The Rhetoric of Reproduction and the Reconfiguration of Womanhood in the French Birth Control Movement, 1890-1920

Abstract

Birth control movements that emerged in Europe and the United States during the last third of the nineteenth century lost their emancipatory and feminist potential in the twentieth century as they succumbed to control by the medical profession, eugenicists, and institutionalized goals of planned parenthood. The neo-Malthusian movement in France, however, retained a radical character and became a focal point for the convergence of libertarian, feminist, and anarchist concerns. By emancipating women from their "biological destiny" and separating sexuality and reproduction, neo-Malthusian rhetoric reconfigured womanhood and established the basis for women's development as full individuals and citizens.