Letters to Marie Stopes: Seeking Birth Control Advice in Scotland, 1918-1930
Home > Letters to Marie Stopes: Seeking Birth Control Advice in Scotland, 1918-1930
In this post Barbara Gabeler of University of Edinburgh (with cross-institutional supervision at the University of Glasgow) discusses their ongoing research, supported by the EHS Research Fund for Graduate Students.
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Marie Stopes (1880-1958) was the most well-known birth control activist in twentieth-century Britain. A controversial and compelling figure, she has been celebrated as a feminist pioneer but also criticised for her outspoken eugenicist beliefs. In 1918, she published Married Love, a groundbreaking marriage guidance book that sparked widespread debate with its frank discussion of sex, contraception, and women’s fulfilment within marriage. However, the book did more than provoke – it invited. In its closing pages, Stopes encouraged readers to write to her and share their personal experiences to build her ‘scientific knowledge’, a request that led many to view her as a trusted guide in the most private aspects of life. In the years that followed, she opened the first birth control clinics in Britain (beginning in London in 1921) and consolidated her role as a birth control expert by publishing further books and pamphlets, including Wise Parenthood, Radiant Motherhood and A Letter to Working Mothers, as well as articles in popular outlets like John Bull.
In response to this prolific public presence, thousands of individuals – many with few other sources of guidance – wrote to Stopes seeking advice on contraception, sexual dissatisfaction, marital conflict, motherhood, and more. The first chapter of my PhD focuses on a selection of letters sent from Scotland between 1918 and 1930. It investigates contraceptive access prior to the emergence of a Scottish birth control movement and the establishment of voluntary birth control clinics in the 1930s, with a particular focus on the role of postal correspondence, an unexplored avenue in the Scottish context. Unlike early birth control clinics, which primarily targeted and served working-class communities, the letters came from both working- and middle-class writers, revealing different sets of practices, concerns and experiences related to contraception.
The EHS Research Fund for Graduate Students allowed me to visit the Wellcome Collection in London to complete my survey of letters from Scotland. As the letters are catalogued by correspondents’ surnames rather than place of origin, I focused on 77 files relating to the most common Scottish surnames (provided by the National Records of Scotland) to maximise the chances of locating relevant material. These files held between 50 and 80 letters each – approximately 6,000 in total – from which I identified 147 from Scotland. While this represents only a small proportion of the total correspondence, these letters nonetheless provide valuable insight into the ways Scottish men and women engaged with Stopes’ ideas and sought advice on matters of sexual health and family planning.
Early readings of the letters reveal distinct motivations for writing that were shaped by social class, but also shared concerns. Among working-class correspondents, many described the physical and emotional toll of repeated pregnancies, including ill health, exhaustion, and strained marriages. Some even reported that their doctors had warned further pregnancy might be fatal, yet offered no practical advice on contraception. Middle-class writers, by contrast, were more likely to frame their enquiries around birth control as a route to a fuller, more equitable marital life; some, particularly young couples about to marry, sought to delay having children so they could enjoy married life together first. However, at a time when contraception was not recognised as a legitimate area of medical expertise, working- and middle-class correspondents alike often expressed frustration at the lack of reliable medical advice. Many turned to Stopes when doctors were unwilling or unable to help, or to avoid consulting a local doctor altogether because open discussion of sex and contraception was culturally taboo. This taboo also impacted correspondents’ writing: while some described intimate details with striking frankness, many couched their questions in careful euphemisms. In both cases, the decision to write at all reveals the depth of trust many placed in Stopes as a confidante. As such, these voices offer a rare window into how men and women understood birth control, and how it shaped the intimate negotiations of marriage, sexuality, and reproductive decision-making in early twentieth-century Scotland.
More broadly, my PhD examines the Scottish birth control movement from 1918 – marked by the publication of Stopes’ Married Love and the public debate it provoked – through to the 1967 National Health Service (Family Planning) Act, which set in motion the gradual integration of contraception into the NHS. It explores the long campaign for state-sponsored birth control provision, focusing on the role of the Family Planning Association in Scotland as it worked alongside various interest groups to establish and expand a network of voluntary birth control clinics amid moral, religious, medical and political opposition. Given that the Ministry of Health in England and Wales sanctioned municipal contraceptive services in 1930, whereas the Scottish Department of Health did not follow until 1966, this research examines the reasons behind this delay and the factors that ultimately led to policy change. By examining the movement’s strategies, negotiations, and struggle for legitimacy, this study provides the first comprehensive account of the Scottish birth control movement and demonstrates how intertwined political, economic, and cultural forces shaped reproductive health policy in twentieth-century Scotland.
To contact the author:
Barbara Gabeler
University of Edinburgh
