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Lara FREIDENFELDS, The modern period : menstruation in twentieth-century Americ

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Obra ressenyada: Paula A. MICHAELS, Lamaze. An International History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014

Contraception and abortion: an analysis from gender studies

Las prácticas y los conceptos de la anticoncepción y del aborto constituyen un tema de gran interés para la investigación feminista. Los estudios de género en la historia y en las ciencias sociales aportan la historización y contextualización de estos conceptos, que permanecían unidos hasta finales del siglo XIX, y destacan a los agentes y las estructuras sociales implicadas en la formulación de los debates y discursos acerca del aborto y la anticoncepción. Asimismo, surgen dimensiones de análisis que resultan particularmente útiles para los estudios comparativos. En este artículo, propongo las siguientes dimensiones de análisis histórico de la anticoncepción y del aborto en relación con el género: la medicina y el sector sanitario, la economía, la religión (cristiana) y los movimientos sociales (movimiento feminista y movimiento pro-vida), y las aplico a los estudios de caso de las políticas acerca del aborto y de la anticoncepción en Polonia e Italia en la segunda mitad del siglo XX y en el siglo XXI.Contraception and abortion, understood both as practices and concepts, have constituted an issue of a great interest for the feminist scholarship. Gender-focused historical and social studies have contributed to the historization and contextualization of these concepts, which remained united till the end of the 20th century, and have provided tools as far as approaching social agents and structures involved in the shaping the debates and discourses on abortion and contraception is concerned. In this manner, medicine and medical profession, economy, religion and social movements such as the feminist movement and pro-life movement can be considered as useful dimensions of analysis of gender in relation to contraception and abortion, especially in comparative studies. As an example of the application of the proposed dimensions, this article provides a brief analysis of the debates and discourses on abortion and contraception in Poland and Italy in the second half of the 20th and in the 21st century

Paradox of the pill: oral contraceptives in Spain and Poland (1960s–1970s)

is chapter analyzes the early circulation of oral contraceptives in Spain and Poland (1960s–1980s) using comparative historiographic methodology and a variety of sources, including: archival documents, medical literature, daily press, women’s and Catholic magazines, legal sources and opinion polls. In Spain, where the sale and advertisement of all contraceptive methods were illegal between 1941 and 1978, the pill began to circulate in the early 1960s and was officially introduced as a prescription drug for the treatment of a variety of gynecological problems. Despite the legal ban on disseminating information about contraception, the pill was widely discussed in both the medical and general press, the ongoing discussions being stimulated by contemporary debates about the pill within the Catholic Church. Demand for the pill grew dramatically during the first two decades of its circulation, enhanced, among other factors, by the successfulmedicalmarketing and advertising of anovulatory drugs by international pharmaceutical companies operating in Spain. In Poland, despite a lack of legal restrictions regarding contraception, the pill circulated to a far lesser degree. While Western brands began to appear on the Polish market in the early 1960s, the local pharmaceutical industry only started to manufacture the first Polish pill towards the end of the decade. Easy access to abortion since the mid-1950s meant authorities placed little emphasis on providing women with effective contraceptive methods. Coupled with inefficient management of pharmaceutical production and distribution on the centrally planned market, this contributed to the limited circulation of the pill in Poland. A close examination of Polish medical literature reveals that most Polish doctors defended the pill’s safety if used under medical supervision. e same argument was put forward in the general press, which played a key role in promoting the pill and other contraceptive methods, but also highlighted problems with access to the drug and criticized the alleged preference of Polish women for abortion as a birth control resource. emain conclusion is that in Spain, the pill was one of the vectors that enhanced the transition of values attached to reproduction and sexuality during the last years of Franco’s regime. It also contributed to enhancing doctors’ involvement in family planning provision and counselling. In contemporary Poland, in contrast, the pill only played a marginal role, failing to catalyze a similar value transaction

Ortiz Gómez, Teresa. 2006. Medicina, historia y género: 130 años de investigación feminista. Oviedo: KRK. 368 pp.

Reseña de libroMedicina, historia y género by Teresa Ortiz can be considered a successful attempt at transferring the author’s knowledge and experience in researching and teaching the history of medicine, science, and women’s/gender studies. This research was gathered during her long career at the University of Granada, Spain, where she is at present professor at the Department of the History of Science at the Faculty of Medicine. Ortiz currently teaches the history of science and medicine to undergraduate medical students, and is also one of the key lecturers in postgraduate women’s and gender studies in Spain

Contraception and Catholicism in the twentieth century : transnational perspectives on medical, activist and intimate practices

This special issue uses Catholicism as a thread to bring together five contributions to the transnational history of contraception. The articles, which cover examples from Western and East-Central Europe, East Africa and Latin America, all explore the complex interplay between users and providers of birth control in contexts marked by prevalence of the Catholic religion and/or strong political position of the Catholic Church. In the countries examined here, Brazil, Belgium, Poland, Ireland and Rwanda, Catholicism was the majority religion during the different moments of the long twentieth century the authors of this special issue focus on. Using transnationalism as a perspective to examine the social history of the entanglements between Catholicism and contraception, this special issue seeks to underscore the ways in which individuals and organisations used, adapted and contested local and transnational ideas and debate around family planning. It also examines the role of experts and activist groups in the promotion of family planning, while paying attention to national nuances in Catholic understandings of birth control. The contributions shed light on the motivations behind involvement in birth control activism and expertise, its modus operandi, networking strategies and interactions with men and women demanding contraceptive information and technology. Moreover, through the use of oral history, as well as other print sources such as women’s magazines, this collection of articles seeks to illustrate ‘ordinary’ men and women’s practices in the realm of reproductive health

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Rodzina, tabu i komunizm w Polsce, 1956-1989 [Famille, tabou et communisme en Pologne, 1956-1989]

Ce livre de Barbara Klich-Kluczewska est sans aucun doute un des ouvrages les plus marquants des dernières années en histoire culturelle de l’État polonais communiste. Barbara Klich Kluczewska, qui est rattachée à la faculté d’histoire de l’université Jagellonne de Cracovie, est une des figures dirigeantes de l’histoire anthropologique et de l’histoire du genre en Pologne. Intéressée par les méthodes de l’histoire orale, visuelle et comparative, elle a publié une micro-histoire de la vie priv..

Catholic Intimacies: Negotiating Contraception in Late Communist Poland

The authors would like to thank the reviewers and Joanna Baines. This article is a result of the research project "Catholicising Reproduction, Reproducing Catholicism: Activist Practices and Intimate Negotiations in Poland, 1930-Present" (principal investigator Agnieszka Ko~scia~nska), funded by the National Science Center, Poland (Opus 17 scheme, grant number 2019/33/B/HS3/01068). The authors are also grateful to the members of the Scientific Research Network (WOG) "Medicine and Catholicism since the late 19th Century" funded by Research Foundation - Flanders for their comments and support.The majority of people in Poland self-identified as Catholic throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Despite the Polish Episcopate’s unanimous rejection of contraception as immoral and sinful, a considerable proportion of Polish Catholics utilized family planning techniques and technologies explicitly banned by their institutional Church. This article uses personal narratives to show how Polish Catholics negotiated their use of Church-authorized and Church-banned family planning methods with their lived experiences of faith in a communist state where both abortion and contraception were legal. We explore the strategies of interpretation, relativisation, and (selective) rejection through which Catholics who self-identified as “practising” approached birth control as a social issue and an individual practice and show how communist secular approaches to birth control contributed to extending the scope of Catholics’ agency in the realm of reproductive decision making.National Science Centre, Poland 2019/33/B/HS3/01068FW

Reseñas

Índex de l'obra ressenyada: Manon PARRY, Broadcasting birth control. New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, 2013