive lobbying groups operated in the intersecting arenas of state regulatory bodies, emerging national health authorities, medical elites, industry, and voluntary organizations (ch. 5). Centered on the professional biography of Helena Wright and including an analysis of her writing for popular and specialized audiences, chapter 3 will particularly appeal to wider audiences interested in contraceptive standards and the transnational biographies and careers of women physicians. The interesting stories of FPA disagreements with contraceptive manufacturers and the British Medical Association are nuanced and well written (ch. 5), as are the final pages dealing with the integration of the FPA into the British National Health Service during the 1970s.</p> <p>The backbone of Szuhan’s interpretative framework is that the main FPA strategy for legitimizing contraception among the medical profession and wider society was to pursue “laboratory-based sexual science.” This argument would have benefited from more explicit reflections on science as a social activity deeply embedded within its historical context. By applying “pure science” to contraceptive testing and pursuing “applied scientific and clinical investigation” in its clinics, the FPA not only exploited but also transformed the very idea of “scientific research.” Furthermore, the FPA constructed and used a specific, historical meaning of what a “scientific birth control method” would and could mean prior to the commercialization of oral contraception. At the same time, the author somewhat surprisingly labels the pill as “the first undoubtedly scientific birth control method” (p. 228), somehow contradicting the earlier argument about the construction of the prepill contraceptive science. Likewise, the idea of “standards,” another key concept within Szuhan’s approach, also has a history. Bringing this history to the fore and placing it in dialogue with the history of standardization processes beyond the FPA and the British context would have provided vital context to the organization’s endeavors and strategies.</p> <p>All in all, <em>The Family Planning Association</em> is a valuable and interesting exploration of organizational history, worthy of recommendation to historians of sexuality, contraception, and public health. <strong>[End Page 1036]</strong></p> Agata Ignaciuk <p>Agata Ignaciuk is associate professor in the Department of the History of Science, University of Granada, Spain. 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Abstract

Reviewed by:

  • The Family Planning Association and Contraceptive Science and Technology in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain by Natasha Szuhan
  • Agata Ignaciuk (bio)
The Family Planning Association and Contraceptive Science and Technology in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain
By Natasha Szuhan. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan, 2023. Pp. 294.

Natasha Szuhan’s objective in this history of the Family Planning Association (FPA), a leading organization in the British contraceptive arena, established in 1931 and absorbed into the NHS during the 1970s, is to highlight the FPA’s role in demystifying and legitimizing contraception and sex as medical and social phenomena (p. 1). Drawing on the archives of the FPA held in the Wellcome Collection and dialoguing with the recent expansive wave of scholarship on contraceptive technologies, markets, and expertise in Britain during the central decades of the twentieth century (including Claire Jones, The Business of Birth Control, 2020; Jessica Borge, Protective Practices, 2020; and Caroline Rusterholz, Women’s Medicine, 2020), the distinctive value of Szuhan’s contribution lies in her crafting of the FPA story as a scientific and, to a lesser extent, social biography. Chapters are themed around the organization’s involvement in developing standards for contraceptive-gynecological care, testing and endorsing specific contraceptive technologies, conducting public health research into contraceptive practices and effectiveness, and lobbying on medical issues. While exploring relations between the FPA and the British government, the contraceptive industry, and medical lobbying groups, Szuhan also highlights the contributions made by individual physicians, researchers, and leading contraceptive firms. [End Page 1035]

Drawing on a vast and meticulously documented source base, The Family Planning Association imaginatively contributes to many key themes in the social history of mid-twentieth-century contraceptive technologies, such as the design of spaces and protocols for birth control clinics during the 1930s (ch. 2), the testing of barrier methods and spermicides (ch. 4), the uneasy relationships between family planning organizations and manufacturers (chs. 3–5), and how contraceptive lobbying groups operated in the intersecting arenas of state regulatory bodies, emerging national health authorities, medical elites, industry, and voluntary organizations (ch. 5). Centered on the professional biography of Helena Wright and including an analysis of her writing for popular and specialized audiences, chapter 3 will particularly appeal to wider audiences interested in contraceptive standards and the transnational biographies and careers of women physicians. The interesting stories of FPA disagreements with contraceptive manufacturers and the British Medical Association are nuanced and well written (ch. 5), as are the final pages dealing with the integration of the FPA into the British National Health Service during the 1970s.

The backbone of Szuhan’s interpretative framework is that the main FPA strategy for legitimizing contraception among the medical profession and wider society was to pursue “laboratory-based sexual science.” This argument would have benefited from more explicit reflections on science as a social activity deeply embedded within its historical context. By applying “pure science” to contraceptive testing and pursuing “applied scientific and clinical investigation” in its clinics, the FPA not only exploited but also transformed the very idea of “scientific research.” Furthermore, the FPA constructed and used a specific, historical meaning of what a “scientific birth control method” would and could mean prior to the commercialization of oral contraception. At the same time, the author somewhat surprisingly labels the pill as “the first undoubtedly scientific birth control method” (p. 228), somehow contradicting the earlier argument about the construction of the prepill contraceptive science. Likewise, the idea of “standards,” another key concept within Szuhan’s approach, also has a history. Bringing this history to the fore and placing it in dialogue with the history of standardization processes beyond the FPA and the British context would have provided vital context to the organization’s endeavors and strategies.

All in all, The Family Planning Association is a valuable and interesting exploration of organizational history, worthy of recommendation to historians of sexuality, contraception, and public health. [End Page 1036]

Agata Ignaciuk

Agata Ignaciuk is associate professor in the Department of the History of Science, University of Granada, Spain. She is currently leading the research project “ABLE: Aborto no punible en España,” on the history of legal abortion in Spain (1985–2010).

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Natasha Szuhan 所著的《二十世纪中叶英国的计划生育协会与避孕科技》(评论)
评论者 计划生育协会与二十世纪中叶英国的避孕科技》,作者:Natasha Szuhan Agata Ignaciuk (bio) 《计划生育协会与二十世纪中叶英国的避孕科技》,作者:Natasha Szuhan。Cham:帕尔格雷夫-麦克米伦出版社,2023 年。第 294 页。计划生育协会(FPA)成立于 1931 年,在 20 世纪 70 年代被纳入英国国家医疗服务体系(NHS),是英国避孕领域的主要组织。本书借鉴了威康收藏馆收藏的 FPA 档案,并与近期关于 20 世纪中叶英国避孕技术、市场和专业知识的学术研究浪潮进行了对话(包括克莱尔-琼斯(Claire Jones),《避孕的商业》,2020 年;杰西卡-博格(Jessica Borge),《保护性实践》,2020 年;以及卡罗琳-鲁斯特霍尔茨(Caroline Rusterholz),《妇女医学》,2020 年)。书中的章节围绕该组织参与制定避孕-妇科护理标准、测试和认可特定避孕技术、对避孕方法和效果进行公共卫生研究以及就医疗问题进行游说等主题展开。在探讨 FPA 与英国政府、避孕药具行业和医疗游说团体之间关系的同时,Szuhan 还强调了医生个人、研究人员和主要避孕药具公司所做的贡献。第 2 章)、屏障避孕法和杀精剂的测试(第 4 章)、计划生育组织和制造商之间的不稳定关系(第 3-5 章),以及避孕游说团体如何在国家监管机构、新兴国家卫生当局、医疗精英、工业和志愿组织的交叉领域中运作(第 5 章)。第 3 章以海伦娜-赖特的职业传记为中心,分析了她为大众和专业读者撰写的文章,尤其吸引了对避孕标准和女医生的跨国传记和职业生涯感兴趣的广大读者。关于 FPA 与避孕药具生产商和英国医学会之间分歧的有趣故事(第 5 章),以及最后几页关于 FPA 在 20 世纪 70 年代融入英国国民健康服务的内容,都是细致入微、文笔优美的。Szuhan 解释框架的支柱是,FPA 在医学界和更广泛的社会中使避孕合法化的主要策略是追求 "以实验室为基础的性科学"。如果能更明确地反思科学作为一种社会活动深深植根于其历史背景之中,那么这一论点将会受益匪浅。通过将 "纯科学 "应用于避孕检测,并在其诊所中开展 "应用科学和临床研究",FPA 不仅利用了 "科学研究 "这一概念,而且还改变了这一概念。此外,在口服避孕药商业化之前,FPA 构建并使用了 "科学避孕方法 "的特定历史含义。与此同时,作者有些出人意料地将口服避孕药称为 "第一种毫无疑问的科学避孕方法"(第 228 页),这在某种程度上与之前关于构建药前避孕科学的论点相矛盾。同样,斯祖汉方法中的另一个关键概念 "标准 "也有其历史渊源。将这一历史引入视野,并将其与计划生育协会和英国背景之外的标准化进程的历史进行对话,将为该组织的努力和战略提供重要的背景资料。总之,《计划生育协会》是一部有价值且有趣的组织史探索,值得推荐给性、避孕和公共卫生方面的历史学家。[Agata Ignaciuk Agata Ignaciuk 是西班牙格拉纳达大学科学史系副教授。她目前正在领导关于西班牙合法堕胎历史(1985-2010 年)的研究项目 "ABLE:Aborto no punible en España"。 版权所有 © 2024 西班牙科学史学会...
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来源期刊
Technology and Culture
Technology and Culture 社会科学-科学史与科学哲学
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
14.30%
发文量
225
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: Technology and Culture, the preeminent journal of the history of technology, draws on scholarship in diverse disciplines to publish insightful pieces intended for general readers as well as specialists. Subscribers include scientists, engineers, anthropologists, sociologists, economists, museum curators, archivists, scholars, librarians, educators, historians, and many others. In addition to scholarly essays, each issue features 30-40 book reviews and reviews of new museum exhibitions. To illuminate important debates and draw attention to specific topics, the journal occasionally publishes thematic issues. Technology and Culture is the official journal of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT).
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