{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T22:55:31Z","timestamp":1790117731881,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[1975,4,1]],"date-time":"1975-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":165542400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Int J Health Serv"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1975,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Before the 1920s, a birth control movement arose in the United States out of socialist, feminist, and other radical groups concerned with women's rights and sexual freedom. After 1920 the birth control movement became gradually transformed into a respectable, nonradical reform cause, the recipient of large grants from big business, with women's rights secondary to an overriding concern with medical health and population control. This transformation was achieved through the professionalization of the birth control movement\u2014that is, its takeover by professional experts, almost all male, in place of the radical amateur women, fighting for their own interests, who initiated it. The article examines two groups of professionals who were particularly influential in this transformation: doctors and academic eugenists. The former made birth control a medical issue, held back the development of popular sex education, and stifled a previously developing feminist approach to women's birth control needs. The latter contributed racism to the birth control movement, helping to transform it into a population control movement with racist and anti-feminist overtones. Both groups, while they made contributions to the technology of contraception, simultaneously held back the spread of birth control by transforming the campaign for it from a popular, participatory cause to a professional staff lobbying operation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2190\/bfw2-c705-25te-f99w","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2005,5,3]],"date-time":"2005-05-03T20:56:46Z","timestamp":1115153806000},"page":"253-277","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["The Politics of Birth Control, 1920\u20131940: The Impact of Professionals"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Linda","family":"Gordon","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[1975,4,1]]},"reference":[{"issue":"3","key":"bibr1-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"5","author":"Gordon L.","year":"1972","journal-title":"Feminist Studies"},{"key":"bibr2-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Roots of Crisis: American Education in the Twentieth Century","author":"Karier C. J.","year":"1973"},{"key":"bibr3-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/11074-000"},{"key":"bibr4-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Fishbein M. Medical Follies, p. 142. Boni & Liveright, New York, 1925."},{"key":"bibr5-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"McCann F. Presidential address to League of National Life. Medical Press and Circular, p. 359, November 3, 1926."},{"key":"bibr6-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Kosmak G. In Bulletin, Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York, pp. 181\u2013192, August 1917."},{"key":"bibr7-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger","author":"Kennedy D.","year":"1970"},{"key":"bibr8-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Letter to J. Bentley Squier","author":"Dickinson R. L.","year":"1925"},{"key":"bibr9-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Reed J. Birth Control and the Americans: 1830\u20131970, Part III: Robert L. Dickinson and the Committee on Maternal Health, pp. 77\u201382. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, unpublished, 1974."},{"key":"bibr10-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Lader L. The Margaret Sanger Story, p. 216. Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1955."},{"key":"bibr11-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"The Process of Reform with Especial Reference to Reform Groups in the Field of Population","author":"Vreeland F. M.","year":"1929"},{"key":"bibr12-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Letter to J. Noah Slee","author":"Sanger M.","year":"1925"},{"key":"bibr13-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Wishard W. N.Sr. Contraception: Are our county societies being used for the American Birth Control League propaganda? J. Indiana State Med. Assoc., pp. 187\u2013189, May 1929."},{"key":"bibr14-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Proceedings, Sixth International Birth Control Conference, Vol. III, pp. 19\u201330, 49\u201360. American Birth Control League, New York, 1925."},{"key":"bibr15-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Mimeographed letter to Voluntary Parenthood League members from President Myra P. Gallert","year":"1925"},{"key":"bibr16-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Dennett M. W. Birth Control Laws, pp. 72\u201393. Frederick H. Hitchcock, New York, 1926."},{"issue":"1","key":"bibr17-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"21","author":"Konikow A. F.","year":"1931","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"issue":"3","key":"bibr18-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"7","author":"Jack C. C.","year":"1918","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"key":"bibr19-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Letter to Charles Birtwell","author":"Jack C. C.","year":"1917"},{"key":"bibr20-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Letter to Blanche Ames Ames","author":"Jack C. C.","year":"1918"},{"key":"bibr21-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Birth Control League of Massachusetts Records, Schlesinger Library"},{"key":"bibr22-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Boston Post, July 25, 1916. Quoted in The Birth Control League of Massachusetts, p. 21, by Geig D. McCarrick. Unpublished B.A. Thesis, Simmons College, 1973."},{"key":"bibr23-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Decision of Judge Harry M. Fisher of the Circuit Court of Cook County","author":"Birth Control and Public Policy","year":"1923"},{"key":"bibr24-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Sanger M. Autobiography, pp. 374, 402\u2013408. W. W. Norton, New York, 1938."},{"key":"bibr25-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Letter to Robert L. Dickinson","author":"Little C. C.","year":"1925"},{"key":"bibr26-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Pickens D. K. Eugenics and the Progressives, p. 51. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, 1968."},{"key":"bibr27-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Haller M. Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought, p. 174. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., 1963."},{"key":"bibr28-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Popenoe P. The Conservation of the Family, pp. 129\u2013130. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1926."},{"key":"bibr29-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Guyer M. F. Being Well-Born. An Introduction to Eugenics, pp. 296\u2013298. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1916."},{"key":"bibr30-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Stoddard L. Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under Man, p. 21. Scribners, New York, 1922."},{"key":"bibr31-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Fourth Report, Committee on Selective Immigration, American Eugenics Society, June 30, 1928, p. 16. In Anita Newcomb McGee Manuscripts, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C."},{"key":"bibr32-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Popenoe P., Johnson R. H. Applied Eugenics, pp. 294\u2013297. Macmillan, New York, 1918."},{"key":"bibr33-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Lorimer F., Winston E., Kiser L. K. Foundations of American Population Policy, pp. 12\u201315. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1940."},{"key":"bibr34-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"238","volume-title":"Population and Birth Control","author":"Halford S. H.","year":"1917"},{"issue":"4","key":"bibr35-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"5","author":"Bergen H.","year":"1920","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"key":"bibr36-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"134","volume-title":"Population and Birth Control","author":"Paul E.","year":"1917"},{"key":"bibr37-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Population and Birth Control","author":"Quessel L.","year":"1917"},{"key":"bibr38-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Elizabeth Cady Stanton as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences","author":"Stanton T.","year":"1922"},{"key":"bibr39-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement 1890\u20131920","author":"Kraditor A.","year":"1965"},{"issue":"5","key":"bibr40-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"10","author":"Sanger M.","year":"1919","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"key":"bibr41-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Sanger M. Woman and the New Race, p. 34. Brentano's, New York, 1920."},{"key":"bibr42-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Sanger M. The Pivot of Civilization, pp. 177\u2013178. Brentano's, New York, 1922."},{"key":"bibr43-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Stenographic Record of the Proceedings of the First American Birth Control Conference, 1921, p. 24. American Birth Control League, New York, 1921."},{"key":"bibr44-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Speech by Margaret Sanger in Oakland, California","author":"The Necessity for Birth Control","year":"1928"},{"key":"bibr45-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Speech by Margaret Sanger to New History Society","author":"My Way to Peace","year":"1932"},{"key":"bibr46-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Report, Fifth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference","author":"Pierpont R.","year":"1922"},{"issue":"3","key":"bibr47-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"6","author":"Popenoe P.","year":"1917","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"issue":"8","key":"bibr48-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"9","author":"Thompson W.","year":"1920","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"issue":"9","key":"bibr49-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"219","author":"Immigration and birth control (editorial)","year":"1923","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"issue":"9","key":"bibr50-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"222","author":"Winsor M.","year":"1923","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"issue":"10","key":"bibr51-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"14","author":"Ellis H.","year":"1920","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"issue":"8","key":"bibr52-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"243","author":"Little C. C.","year":"1926","journal-title":"Birth Control Review"},{"key":"bibr53-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-Two Hundred Women","author":"Davis K. B.","year":"1929"},{"key":"bibr54-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"Psychological Factors in Marital Happiness","author":"Terman L.","year":"1938"},{"key":"bibr55-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","volume-title":"A Research in Marriage","author":"Hamilton G. V. T.","year":"1929"},{"key":"bibr56-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/00000446-193011000-00065"},{"key":"bibr57-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","first-page":"169","volume-title":"Readings in Family Planning","author":"Jaffe F.S.","year":"1973"},{"key":"bibr58-BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","unstructured":"Fairchild H. P. Speech in Planned Parenthood Federation of America Manuscripts, p. 169. Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Library, Northampton, Massachusetts."}],"container-title":["International Journal of Health Services"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.2190\/BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.2190\/BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T00:03:59Z","timestamp":1777507439000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.2190\/BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[1975,4]]},"references-count":58,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[1975,4]]}},"alternative-id":["10.2190\/BFW2-C705-25TE-F99W"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2190\/bfw2-c705-25te-f99w","relation":{},"ISSN":["0020-7314","1541-4469"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0020-7314","type":"print"},{"value":"1541-4469","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[1975,4]]}}}