Doctors, Women and the Circulation of Knowledge of Oral Contraceptives in Spain (1960s–1970s)

Abstract

In this chapter we focus on ideas held and practices carried out regarding the pill by male and female doctors, women users and campaigners, and on the ways the new drug acted upon and problematized established doctor-patient relationships in Spain during the 1960s and 1970s. We address these questions through the analysis of medical publications (medical journals and textbooks), women’s magazines and interviews with family planning activists. We examine the contexts within which information on the pill circulated, thereby revealing the roles played by doctors and health activists in these processes, and pay attention, not only to gender models and hierarchies contained within medical discourses on hormonal drugs, but also to ideas about femininity, maternity, fertility, women’s health and social expectations of and for women. With this chapter, we complete our study of the circulation of knowledge on hormonal drugs and oral contraceptives in scientific publications (Rodríguez-Ocaña, Ignaciuk and Ortiz-Gómez 2012) and in the daily press during the Francoist regime (Ortiz-Gómez and Ignaciuk 2013).