OUT OF THE BOUDOIR AND INTO THE BANANA WALK: BIRTH CONTROL AND REPRODUCTIVE POLITICS IN THE WEST INDIES, 1930-1970 by Nicole Bourbonnais BA, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2006 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2009 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Nicole Bourbonnais It was defended on April 3, 2013 and approved by George Reid Andrews, Distinguished Professor, Department of History Bruce Venarde, Professor, Department of History Holger Hoock, J. Carroll Amundson Professor of British History, Department of History Harry Sanabria, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Dissertation Advisor: Lara Putnam, Associate Professor, Department of History ii Copyright © by Nicole Bourbonnais 2013 iii OUT OF THE BOUDOIR AND INTO THE BANANA WALK: BIRTH CONTROL AND REPRODUCTIVE POLITICS IN THE WEST INDIES, 1930-1970 Nicole Bourbonnais, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 This study traces the history of birth control and reproductive politics in the West Indies from the 1930s to the 1970s, focusing on Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and Bermuda. During this period, a diverse group of activists began to organize in order to spread modern contraceptives to the working classes. These efforts provoked widespread debate over reproduction and led to the opening of the region’s first birth control clinics from the 1930s to 1950s. Birth control advocates also pressured politicians to support the cause, and by the late 1960s/early 1970s nearly every newly-independent government in the region had committed itself to state-funded family planning services. Utilizing papers of family planning advocates and associations, government records, newspapers, pamphlets, and reports, this study places these birth control campaigns and debates within the context of Caribbean political and social movements, the rise of the international birth control campaign, working class family life and gender relations, the decline of British rule, and the expansion of political independence across the region. It demonstrates that — as argued by much of the scholarly literature on the international birth control movement — early campaigns in the West Indies were initiated and funded largely by local and foreign (white) elites, and were pushed by many conservative actors who blamed political and economic instability on working class (black) fertility as a means to stave off wider reforms. However, this study also shows that the birth control cause found support among a much wider demographic on these islands, iv including anti-imperial politicians who incorporated birth control into broader development plans, doctors, nurses, and social workers who saw it as a critical measure to aid working class families, black nationalist feminists who argued that it was a woman’s right, and working class women and men who seized the opportunity to exercise a measure of control over their reproductive lives. These actors shaped both reproductive politics and the delivery of birth control services on the ground over the course of the twentieth century, producing campaigns that were more diverse, decentralized, and dynamic than they appear on the surface. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................... X PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... XI 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 A SHORT HISTORY OF BIRTH CONTROL ................................................ 5 1.2 TWO HISTORIES?: THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY BIRTH CONTROL CAMPAIGNS .............................................................. 12 1.3 BIRTH CONTROL CAMPAIGNS IN THE WEST INDIES: A CASE STUDY........ ......................................................................................................................... 21 1.4 TERMS ............................................................................................................... 34 2.0 THE RISE OF BIRTH CONTROL CAMPAIGNS AND THE POLITICS OF REPRODUCTION, 1935-1944 .................................................................................................. 36 2.1 THE EXAMPLE OF GERMANY?: EUGENICS AND BIRTH CONTROL IN BERMUDA .................................................................................................................... 38 2.2 AN IMMEDIATE MEASURE: LABOR POLITICS AND BIRTH CONTROL IN JAMAICA AND BARBADOS ................................................................ 59 2.3 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 94 vi 3.0 INTERNATIONAL AND LOCAL FAMILY PLANNING NETWORKS, 1936- 1959............................................................................................................................................... 97 3.1 A DIFFERENT TYPE OF LINK: FOREIGN ADVOCATES IN BERMUDA AND JAMAICA IN THE 1930S ..................................................................................... 101 3.2 A POST I AM HEART AND SOUL WITH: STAFF AND THE SHIFTING STRUCTURES OF CARIBBEAN ASSOCIATIONS AND CLINICS, 1930S-50S ... 118 3.3 BOTH IMPOSSIBLE AND IMPRACTICABLE?: THE RISE OF A BIRTH CONTROL MOVEMENT IN TRINIDAD .................................................................... 141 3.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 150 4.0 BIRTH CONTROL CLINICS AND WORKING CLASS FAMILIES, 1936- 1964............................................................................................................................................. 152 4.1 WE HAVE FIVE TOO MANY: DEMAND FOR BIRTH CONTROL AMONG WEST INDIAN WOMEN ............................................................................... 157 4.2 ALL KNOWN METHODS ARE TROUBLESOME AND EXPENSIVE: BARRIERS TO FAMILY PLANNING PRACTICE IN THE 1930S-50S.................. 177 4.3 NEGOTIATING REPRODUCTIVE CONTROL: CHANGING STRATEGIES OF PROVIDERS AND PATIENTS ..................................................... 192 4.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 220 5.0 BIRTH CONTROL AND COLONIAL OFFICE POLICY, 1935-1964 ............. 223 5.1 CALLING SPADES “SPADES”: THE RISE OF BIRTH CONTROL ADVOCACY IN THE COLONIAL OFFICE ............................................................... 228 5.2 A DELICATE RELATIONSHIP: FORCES RESTRAINING COLONIAL POLICY......... .................................................................................................................... 247 vii 5.3 THE INDIRECT APPROACH: SUPPORT FOR EXTERNAL EFFORTS(?) ..................................................................................................................... 253 5.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 266 6.0 STATE FUNDING FOR BIRTH CONTROL IN THE WEST INDIES, 1955- 1968............................................................................................................................................. 269 6.1 A “POSITIVE PROGRAMME”: GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR BIRTH CONTROL IN BARBADOS ........................................................................................... 276 6.2 WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF RELIGION: OVERCOMING THE OPPOSITION IN JAMAICA .......................................................................................... 290 6.3 A WELFARE SERVICE TO WHICH THEY ARE ENTITLED: THE POLITICS OF BIRTH CONTROL IN TRINIDAD ..................................................... 305 6.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 327 7.0 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 332 7.1 THE IMPACT OF BIRTH CONTROL CAMPAIGNS ON REPRODUCTIVE PRACTICE AND POLITICS IN THE WEST INDIES .............. 332 7.2 GIVE BIRTH TO ANOTHER BERMUDIAN: CONTINUING CONTROVERSIES OVER REPRODUCTION ........................................................... 341 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 348 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Population Statistics in Bermuda, 1933-1945. ................................................................ 40 Table 2. Population Statistics in the West Indies, 1937. .............................................................. 65 Table 3: New Acceptors at Birth Control Clinics, 1955-1964.................................................... 158 ix LIST OF ACRONYMS ABCL American Birth Control League BCIIC Birth Control International Information Centre BFPA Barbados Family Planning Association BITU Bustamante Industrial Trade Union BLP Barbados Labour Party BPL Barbados Progressive League CDC Colonial Development Corporation CDW Colonial Development and Welfare DLP Democratic Labour Party DWO Development and Welfare Organization FDLP Federal Democratic Labour Party FPATT Family