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On The Movement Of Birth Control In Republican City

Posted on:2009-01-15Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:L S YuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117360272462647Subject:China's modern history
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The movement of birth control which my dissertation will research includes four aspects of thought, women and family, society and medical treatment, and nation. Though studies on the movement of birth control have a lot of scholar production used for reference, they are elementary because of limited materials. My dissertation will generally exam and value the settings of thought, the attitude to birth control of women and family, Medicalization of birth control, advertisement and distribution of contraception drug, and birth policy of republican state on the basis of digging and settling of lots of newspapers, journals, books, advertisements and archives. As for my approaches, I mainly use different views of intellectual history, gender history and political history, then analysis the different reflection, attitude, position of women, family and society, and reconstruction of birth power between state and individual. Moreover, I will refer to the paradigm of gender history and reflect the joys and sorrows of women as birth subjectivity, and the gender presses which are brought to women's body and birth behavior because of medicalization and institutionalization of birth.Accordingly, this dissertation can be divided into six parts:Chapter one will introduce the purpose of the paper, review the scholar productions about the movement of birth control and explain the scope of study, the origin of materials and the approaches to study.Chapter two mainly discusses the idea and behavior of birth control in transitional society in order to rectify the wrong ideas that China had ever no methods of birth control and the level of women's birth always remains the state of natural birth before western thought about birth control and contraception drug spread. Then intellectuals in China discussed the population issues and primarily introduce the knowledge of contraception under the promulgation of Malthusianism in the late Qing. This is the historical settings of birth control thought in China.Chapter three mainly narrates the formation of birth control in republic. After Mrs. Margaret Sanger came to China, the intelligentsia in China discussed the relations between birth control and women's liberation, population control and nation's sanitation from four aspects: self-determination of motherhood, new morality of sexuality, population issues and the knowledge about prepotency. Especially those people, who insisted in birth control, related birth control with the four controversies, for example, the progress of society, the development of nation, national prepotency and being rich and strong to save the nation, then put forward the ideas about "prepotency to birth control" and "birth control to save the nation" . As a result, "prepotency to birth control" became the basis of birth policies of republican state.Chapter four exams the fall between the ideology of motherhood and experience of women's subject in order that we can realize the actual experience and feel of modern women in birth from the view of gender. Women gradually form the idea of "the power of self-determination in birth" and realize that it brings the affect to the behavior of birth under the voice of "birth control" and "self-determination of motherhood" . Furthermore, the dissertation also explain the attitude of the family in cities, the reasons to social economy of birth and concrete methods in birth control on the basis of materials of social investigation, then explore the modernization of idea about birth in cities' family and the purposes appear different tendencies.Chapter five mainly probes into the process of medical treatment of birth control. There emerged lots of organizations of birth control in republican. The organizations of birth control and the centers for birth control which the institutions of medical treatment everywhere set up were omnifarious. From then on the movement of birth control formally was brought into medical system and the scope of birth control gradually expands to medical treatment, public sanitation and health care of women and infants. At the same time, production and distribution of contraception drug and the improvement of technical level of birth control and medical treatment bring a favorable turn to the development of the movement of birth control. But the doctors use the scientific knowledge of contraception and the professional technology of birth control to strengthen their authority under the effect of "medical treatment of birth control" and thence dominate or mark out women's behavior of birth and their body. As a result, professional accoucheurs gradually dominated behavior of birth and their body which became an object that medicinal authority put to good use.Chapter six mainly discusses the birth policy of the republican state. The republican state set down "a case of outline on national child care policy" and elementarily certificated the principle of "prepotency to birth control" which became a part of national population policy. The republican state simultaneously carried out direction of prepotency and birth control in health care of women and infants and heath examination before marriage. Therefore the nation not only strengthened political domination and authority to the birth control of individuals and families, but also arrived at a management of population quality and a political aim to the improvement of national prepotency. Birth consequently turned from "private issues" to "public issues" and bio-power between nation and individual came into being.My dissertation tries to expose the basis of thought and the condition of social development of birth control and the affect which they brought to national birth policy in republican period. Therefore, I find that the movement of birth control which appealed to self- determination of motherhood and happiness of family in 1920s gradually transferred to a medicinal and political mean to improve population quality and increase national prepotency through Medicalization and institutionalization of birth control. It necessarily gave rise to a fact that modern medicinal treatment and state power intervene and control the birth space of family so as to the behavior of women and family completely obeyed to public orders of society and nation and bio-power between nation and individual came into being. As a result, Birth turned from "private issues" to "public issues" and "the rights of birth" of women and family belonged to nation.
Keywords/Search Tags:Birth Control, Self-determination of Motherhood, Population Control, Prepotency to Birth Control, Birth Control to save the nation, Centers for Direction of Birth Control, Medicalization of Birth Control, Advertisement of Contraception Drug, Birth Policy
PDF Full Text Request
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