Extended Project Ideas

08/06/13

Mind-map of extended project subject ideas: 

Initial planning...

12/06/13

First idea for title:

i.telegraph.co.uk

The historical significance of the contraceptive pill.

My initial research into the title above showed that I had to narrow the focus of my project as the invention of the pill had historical significance in multiple different fields, including medicine and women's rights. I wanted my project to reflect my own interests in history, particularly the liberation of women in the 20th and 21st century and therefore chose to change the title to:

The historical significance of the invention of the contraception pill on women's rights. 

I've chosen to look at the historical significance of the invention of the Pill in the UK, focusing on its initial effect as well as its influence on the freedom of women, their economic participation, and its impact on the family. 

"Birth control is the first important step woman must take toward the goal of her freedom. It is the first step she must take to be man’s equal. It is the first step they must both take toward human emancipation."

Margaret Sanger

"Morality and Birth Control," Birth Control Review, Feb-Mar, 1918

Initial planning...

14/06/13

First ideas on research and development of project: 

amazon.co.uk

I intend to carry out research using a variety of methods, including the use of books, such as 'On the Pill' by Elizabeth Siegel Watkins, and newspapers and magazines, in particular the Time Magazine's 1967 issue on 'The Pill.' (see link below)

http://topics.time.com/birth-control/

I also want to make use of the internet to access websites and materials like the BBC and Sandra Fluke's address to Congress. To develop the project further I would  like to take advantage of the fact that I live in London to interview individuals if possible, including  Dr Lara Marks, a trained historian of medicine who wrote the book "Sexual Chemistry: A history of the contraceptive pill" and Silvia Pezzini who published "The Effect of Women's Rights on Women's Welfare: evidence from a natural experiment" in the March 2005 Economic Journal. I want to incorporate oral histories and plan to approach Dr Jonathan Miller, Dr Rachel Miller and the Marie Stokes Clinic.

I also plan to study government statistics of family size and age at birth of first child on websites such as:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/

Refining title further...

17/07/13

I finally settled on the title:

The Freedom Drug: how did the widespread availability of the Pill empower women's choices in the UK? 

I decided on this for a variety of reasons:

• "widespread availability"- the report is a study of the effects of the Pill in the UK, studying the period from 1960 onwards where the Pill experiences unprecedented popularity. The role of the NHS is also important in providing free contraception from 1974 onwards....
• "empower"- by choosing the word "empower" I was making the distinction that the Pill enabled women to have increased choices
• "choices"- choices refers to the right or power to undertake new opportunities that the Pill enabled. 
• "UK"- the effects of the Pill will be limited to the UK as I found out that I touched on the subject of the Pill in my A2 History COurse in America. By restricting the geographic location I ensure that there is no crossover. 

What makes a successful project? (taught session)

19/06/13

Key Objectives:

1. To develop understanding of the EPQ process
2. To understand how students can research for their project
3. To begin to developing project titles 

How to start research for project:

We need to record our project in a structured manner, that can be easily navigated when writing the 5000 word report. An example of how to undertake research is to use a Project task list/ Gannt chart. 

What makes a good title?

Needs to be in the form of a question or statement with clear limits so report is writable. E.g. the question 'Who was the greatest Prime Minister of Britain?' is too broad, and therefore unanswerable. The question 'How does the work of Richard Swinburne challenge the views of David Hume?'could also be narrowed further, maybe citing a specific work.

To do list: 21/06/13

21/06/13

To do:

1. Email Dr Marks, author of 'sexual chemistry: a history of the contraceptive pill' and ask for an interview or some help via email 
2. Identify possible sources to use to get statistical data, e.g. census reports and articles in journals 
3. Look at the bibliography of Dr Mark's book and try to find even more sources
4. Arrange meeting with Ms Jonas.
5. Start dividing research into parts and do one part at the time, e.g. the impact of the Pill on family size 
6. Read Silvia Pezzini article in economic journal- email her? 
7. Make sure blog is up to data 
8. Evaluate sources!!!!

22/06/13

Approaching experts in the field

24/06/13

Below is the email I sent to Dr Lara Marks, author of 'Sexual Chemistry- a history of the contraceptive pill,' to try and secure an interview:

In the mean time I'm annotating a copy of her book and will try to come up with a series of questions.

Planning and evaluating your Project (taught session)

26/06/13

Key objectives:

1. To understand the importance of planning and working to a plan in the EPQ
2. To understand the importance of evaluating your work according to your plan (meeting assessment objective 1)
3. To begin developing a project plan 

 Look at assessment objective on page 29

AO3- 40% (realisation of the project) therefore 9990 form worth 60% of grade

AO1:

•   All about planning work really carefully

•   Stage 4: plan of work (Read chapter on managing your project):

•   Set project aims with focused question or title

•   Develop objectives (specific actions) that will help achieve aims/ answer question- actually complete task

•   Make sure you have the resources needed to complete objective

•   Assess the length of time each activity- create a timeline

•   How to manage time:

•   Timetables? Allot how much time you want to spend + what you actually want to do

•   To do lists? Strategy/ pan of action

•   Use Gannt Chart? 

•   Plan out aims- i.e. make notes from specific source

•   Read page 37- making the most of your journal 

27/06/13

'Sexual Chemistry: a history of the contraceptive pill' -Dr Lara V. Marks

28/06/13

Below are my hand-written notes on Dr Mark's book on the history of the Pill:

To Do List: 01/07/13

Approaching experts in the field

02/07/13

Below is the Dr Lara Mark's responce to my email:

Her book has now arrived and I will be annotating it in order to come up with some questions to ask.

03/07/13

UK Historical Education Statistics

04/07/13

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CEYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parliament.uk%2Fbriefing-papers%2Fsn04252.pdf&ei=kgX1Udi3Gs2IhQfDjIG4Ag&usg=AFQjCNHR_H7QHnRNuGrRWUA5sOsZp3Mvig&sig2=QV9QHpak3cHJdIs0xo6N2A&bvm=bv.49784469,d.ZG4

Above is a link to a Parliamentary Briefing Paper on historical education statistics written by Paul Bolton of Social & General Statistics in 2012. The 1960s saw a major expansion of the number of students obtaining degrees at university with numbers doubling in seven years to more than 50,000. 

"Overall participation in higher education increased from 3.4% in 1950, to 8.4% in 1970, 19.3% in 1990 and 33% in 2000."  National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (Dearing Report) Report 6 Widening participation in higher education for student from lower socio-economic groups and students with disabilities. 

 Below is a table outlining the number of students obtaining university degrees in the UK: 

Source: Education: Historical Statistics, Parliamentary Briefing Paper, Bolton 2012

In 1920 women represented only 28% of students obtaining undergraduate degrees. This number changed little over the following four decades and in 1960 women represented only 25% of first degrees awarded by UK universities. However, as shown in the table below, from 1970 onwards there was a marked increase in the proportion of women obtaining first degrees such that in the run up to the millennium women eclipsed men to become 56% of the total by 2010. The increases were very stark between 1960 and 1970, 1970 and 1980, and 1980 and 1990. These were the eras of the [Equal Pay Act and...]. They were also the decades during which the contraceptive pill became widely available. 

Source: Education: Historical Statistics, Parliamentary Briefing Paper, Bolton 2012

Was the Pill a factor in gender differences in higher education?

07/07/13

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dius.gov.uk/research/documents/DIUS-RR-08-14.pdf

The article above, "Gender Gaps in Higher Education participation,"Broecke and Hamed 2008, I found  that by 1992 young women's participation rates in higher education in England had caught up with men  (it actually continued to widen, such that by 2005/6 there was a 7.2% participation gap in favour of women). 

This study includes a longitudinal survey of young people aged 16+ from 1972-2000 showing how over this period women's participation in higher education grew. 

Age Participation Index (API) by Gender, 1972-2000 for English domiciled students: 

Source: Gender Gaps in Higher Education Participation, Broecke and Hamad DIUS Research Report 2008

API 1972-2000, and Higher Education Initial Participation Rate 2000 to 2005 

These gender changes are also seen in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 2005/6 figures which show that women in all four countries in the United Kingdom are more likely to go to university than men. 

Source: Gender Gaps in Higher Education Participation, Broecke and Hamad DIUS Research Report 2008 API 1972-2000, and Higher Education Initial Participation Rate 2000 to 2005. *2004/5 data for Wales 

The research report was really useful in providing a longitudinal survey of gender gaps in higher education. By proving data for both men and women I was able to construct a bar-chart, making the important point that women's participation rates in higher education now out-strip men's. I now need to find evidence on the growth in use of contraceptive pill to see if I can establish a relationship between women's further education participation and their control over their own fertility. 

Using and evaluating sources AO2 (taught session)

13/07/13

Key objectives:

1. To understand the importance of evaluating your sources 
2. To consider different ways of analysing and evaluating sources 

Plagiarism- reference every source you use, not just those you quote. 

Don't forget page numbers, and when using quotes ensure they are reference fully in the footnote

Always assume photos are copyrighted, if not make sure to credit the owner or the website where it was found. 

Bibliographies:

• List of all the sources referred to in a project 
• Included at the end of the project 
• Books:
• Author/editor - Surname, Initial 
• Publication date in brackets e.g. (2009)
• Title in italics
• Publisher 
• Place of publication 
• Articles in books/ journals- if the source is an article within a book or journal, ass the article's author and title 
• Newspaper articles- If the source is a newspaper, make note of the author of the article, the title of the article, the newspaper and the date of the publication 
• TV/radio broadcasts- If the source is a TV or radio broadcast, note its title, broadcaster or channel, date of broadcast or URL
• Websites- If the source if from a website then it should include author.editor, year, and title [online]. Publisher, place of publication, and URL [date accessed]

How the contraceptive pill changed Britain (BBC Article 2011)

16/07/13

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15984258

Above is a link to a BBC article on 'How the contraceptive pill changed Britain,' written by Rebecca Cafe. 

Source: 'How the contraceptive pill changed Britain'-
Rebecca Cafe (BBC News 2011) 

The article briefly outlines what the author considers the biggest effects of the invention of the Pill to be, namely the movement towards co-habitation, the reduction in the 'necessity of marrying to have sex and  the lowering the incidence of shot-gun marriages.' 

'According to the latest prescribing review, two million women take the pill in England and Wales. It is estimated that 70% of all women in Britain have used the pill at some stage in their lives.'

"[The Pill] has enabled individual's- women and men- to control their reproductive health and to choose when they want to have [a child], so I think from a social point of view, it's bound to have had an impact on families and relationships." -Tracey McNeill, Marie Stopes vice-president and director of UK and Europe 

The article also highlights that economists such as George Akerlof, Janet Yellen and Michael Katz believe that 'courtship' used to involve an implied promise that is a woman became pregnant, the man would marry her, but as women are now able to control when they had children, the implied promise disappeared. They wrote in a study on the effects of the pill:

"The pill encouraged the delay of marriage through routes such as reducing the necessity of marrying to have sex and lowering the incidence of shotgun marriages."  -The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Issue 2, May 1996.

Jane Falkingham, the director of ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) agrees that 'the pill was part of a social change that separated partnerships and children.' 'In Britain in the early 1960s, fewer than one in 100 adults under 50 were estimated to have cohabited, whereas nowadays one in six do'- according to a report by the CRC. 

The article was really useful in steering me towards the issues of shot-gun marriages and cohabitation, subjects I will research in much more depth. 

17/07/13

'An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing'

18/07/13

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qlwRG3WP4dsC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=George+Akerlof,+Janet+Yellen+and+Michael+Katz&source=bl&ots=JVITh0I0HV&sig=eFiFeBG4NE2mSOs_Lc8WnsrSEAw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=V1D5UY5C88vQBY2RgYAL&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=George%20Akerlof%2C%20Janet%20Yellen%20and%20Michael%20Katz&f=false

The above link is to an economics essay entitled 'An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States' by George Akerlof, Janet Yellen and Micheal Katz. It was published in the 1996 Quarterly Journal of Economics and examines the link between  the availability of female contraceptives and shot-gun marriages. Their principle theory being that readily available abortions and female contraceptives meant that the female position in the marriage market was weakened. Below are my notes:

This 'feminism of poverty' in the US is argued to have caused all women to lose welfare as when birth control became available, 'women invested more in human capital because of lower expected rents from marriage.' ('The effect of women's rights on women's welfare: evidence from a natural experiment'- Silvia Pezzini 2005)   

Co-habitation and marriage in Britain since the 1970s

19/07/13

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ons.gov.uk%2Fons%2Frel%2Fpopulation-trends-rd%2Fpopulation-trends%2Fno--145--autumn-2011%2Fard-pt145-cohab-marriage-trends.pdf&ei=1l_5UZDDI8Or0QX6kIGADw&usg=AFQjCNEuU6855JZRVliKZQ1dRlmj1AASiA&sig2=ObwIaawl14ja3jDJcCB0UQ&bvm=bv.49967636,d.d2k

Above is a link to the report 'Cohabitation and marriage in Britain since the 1970s' by Éva Beaujouan and Máire Ní Bhrolcháin of the ESPC Centre for Population Change, University of Southhamption (2011). The data has been sources from a consistent set of retrospective histories from the General Household Survey 1979-2007. 

There were fewer than one in a hundred adults under 50 estimated to be cohabiting at any one time in Britain during the early 1960s. (Murphy M. 2000. 'The evolution of cohabitation in Britain, 1960-95.' Population Studies 54: 43-56) 

Percentage of marriages preceded by premarital cohabitation, by age at and year of marriage, and sex. Great Britain, GHS 1979-2007:

Sourced: Beaujouan E. and Ní Bhrolcháin. 2011. 'Cohabitation and marriage in Britain since 1970s.' 

'The data above shows premarital cohabitation as extremely rare in the early 1960s, with less than 3% of those ages below 30 doing so. By the 1970s a quarter of men and women marrying at ages under 50 cohabited with their partner prior to marriage. According to GHS figures, it is since the late 1980s that more than half of all couples marrying have lived together beforehand, and so premarital cohabitation has been a majority practice for a quarter of a century. In recent years, the vast majority of people marrying at ages under 50 - close to four in five - have lived together prior to marriage. Indeed, marriage without first living together is now as unusual as premarital cohabitation was in the 1970s.' 

20/07/13

Household Composition

21/07/13

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/st/journal/v40/n1/pdf/st20106a.pdf

Above is a link to volume 40, issue 1 of the ONS flagship publication 'Social Trends' (2010).  Chapter 2 (p15-26) describes the trend in household composition from 1956- this is useful in showing the decline in the number of households with dependant children as well as the proportion of people married by age 25. 

The Appendix defines a household as: "a person living alone or a group of people who have the address as their only or main residence and who either share one meal a day or share the living accommodation."

Source: 'Social Trends'- ONS. Volume 40. Issue 1. 2010.

To the right is a table on the percentage of type of household and family in Great Britain from 1961 to 2009. 

It shows that the percentage of households comprising of couple households with dependant children had fallen from 38% in 1961 to 21% in Q2 2009. 

This is interesting coupled with the lone parent figure: 

'the proportion of people living in lone parent households doubled between 1961 and 1981 (from 3% to 6%) and doubled again between 1981 and Q2 2009 (from 6% to 12%)."-page 16

To look into this further I will return to the 'An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing' by George Akerlof, Janet Yellen and Micheal Katz to look at the decline of shot gun marriages. 

Below are my notes on the chapter:

Source: 'Social Trends'- ONS. Volume 40. Issue 1. 2010. 

To the left is a table showing the percentage of households by size. There is a clear trend towards smaller households This is seen in the average household size (number of people) in Great Britain falling from 3.1 in 1961 to 2.4 in Q2 2009. 

The figure below shows the proportion of adults ever married by age and year of birth in England and Wales. There is a clear decrease in the number of marriages from 1956 to 1981. Women born in 1956 were incredibly likely to be married (710 women for every 1,000 born in 1956.) For women born 1981 the percentage of likely to be married by 25 had fallen to 16% showing the both the 'delay and decline in marriage.' 

The average house-size information will be interesting if combined with the average age of the participants in this households. 

Source: 'Social Trends'- ONS. Volume 40. Issue 1. 2010.

The issue put me on the path to look at the following issues in greater detail: 

1. The statistical information on the fall in the proportion of babies born to women aged under 25 (from 47% in 1971 to 25% in 2008- Figure 2.16) has spurred me on to  compare the data with the popularity of the Pill with different age groups.
2. The data on the rise of lone-parent families has cause me to return to the data on the decline in shot-gun marriages and births outside marriage and the reasons for this. 

The Pill and Partnerships: The impact of the birth control pill on cohabitation

23/07/13

http://pages.towson.edu/FChriste/PillPart_final.pdf

The above link is to a paper investigating the impact of cohabitation behaviour of the introduction and dispersion of the birth control pill in the 1960s and early 1970s. The evidence shows that the pill was a catalyst that increased cohabitation's role in selecting marriage partners, but it did little in the short run to promote cohabitation as a substitute for marriage.  

Christensen argues that the Pill "stripped away one of the foundations for the taboo against pre-marital sex, the fear of illegitimate children." By divorcing contraception from intercourse the Pill lowered the risk of pregnancy, encouraging the "net benefits of cohabitation." 

He also argues that the attractiveness of non-marital relationships after the widespread distribution of the Pill relative to marriage increased "selectivity into marriage." He asserts that the Pill "indirectly encouraged cohabitation since cohabitation is a useful means to assess compatibility prior to marriage." 

It was really interesting to read a paper that both focused on statistical data indicating an increase in cohabitation and the reasons for this increase. His theory on selectivity into marriage market walks hand in hand with Goldin and Katz's papers on the subject, providing a valuable insight on the impact of the widespread distribution of the Pill on partnership choices. 

25/07/13

Trends in fertility and contraception in the last quarter of the 20th century

26/07/13

Contraception is the deliberate prevention of conception or impregnation. The contraceptive pill contains oestrogen and progesterone to inhibit ovulation and so prevent conception. It remains the most popular contraceptive method in the UK after becoming available in the mid-1960s.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDoQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ons.gov.uk%2Fons%2Frel%2Fpopulation-trends-rd%2Fpopulation-trends%2Fno--100--summer-2000%2Ftrends-in-fertility-and-contraception-in-the-last-quarter-of-the-20th-century.pdf&ei=7iH1UbejBI-xhAea64DIDQ&usg=AFQjCNH_P9WD5lfv4_EtMUHMg2hjtzXA5w&sig2=iehCDQga1580blYuXgMp6Q&bvm=bv.49784469,d.ZG4

Above is a link to a National Statistics paper by Bev Botting and Karen Dunnell from demography and health national statistics on 'Trends in fertility and contraception in the last quarter of the 20th century.' (2010) 

Source: ONS.'Trends in fertility and contraception in the last quarter of the 20th century.' 2010. 

Figure 6 shows the trends in contraception use between 1976-98. The Pill is the most popular method of contraception with 28% of women using it in the mid 70s and 80s. Usage then fell, however, and has never reached the same levels. Figure 6 also shows the percentage of women who themselves or partners were sterilised for contraceptive purposes. Sterilisation rose in popularity in the 190s and has remained as popular, overtaking the Pill as the most common contraceptive method for women over 30. This rise in the popularity in sterilisation is attributed to the 100% prevention rate of the Pill, raising the 'standard for the acceptability of other contraceptives' in Dr Marks book 'Sexual Chemistry: a history of the contraceptive pill' (2001). The health risks associated with the Pill also contributed to the rise in sterilisation, which became more common than the pill and IUD worldwide in the 1980s. Sterilisation became an 'obvious alternative' to those scared of the health risks, who had already 'previously used oral contraceptives and no longer planned to have children.' 

Source: ONS.'Trends in fertility and contraception in the last quarter of the 20th century.' 2010. 

Source: NHS Choices website, NHS in 1960s

Figure 7 shows the Pill usage by age-group in Great Britain, 1976-98. There has been 'little variation over time in the level of use by women in most age groups.' 

The NHS Choices website  tells us that initially the pill was only available to married women, the law relaxed in 1967. 'Between 1962 and 1969, the number of women taking the pill rises dramatically, from approximately 50,000 to 1 million.' 

The Pill remains most popular among the younger age groups, particularly those aged aged 16-29. This popularity with the younger demographic is interesting as it suggests that women would go on the pill the years where education is important, maybe establishing a career, before having children. 

This source was really useful as it explored the popularity of the Pill agreeing with the data presented in Dr Mark's book. As a National Statistics paper the information is likely to be accurate. 

It would be interesting to combine the data on the popularity of the pill among university students and those not pursuing further education, if possible to help stress the importance of the pill in enabling women to access higher education. 

NHS Choices website: (http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/nhshistory/Pages/NHShistory1960s.aspx)