Hello everyone, I am going to be writing a blog about my research into women and contraception.
I am a third year, part-time PhD student at the University of Winchester researching contraception in Birmingham and Winchester from the Second World War to the late 1950s. Essentially, I am looking into the Family Planning Association, who gave family planning provisions in these two locations, and the women that worked there. I am currently based in Worcestershire, and used to give tours of The Infirmary Museum when I worked at University of Worcester. It is lovely to work with the medical museums again and I look forward to sharing my research with you.
The lockdown
I thought I would start with some of the work I did in the lockdown. With the archives closed I looked at resources online and found some interesting material on a key woman at the Family Planning Association in Birmingham.
Audrey Court joined the Family Planning Association in Birmingham in 1949. She led a really vibrant life, going to the University of Birmingham in the 1930s, receiving a silver medal at the 1936 Olympics, and becoming a chairman of the Birmingham Family Planning Association in 1961. I have put a picture of her from the Special Collections at the University of Birmingham (Audrey Kathleen Court, 1913-2005, (nee Brown), UoB student… | Flickr).
In the 1950s the Family Planning Association was for married or engaged couples. Audrey decided to set up a centre for unmarried individuals in Birmingham in the 1960s. Her work was revolutionary, and the British Library has sound recordings of her life and work to set up the centre.
For her contribution to family planning she received an MBE in 1991 and co-wrote with Cynthia Walton Birmingham Made a Difference in 2001, a book about the Family Planning Association in Birmingham.
This book is a key text for me as it explains the association and the key work of influential women like Audrey Court. I have found her work inspiring, and look forward to being able to do further research now that lockdown restrictions are being lifted.
My next few entries will explore the connection of Joan Bonham Carter (relative of Helena Bonham Carter) to the Family Planning Association in Hampshire and work in the archives.