Introduction
The use of contraceptives is dating back to 3000 BCE when it was first introduced in Egypt. Later, the use of contraceptives spread to other parts of the globe, reaching Canada in the early 18th century. In an attempt to control births, most Canadians adopted other dangerous models of contraceptives, leading to the banning of their use in 1892. Thereafter, the Canadian legislature passed a Federal Law, the Criminal Code, which termed family planning as illegal. Notably, it was illegal to advertise or sell contraceptives in Canada. Due to consistent high birth rates recorded by the Canadian women, different movements such as Contraceptive Movement and Wave Feminist Activism arose; they advocated for the need to legalise the use of contraceptives to control birth rates. Led by Elizabeth Bagshaw, women rose to champion for their rights, especially the need to control pregnancies. Bagshaw’s attempts to spearhead the objective failed until late in the 1960 whereby the onset of the Second-wave Feminist Activism, a movement that included more women with the same set of mind, joined hands through the establishment of women reproduction clinics (Motta et al. 3). This study, therefore, reviews the role played by Second-wave activists in accomplishing the adoption of family planning.
Thesis statement
The movement especially those championed by women facilitated the legalisation of the use of contraceptives in Canada. Their continued urge to push the government formed the core object for the planned births. Contraceptive Movement and Second Wave Feminist Activism work jointly to end women oppression
The research project tries to outline the models applied by women in the second wave feminist activism that facilitated the ending of the overtime oppression of women. Similarly, it tries to review the mechanism that led to the conviction of the government to amend the law to incorporate the use of contraceptives within Canada. Presently, the decree of women upgraded with more women pursuing core courses in the education sector as well as occupying key governmental offices than men (Motta et al. 13). The lifestyles of women continue to change greatly with women allowed to file a divorce. Most importantly in this research is the record of various women personality that constantly attempted to rescue their fellow women regardless of threats of detention.
Contraceptive background in Canada
One of the greatest arguments in Canada concerns how women reshaped themselves through the leadership to champion for gender equity. Women had no freedom of speech in the earlier days until the onset of the feminists’ movements in 1960s (Sethna 266). Women argued that if they continue remaining damn the degree of their oppression would worsen. Discrimination of women remained one of the greatest challenges in Canada over the olden days, especially during the onset of the 1960s. Men viewed women as less fortunate beings whose duties mainly constituted in door chores – usually doing the house cleaning and childcare. At no point would a woman be practising a series of duties at the same moment. I have an issue with freedom of speech and its relation to the family matters.
The position of the law in regard to females is just a conservative model used to minimize women operations the women underwent several oppressions ranging from family life to workplace treatment. The view that women could not multitask is inhuman in my knowledge, therefore, an attempt to curb such would provide more freedom to women. Conversely, no woman could either question or claim ownership of the property of her husband. The adoption of the Status of Women in 1967 acted as the first move by the women to establish rescue from family oppression. Different organisations for men strongly objected the move to empower women. An increase in the number of legislatures in the congress acted as an avenue to increased powers to the women regarding the use of contraceptives.
Analysis
Onset of second-wave feminist activism
Professionally, women only pursued courses related to teaching, nursing, and secretarial duties. The onset of the second wave feminist activism dates back to early decade of the 1962 through the encouragement of the college female students to set other workplaces away from home. Such address to the audience enhanced by Friedan, an American inspirational speaker, initiated the attempts to surface viewing of women as vessels of reproduction only. Even though such attempts to advice women to search for employment in other places served a purpose into the acceptance of the need to control birth, acquisition of education played a crucial role in the adoption of a force to spearhead the movement. Together with the upcoming of the Contraceptive Movement by different medical institutions and religious groups, many women developed the sense of birth control (The Women’s Movement in Canada 1). Friedan, in her writings, outlined the despair and frustrations faced by educated women in families. In most cases, the process ended up in termination of work for childcare. In her attempt to save the young women, she devoted her time to setting up of movements that could see the women have ample time to practice their professions rather than spend more time with domestic chores and childcare.
Inequality in life between men and women remain one of the greatest challenges to gender in Canada. On the one hand, men viewed themselves as superior beings while on the other hand women attempts to rise to match their male counterparts. However, such attempts continue to fail due to the large number of men who occupy top governmental positions as well as being managers in different employment fields. Fortunately, women made a limelight movement when the federal established a Royal Commission, Status of Women that monitored the claims of discrimination within the nation. In 1970, the commission resolved to 167 recommendations that acted as the first step to women empowerment (Gluck 115). Nevertheless, most men continued to set tighter rules and regulations in the employment to ensure. This is one of the greatest challenge women faced that kept them out of most employment firms for a good period of time. Such movement ensured that women climbed the societal ladder to claim the right of best education and equal chances of employment. Presently, the move is still evident in Canada with specific positions preserved for women especially in the legislative field.
Grant (268) argues that the instillation of such logistics into the minds of the college-educated women provided the first avenue to the acceptance of the use of contraceptives to allow women to get employment. This would make the women self-reliant, thus bridging the gap of earlier oppressions of women in Canada. Unfortunately, she did not manage to create fully the desired change since most women feared acting against the law due to the heavy consequences attached to the act. However, on noticing such movements, men ensured that such attempts to empower the women failed by imposing more threats on women that collaborating for such movements. The government outlined strict actions too.
Public acceptance of use of contraceptives
Later on between 1968 and 1969, the different organisations opened up and strategized on the publicity of the use of contraceptives. The Vancouver Women’s Caucus and The Montreal Women’s Liberation Movement spearheaded the acceptance of contraceptives. They defined their feminist manifesto. Women services such as abortion services, rape crisis centres, provision of shelters for the battered women, militant theatre, day-care provided the initial moves into the legalization of the contraceptive use (Devereux 23).
The use of the birth control increased rapidly after the Second-wave Feminist Activism. On one side, several people objected the motion claiming that it contributed to death and birth complications. To my understanding use of contraceptives was advantageous to the women as it prevented the transmission of different sexually infections. The public acceptance of the practice increased due to the previous baby boom that created a greater worry to the birth rate index. Nevertheless, most of the Canadian women did not champion for the adoption of use of contraceptives on proper grounds with some of women practising sexual practices outside wedlock.
The establishment of a family planning institution came about through Barbara and George Cadbury, couples who established a Planned Parenthood Association – a Contraceptive Movement geared towards controlling the rising births (Grant 273). The couple trained the women on better mechanisms of using contraceptives without raising the death toll. The association majorly driven by women established guidelines that later saw Canadian Medical Association and other voluntary institutions championing for the need of planned births. The commitments of the organisation led to the withdrawal of the Criminal Code section of the Constitution legalising the use of contraceptives to control births. In addition, the law paved way for abortion, but only in special cases with a prescription from the doctor.
Gender Equity
The proposal of the inclusion of the prohibition of gender discrimination clause into the Civil Rights Act by Howard Smith in 1964 opened ways for the freedom of expression of women in Canada. In the same year, women held peaceful demonstrations aimed at championing for equality in workplaces and salaries. The presentation of the debate question before the Congress raised insults among the other congressional representatives, but Martha Griffiths ensured the incorporation of the clause into the final amendment of the Act. This offered a better platform that helped women to champion for their concerns through some of their strong women representatives in the Congress (Devereux 20). Later on, a commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), was established to monitor and enforce laws that ensured equity in employment, especially regarding women. As much as these women championed for their rights, they remained divided on some issues particularly relating to superiority. This is a challenge that continues to face most movements. Although the women fought together, some of them acted as men oppressing other women even more. They argued that in order to maintain equity at the workplace, women had to minimise their household duties especially childcare. The organisation later recruited most women in Canada. The main aim of their oneness was to find a solution of how to remain relevant in the employment scheme, leading to the thought of adoption of contraceptives. However, they never met this aim since most women in the group feared the consequences tied to breaking laws in Canada, especially those touching on health matters (Shaw and Lee 211). Nevertheless, it introduced the need to minimise the rate of births. The leaders, therefore, maintained the organisation to championing for the women’s participation in public and political forums. Through the movement, many women won elective posts in Canada, increasing their number in the Congress. Moreover, the number of women employees in different workplaces accounted for almost half the total number of employees by the end of 1967.
Emergence of radical movements
Radical groups emerged with an aim of saving women from oppression, especially focusing on the private lives. These groups did not trust the first organisation, NOW. They were radical organisations that did not have any system of specialisation. Each member of the group played crucial role in achieving the goals of women. They majorly focused on issues related to family life, sex, education, and work. The main aim was to shun sexism by holding protests in large cities within Canada. Their main concern was the societal structure that diminished women to remain households (Gluck 115). The group championed for their past illegal abortions before top government officials citing reasons for practising such acts. This was with an aim of championing for the legalisation of abortion. Unfortunately, their attempt to push the government to accept their plea bore no fruits. Notably, the act of these groups of women ways into the research of finding better ways of abortion without causing ill health to the parent as well as the child. This formed the first attempt to produce experimentally the best contraceptive for the course.
Shaw and Lee (186) note that by the onset of 1970, different groups of women established rape cases treatment centres that lobbied with police officers and other health facilities to publicise the need for abortion in the event of rape. Even though such organisations did not meet their target of introduction of contraceptives, they championed for the need and instilled the information in the minds of the leaders that later contributed to inclusion of the ideas in the Canadian Law.
Fragmentation of the movements
Towards the end of 1970, the women organisations fragmented. However, government institutions, colleges, universities and medical institutions adopted some of the projects initiated by such organisations. Over time the women achieved their intended course even if it was under control of the medical prescription. For instance, the rape crisis centres, health clinics, and women’s halters received funding from different universities, colleges, and religious organisations. Importantly, the access to abortion and legalisation of birth control using contraceptives became their major achievement (Wynn et al. 261). Moreover, the Government of Canada continues to eliminate incidences of domestic violence and rape cases.
Conclusion
Use of contraceptives remains one of the greatest challenges to different countries in the globe. Canada, for instance, took long to decriminalize birth control with a claim that it possessed varied hazards especially to the lives of young mothers. Several legalization proposals failed due to the strong stand of the government against contraception. However, through different wealthy and influential organisations the women eventually gained power into full acceptance in the society. Regardless of the view of different people that use of contraceptives is harmful, it records better advantages to birth control if properly employed. Different people, especially the diverse gender worked out the ways possible to influence the decisions towards their interest. Some even got involved in direct support and funding of certain projects regarding the same. Others carried biased research to eliminate the adoption of the contraceptives. Concisely, the legalization of contraceptive use took a long way and sacrifice especially by legislative women.
Works Cited
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