Women Advocates of Reproductive Rights: Eleven Who Led the Struggle in the United States and Great Britain - Hardcover

Reynolds, Moira Davison

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0899509401 ISBN 13: 9780899509402

Publisher: McFarland Publishing, 1994

Synopsis

Frances Wright was one of the pioneers in the fight for women's reproductive rights in late-19th century America. She received little support at the time, but laid the foundation for those who followed. Margaret Sanger championed the universal availability of contraception. Betty Friedan founded the National Organization for Women (NOW). This is a collection of eleven biographies of these three women and eight others (Anne Besant, Emma Goldman, Marie Stopes, Mary Dennett, Mary Calderone, Katherine Dexter McCormick, Sarah Weddington and Virginia Johnson) who fought for women's reproductive rights and their right to education about sexuality. Each made a significant contribution to women's emancipation from repressive sexual attitudes and laws.

About this title

About the Author

The late Moira Davison Reynolds, a retired biochemist, wrote about women who made significant contributions to United States culture, including several books about activists, artists, authors and scientists. She lived in Marquette, Michigan.

From Booklist

Reynolds profiles 11 spearheads of the movement for reproductive rights and sexual education, beginning with Fanny Wright, a Scot who advocated women's equal rights, free love, and birth control in the Victorian era. Other nineteenth-century figures are Annie Besant, tried in Britain in 1877 for immorality for her part in reprinting an old birth control pamphlet, and Emma Goldman, also arrested because of her stand on birth control. There's American Margaret Sanger, who sought to make contraception available to all, and English paleobotanist Marie Stopes, who focused on sex education, as did American Mary Denett, convicted for using the mails to distribute educational material about reproduction. Contemporaries include physician Mary Calderone, whose text on contraceptive practices was published the same year (1964) she founded the Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S.; Katharine McCormick, who helped finance the development of oral contraception; and Sarah Waddington, the young attorney who successfully argued Roe v. Wade. Whitney Scott

Edition details

• Publisher: McFarland Publishing
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0899509401
• ISBN 13: 9780899509402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 176