The family planning service and the pill in Geneva (1965–1980): a step towards women's emancipation?

Abstract

In 1965, a family planning service was created in Geneva which aimed at spreading information on contraception. This article focuses on the attitude of the centre vis-à-vis the new contraceptive methods, especially the pill, and puts it in perspective with other voices, such as those of feminists. In order to address the question of women's emancipation, it relies on the archives of the family planning centre and of the Women's Liberation Movement of Geneva. The centre's pedagogical discourse about contraception focuses on stable couples and a rational attitude towards reproduction and family planning. It reflects the dominance of medical theories in the field of sexuality in Geneva during this period. The author suggests that the centre's approach to contraception contributed to the diffusion of a new contraceptive norm by combining contraceptive information with messages concerning the proper type of relationship, the state of mind and even the feelings with which contraception should be associated. The sources, however, also suggest a gap between the messages delivered and actual uses made of the centre. While maintaining a conservative and normative discourse, the family planning service nevertheless gave women the possibility to increase their autonomy.

Keywords::

• contraception
• medicalization
• biopower
• couple
• individual responsibility
• contraceptive norm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. As members of a federal state, Swiss cantons have full authority to define important elements of public policies, such as education or health. In these aspects, they appear as autonomous states within the state, and politics can vary dramatically from one canton to another. On the other hand, drugs' control and authorization processes are managed at the federal level by an office whose decisions apply to all cantons.

^2. This is different from France, where family planning lacked legal grounds in a context of strong repression of contraception. Family planning centres were first created as an association on the initiative of doctors particularly concerned by abortion issues (Bard & Mossuz-Lavau, 2007; Friedmann, 2006).

^3. The role of religious authorities was, overall, limited with respect to these topics in the context of Geneva. This can be explained by the fact that, while Geneva was Protestant by tradition, it had also been characterized by a strong process of secularization since 1907, which reduced the influence of the church in political and social life (Grandjean & Scholl, 2010).

^4. His Catholic faith is here essentially relevant with regard to his humanism, since religion did not appear to play an important role in the creation and trajectory of the family planning centre in Geneva.

^5. Fonds CIFERN, Geneva, 314.310 CIF, William Geisendorf, L'interruption médicale de la grossesse à Genève [Medical abortion in Geneva], [1974?], p. 5.

^6. The strong and rapid development of the field of sexology in Geneva in the late 1960s and early 1970s was largely supported by the donation of a wealthy homosexual man, who died in 1970 bequeathing his fortune to the University of Geneva to create a research centre on sexuality issues (the Maurice Chalumeau Fund). For a detailed history of the development of sexology in Geneva, see Burgnard (in press).

^7. Bibliothèque nationale suisse (hereafter, BNS), Berne, Gect OPq 2383 RES, CIFERN, Rapport d'activités [Annual report], 1970, p. 1.

^8. Fonds CIFERN, Geneva, no shelf mark. Cours de planning familial [Family planning course], 28 February 1972.

^9. Fonds CIFERN, no shelf mark, Cours de planning familial, p. 1.

^10. This centre is called the Université ouvrière de Genève, which could be approximately translated as the Workers' University of Geneva.

^11. Fonds CIFERN, Geneva, no shelf mark, Les méthodes de planning familial hier et aujourd'hui [Family planning methods yesterday and today], 19 November 1973, p. 1 (my emphasis).

^12. Fonds CIFERN, no shelf mark, Les méthodes, p. 3.

^13. Fonds CIFERN, no shelf mark, Les méthodes, p. 3.

^14. Abortion was then illegal in Switzerland (and remained so until 2002) but exceptions were possible in cases of danger for the life or health of the mother and with the consent of two authoritative gynaecologists. This rather ambiguous statement was interpreted in various ways. Some practitioners considered social or psychological difficulties a danger for the health of the pregnant woman and others were more restrictive. The application of the law varied depending on the canton. In Geneva, medical authorities maintained a strict anti-abortion discourse. It was thus difficult to get an abortion, but still easier than in other cantons. As a result, women were coming from other Swiss regions to abort. Some also came from other countries, like France, where abortion exceptions did not exist.

^15. Fonds CIFERN, Geneva, 314.310 CIF, William Geisendorf, Le problème de l'avortement à Genève dès 1953 [The problem of abortion in Geneva since 1953], [1963?], p. 206.

^16. The MLF was born in Geneva on the day after the right to vote was accorded to women at the federal level in February 1971. A small group of women, who would later adopt the name Mouvement de libération des femmes, went out at night and put up fly-posters affirming that women's vote would not resolve male domination and patriarchy. On the history and demands of the MLF in Geneva in the 1970s, see Burgnard (2011).

^17. The majority of these documents are available for consultation at the MLF's archives, in the Fonds MLF-Genève (Espace Femmes International, 2 rue de la Tannerie, 1227 Carouge, Switzerland).

^18. A women's clinic was created in 1982, which was strongly influenced by the MLF's reflection on women's health needs in the light of the inadequacy of the care provided by mainstream gynaecologists and medical structures. For a detailed analysis of the history of this clinic, see Giancane (2007).

^19. As mentioned earlier, religion did not have the same influence in Geneva as in other cantons. Doctors could, however, be individually influenced by religious principles, which would intervene in their medical practice.

^20. Fonds MLF-Genève, MLF-GE/S2/D93, Un groupe du MLF-Genève, L'examen gynécologique. Je suis une femme, tu es une femme [Gynaecological examination. I am a woman, you are a woman], [n.d.], p. 1.

^21. Fonds MLF-Genève, MLF-GE/S2/D25, Des femmes du Centre femmes, Contraception et avortement [Contraception and abortion], September 1973.

^22. Fonds MLF-Genève, MLF-GE/S2/D25, Des femmes du Centre femmes, Contraception, pp. 12–13.

^23. Fonds CIFERN, no shelf mark, Cours de planning familial, p. 2.

^24. Fonds CIFERN, 314.310 CIF, Geisendorf, L'interruption médicale, p. 13.

^25. BNS, Berne, Gect OPq 2383 RES, CIFERN, Rapport d'activités [Annual report], 1972, p. 5.

^26. BNS, Berne, Gect OPq 2383 RES, CIFERN, Rapport d'activités [Annual report], 1973, p. 2.

^27. BNS, Gect OPq 2383 RES, CIFERN, Rapport d'activités, 1970, p. 1.

^28. BNS, Gect OPq 2383 RES, CIFERN, Rapport d'activités, 1970, pp. 4–5.

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of the research conducted within IP13 of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES – Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives, financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation.