Fifty years ago, on December 19th, 1967, the French parliament adopted the Neuwirth Law legalizing contraception. During the same decade in France and in many other parts of the world, the use of new medical methods of birth control – such as the pill or intra-uterine devices – gradually increased. Usually perceived as a revolution, specifically regarding women’s self-determination of their bodies, this shift opened the path for major changes in how sexuality and its procreative consequences are dealt with. It produced major changes in norms of sexuality, fertility and gender.

However, these evolutions have not always resulted in liberation, as some fertility control technologies have been used by governments in coercive ways to act upon population growth not only in so-called “developing countries”, but also in marginal fringes of the population in so-called “developed countries”.

The aim of the conference organized by the Paris-Sorbonne University (USPC), to be held in Paris on December 18th and 19th 2017, is to synthetize the existing research and offering new leads on birth control practices (including contraception and abortion) from a gender studies perspective, with special attention to other power relations (class, race, age, disability). Contraception&Genre seeks a discussion between different fields dealing with contraception (demography, sociology, history, anthropology, political sciences, epidemiology, etc.).

The issues to be addressed by the papers are:

• 1st axis: The politics of contraception
• 2nd axis: contraception, markets, industries, techniques
• 3rd axis: Medicalization, professions, institutions
• 4th axis: Trajectories and contraceptive practices
• 5th axis: Sexuality, responsibility, gender norms

Please find enclosed the call for papers (English and French versions). The deadline for submitting abstracts is June, 30th. Submissions should be sent at contraception.genre@gmail.com.