Irishwomen United, the Contraception Action Programme and the feminist campaign for free, safe and legal contraception in Ireland, c. 1975–81
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9981937 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Kelly (0000-0003-1454-9240) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 164 |
| Pages | 269-297 |
| Publication date | 2019-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Irish Historical Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-1214 • E-ISSN: 2056-4139 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/ihs.2019.54 |
| OpenAlex | W2911666316 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 28 |
This article explores the contraception campaigns of Irishwomen United (I.W.U.) and their offshoot, the Contraception Action Programme (CAP), in the Republic of Ireland from 1975 to 1981. It draws on ten oral history interviews with former members of I.W.U. and CAP conducted by the author, in addition to feminist magazines, newspaper sources and the Roisin Conroy/Attic Press archive. For Irish feminists, the issue of class was paramount to their contraception campaigns while, in common with their counterparts in the United States, they were also concerned about the increasing medicalisation of women's bodies and the potential health risks of the contraceptive pill, commonly prescribed as a ‘cycle regulator’ in Ireland. Fundamentally, I.W.U. and CAP members believed in a women's movement that allowed for the equal distribution of sexual knowledge and access to contraception. In this way, they foregrounded the connection between health and economic rights. Through their demonstrations, meetings and service provision, in unconventional spaces such as shops, markets, community centres and caravans, they challenged not only the law, but also the authority of both religious patriarchy and medical expertise in Ireland. Through an exploration of the activities of I.W.U./CAP, this article will contribute to understandings of campaigns around contraception and, with my commitment to profiling the experiences of ‘rank and file’ women, it will highlight class inequalities and concerns surrounding the medicalisation of women's bodies to a larger extent than has been done before. It also seeks to show the importance of informal women's networks in providing access to contraception and information about contraception pre-legalisation. Moreover, the article seeks to further elucidate the contribution of Irish grassroots organisations which have received limited historical attention
Family planning · Irish · Newspaper · Pill · Political science · Population · Reproductive health · Sociology · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Irish and British Studies · Law · Medicine
Finding the Movement
The Irish Women's Movement
Birth Control, Sex, and Marriage in Britain 1918-1960
Oral History Theory
Irish Nationalist Women, 1900–1918
Sixties Ireland
Cultures of Care in Irish Medical History, 1750–1970
The Politics of Sexual Morality in Ireland
Emotions and gender in oral history
Human weeds, not fit to breed?°
OUT -ing Aids
Transformative Illegality
The Gay Community Response to the Emergence of Aids in Ireland
Feminist Bookshops, Reading Cultures and the Women’s Liberation Movement in Great Britain, c. 1974–2000
Marie Stopes in Ireland - The Mother's Clinic in Belfast, 1936-47
An Irish Solution to an Irish Problem
Winning the vote for women
Irish Modernity and the Politics of Contraception, 1979–1993
No Sense of Wrongdoing
Regulating Sexuality
Radical politics and gay activism in the Republic of Ireland, 1974–1990
Gender and Power
She said she was in the family way
The feminist appropriation of pregnancy testing in 1970s Britain
Irish women and the vote
Patient Groups and the Construction of the Patient-Consumer in Britain
| Citations per year | 1.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2024 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |