Marie Stopes And The Sexual Revolution by June Rose

Marie Stopes was a leader in the Birth Control movement in England in the early 1900s. Her explicit books on contraceptive methods brought her both supporters and opposition. She was a strong-willed woman full of energy and vitality even into her old age. Her most famous book, Married Love, explored the sexual relationship between a husband and wife.

Marie studied hard and overcame many challenges of being a woman in an educational system that favoured men. She studied in both England and Germany. She became the first woman to earn her Ph.D. in Botany with Honours at Munich University and the youngest Doctor of Science in England. Interestingly, although she was to be famous for her writing on human sexuality, she did not have a medical degree or medical training and had little respect for medical doctors. Despite that, she became England’s first acknowledged adviser on sexual and emotional problems.

Marie had a romantic idea of love gained from novels as she never witnessed much love between her parents. Her first kiss was when she was almost twenty-five. As a scientist, she had no qualms about recording her own sexual feelings - or asking others about their feelings and experiences for her research - but as a woman, she was naive in relationships with men.

Marie’s strong personality made it hard for her to work with others. She always felt that she was right and knew best in every situation. She wrote to government and church officials on occasion to give them the benefit of her wisdom. She was not afraid to oppose the popular beliefs and practices of the day, including the Church’s stand that sex was primarily for having children.

Like many people of her time, she was interested in Eugenics and considered Birth Control as a way of eliminating weak and unwanted children from becoming a burden on society. Darwin’s theory of natural selection gave hope that a super breed of humans could be developed. Unlike her American counterpart, Margaret Sanger, Marie did not support abortion nor approve of unnatural sexual relationships. June Rose mentions that she had lovers but does not go into detail.

June Rose has done an excellent job of walking us through Marie’s life from birth to death in an interesting way. Anyone interested in Dr. Marie Stopes, the history of the Birth Control movement, sexual ignorance in the early 1900s or feminism would enjoy this book. I read it because I wanted to see if Marie Stopes followed a similar path as Margaret Sanger. Although both women had many things in common, they also had different perspectives on some core issues


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