Elizabeth Siegel Watkins
Biographic Data
| ID | 88174 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elizabeth Siegel Watkins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elizabeth Siegel |
| FAMILY NAME | Watkins |
| SIGNATURE | WATKINS E S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, San Francisco |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Repenser la pilule
The Comeback of the IUD in Twenty-First Century USA
From 1995 to 2014, intrauterine devices (IUDs) rose from ranking 10th (out of 11) among contraceptive methods to being the fourth most popular, outnumbered only by the pill, sterilization, and condoms. In 1995, the IUD had been largely abandoned by American doctors; two decades later, major medical associations promoted it as a “first line” method for prospective users of all ages. This paper explains the rapid and dramatic increase in intrauteri…
Live Longer Better
In recent years, historians have turned their attention to the emergence of anti-aging medicine, suggesting that this interest group coalesced in the wake of widespread availability of recombinant human growth hormone (HGH) after 1985. We take a longer view of modern anti-aging medicine, unearthing a nexus of scientific, medical, and cultural factors that developed over several decades in the twentieth century to produce circumstances conducive t…
The Nature and Nurture of Love
Journal Article The Nature and Nurture of Love: From Imprinting to Attachment in Cold War America Get access Marga Vicedo. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. x, 321 pp. $45.00.) Journal of American History, Volume 100, Issue 4, March 2014, Page 1276, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jau125 Published: 01 March 2014
Hormones of Life
Reviewed by: Hormones of Life: Endocrinology, the Pharmaceutical Industry, and the Dream of a Remedy for Sterility 1930–1970 Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Christer Nordlund. Hormones of Life: Endocrinology, the Pharmaceutical Industry, and the Dream of a Remedy for Sterility 1930–1970. Sagamore Beach, Mass.: Science History Publications, 2011. x + 297 pp. $34.95 (978-0-88135-475-1). Although its title may suggest a more expansive topic, Hormones of Li…
How the Pill Became a Lifestyle Drug
Marketing decisions, rather than scientific innovations, have guided the development and positioning of contraceptive products in recent years. I review the stalled progress in contraceptive development in the decades following the advent of the Pill in 1960 and then examine the fine-tuning of the market for oral contraceptives in the 1990s and 2000s. Although birth control has been pitched in the United States as an individual solution, rather t…
The Social Construction of a Contraceptive Technology
This essay looks at Norplant qua technology and uses analytic frameworks from the social construction of technology to explain the trajectory of its brief history. The author contend that there were multiple uses of Norplant, in terms of rhetorical strategies, symbolic representations, and contraceptive intentions, constructed by reproductive scientists, population control advocates, pharmaceutical manufacturers, doctors, birth control clinic sta…
The Estrogen Elixir
Medicine, Masculinity, and the Disappearance of Male Menopause in the 1950s
In an earlier article, I described how the topic of male menopause lived on in the popular press from the mid-1950s through the mid-1990s in spite of its contemporary absence from the medical literature. The present article addresses the question of why male menopause vanished from medical discourse in the 1950s. This disappearance offers an interesting case study of how and why diagnoses and therapies fall in and out of favour. For this particul…
Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain, 1918 to 1960
The practice of birth control in the first half of the twentieth century has been the subject of much scholarly attention on both sides of the Atlantic. A dominant narrative has evolved, incorporating the following claims; that availability and knowledge of birth control information increased during this period, that contraceptive use was part of a conscious effort to plan family size, that appliance methods (condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps) r…
The Medicalisation of Male Menopause in America
The topic of male menopause occupied space on the medical radar screen from the late 1930s through the mid-1950s, then virtually disappeared for the next four decades, until the late 1990s. By contrast, articles on this subject appeared in American popular magazines and newspapers at a consistent, if low-level, rate throughout the same period. This essay describes how the male menopause became medicalised, not by the driving forces of academic re…
Any Friend of the Movement
Reviewed by: Any Friend of the Movement: Networking for Birth Control, 1920-1940 Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Jimmy Elaine Wilkinson Meyer . Any Friend of the Movement: Networking for Birth Control, 1920-1940. Women and Health: Cultural and Social Perspectives. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2004. xxii + 296 pp. Ill. $54.95 (cloth, 0-8142-0954-8), $9.95 (CD-ROM, 0-8142-9034-5). In the years since James Reed and Linda Gordon published their pa…
"Doctor, Are You Trying to Kill Me?"
In 1976, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed new requirements for patient labeling for estrogens prescribed for menopausal and postmenopausal women. This paper explores the variety of responses to this proposal from women and their husbands, feminist and consumer activists, physicians, pharmacists, and pharmaceutical manufacturers, as represented in letters written to the FDA. The drug industry and the medical profession opposed patien…
On the Pill
Journal Article On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950–1970. By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. x, 183 pp. $25.95, ISBN 0-8018-5876-3.) Get access Janet Farrell Brodie Janet Farrell Brodie Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 4, March 2000, Page 1876,…
The Technology of Orgasm
Journal Article The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. By Rachel P. Maines. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. xx, 181 pp. $22.00, ISBN 0-8018-5941-7.) Get access Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 1, J…
Rachel Carson
Journal Article Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. By Linda Lear. (New York: Holt, 1997. xviii, 634 pp. Cloth, $35.00, ISBN 0-8050-3427-7. Paper, $17.95, ISBN 0-8050-3428-5.) Get access Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 2, September 1999, Pages 859–860, https://d…
A Social History of American Technology
A Social History of American Technology is a textbook survey of American technology from the early seventeenth century to the present. The concept of technological systems is used as a unifying theme to demonstrate the notion that technological change is neither sudden nor discontinuous, but is always closely related to social developments which determine both the kinds of tools developed and the ways in which they are utilized. Cowan demonstrate…
How the Pill Became a Lifestyle Drug
Marketing decisions, rather than scientific innovations, have guided the development and positioning of contraceptive products in recent years. I review the stalled progress in contraceptive development in the decades following the advent of the Pill in 1960 and then examine the fine-tuning of the market for oral contraceptives in the 1990s and 2000s. Although birth control has been pitched in the United States as an individual solution, rather t…
The Social Construction of a Contraceptive Technology
This essay looks at Norplant qua technology and uses analytic frameworks from the social construction of technology to explain the trajectory of its brief history. The author contend that there were multiple uses of Norplant, in terms of rhetorical strategies, symbolic representations, and contraceptive intentions, constructed by reproductive scientists, population control advocates, pharmaceutical manufacturers, doctors, birth control clinic sta…
Medicine, Masculinity, and the Disappearance of Male Menopause in the 1950s
In an earlier article, I described how the topic of male menopause lived on in the popular press from the mid-1950s through the mid-1990s in spite of its contemporary absence from the medical literature. The present article addresses the question of why male menopause vanished from medical discourse in the 1950s. This disappearance offers an interesting case study of how and why diagnoses and therapies fall in and out of favour. For this particul…
The Medicalisation of Male Menopause in America
The topic of male menopause occupied space on the medical radar screen from the late 1930s through the mid-1950s, then virtually disappeared for the next four decades, until the late 1990s. By contrast, articles on this subject appeared in American popular magazines and newspapers at a consistent, if low-level, rate throughout the same period. This essay describes how the male menopause became medicalised, not by the driving forces of academic re…
On the Pill
Journal Article On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950–1970. By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. x, 183 pp. $25.95, ISBN 0-8018-5876-3.) Get access Janet Farrell Brodie Janet Farrell Brodie Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 4, March 2000, Page 1876,…
The Technology of Orgasm
Journal Article The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. By Rachel P. Maines. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. xx, 181 pp. $22.00, ISBN 0-8018-5941-7.) Get access Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 1, J…
Rachel Carson
Journal Article Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. By Linda Lear. (New York: Holt, 1997. xviii, 634 pp. Cloth, $35.00, ISBN 0-8050-3427-7. Paper, $17.95, ISBN 0-8050-3428-5.) Get access Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 2, September 1999, Pages 859–860, https://d…
A Social History of American Technology
A Social History of American Technology is a textbook survey of American technology from the early seventeenth century to the present. The concept of technological systems is used as a unifying theme to demonstrate the notion that technological change is neither sudden nor discontinuous, but is always closely related to social developments which determine both the kinds of tools developed and the ways in which they are utilized. Cowan demonstrate…
Rachel Carson
Journal Article Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. By Linda Lear. (New York: Holt, 1997. xviii, 634 pp. Cloth, $35.00, ISBN 0-8050-3427-7. Paper, $17.95, ISBN 0-8050-3428-5.) Get access Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 2, September 1999, Pages 859–860, https://d…
On the Pill
Journal Article On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950–1970. By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. x, 183 pp. $25.95, ISBN 0-8018-5876-3.) Get access Janet Farrell Brodie Janet Farrell Brodie Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 4, March 2000, Page 1876,…
The Technology of Orgasm
Journal Article The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. By Rachel P. Maines. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. xx, 181 pp. $22.00, ISBN 0-8018-5941-7.) Get access Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 1, J…
"Doctor, Are You Trying to Kill Me?"
In 1976, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed new requirements for patient labeling for estrogens prescribed for menopausal and postmenopausal women. This paper explores the variety of responses to this proposal from women and their husbands, feminist and consumer activists, physicians, pharmacists, and pharmaceutical manufacturers, as represented in letters written to the FDA. The drug industry and the medical profession opposed patien…
Any Friend of the Movement
Reviewed by: Any Friend of the Movement: Networking for Birth Control, 1920-1940 Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Jimmy Elaine Wilkinson Meyer . Any Friend of the Movement: Networking for Birth Control, 1920-1940. Women and Health: Cultural and Social Perspectives. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2004. xxii + 296 pp. Ill. $54.95 (cloth, 0-8142-0954-8), $9.95 (CD-ROM, 0-8142-9034-5). In the years since James Reed and Linda Gordon published their pa…
Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain, 1918 to 1960
The practice of birth control in the first half of the twentieth century has been the subject of much scholarly attention on both sides of the Atlantic. A dominant narrative has evolved, incorporating the following claims; that availability and knowledge of birth control information increased during this period, that contraceptive use was part of a conscious effort to plan family size, that appliance methods (condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps) r…
The Medicalisation of Male Menopause in America
The topic of male menopause occupied space on the medical radar screen from the late 1930s through the mid-1950s, then virtually disappeared for the next four decades, until the late 1990s. By contrast, articles on this subject appeared in American popular magazines and newspapers at a consistent, if low-level, rate throughout the same period. This essay describes how the male menopause became medicalised, not by the driving forces of academic re…
Medicine, Masculinity, and the Disappearance of Male Menopause in the 1950s
In an earlier article, I described how the topic of male menopause lived on in the popular press from the mid-1950s through the mid-1990s in spite of its contemporary absence from the medical literature. The present article addresses the question of why male menopause vanished from medical discourse in the 1950s. This disappearance offers an interesting case study of how and why diagnoses and therapies fall in and out of favour. For this particul…
The Estrogen Elixir
The Social Construction of a Contraceptive Technology
This essay looks at Norplant qua technology and uses analytic frameworks from the social construction of technology to explain the trajectory of its brief history. The author contend that there were multiple uses of Norplant, in terms of rhetorical strategies, symbolic representations, and contraceptive intentions, constructed by reproductive scientists, population control advocates, pharmaceutical manufacturers, doctors, birth control clinic sta…
Hormones of Life
Reviewed by: Hormones of Life: Endocrinology, the Pharmaceutical Industry, and the Dream of a Remedy for Sterility 1930–1970 Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Christer Nordlund. Hormones of Life: Endocrinology, the Pharmaceutical Industry, and the Dream of a Remedy for Sterility 1930–1970. Sagamore Beach, Mass.: Science History Publications, 2011. x + 297 pp. $34.95 (978-0-88135-475-1). Although its title may suggest a more expansive topic, Hormones of Li…
How the Pill Became a Lifestyle Drug
Marketing decisions, rather than scientific innovations, have guided the development and positioning of contraceptive products in recent years. I review the stalled progress in contraceptive development in the decades following the advent of the Pill in 1960 and then examine the fine-tuning of the market for oral contraceptives in the 1990s and 2000s. Although birth control has been pitched in the United States as an individual solution, rather t…
The Nature and Nurture of Love
Journal Article The Nature and Nurture of Love: From Imprinting to Attachment in Cold War America Get access Marga Vicedo. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. x, 321 pp. $45.00.) Journal of American History, Volume 100, Issue 4, March 2014, Page 1276, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jau125 Published: 01 March 2014
Live Longer Better
In recent years, historians have turned their attention to the emergence of anti-aging medicine, suggesting that this interest group coalesced in the wake of widespread availability of recombinant human growth hormone (HGH) after 1985. We take a longer view of modern anti-aging medicine, unearthing a nexus of scientific, medical, and cultural factors that developed over several decades in the twentieth century to produce circumstances conducive t…
The Comeback of the IUD in Twenty-First Century USA
From 1995 to 2014, intrauterine devices (IUDs) rose from ranking 10th (out of 11) among contraceptive methods to being the fourth most popular, outnumbered only by the pill, sterilization, and condoms. In 1995, the IUD had been largely abandoned by American doctors; two decades later, major medical associations promoted it as a “first line” method for prospective users of all ages. This paper explains the rapid and dramatic increase in intrauteri…
Repenser la pilule
Medicine (10 works) · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes (8 works) · History (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Population (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Family planning (5 works)