It is now more than forty years since the first births of babies born through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Australia. How have changing forms of reproduction and family-making been reflected – or not – in Census documents? It is now … Continue reading
For the first post in our Gender, Emotions, and the Colours of Protest Series, Vera Mackie and Sharon Crozier-De Rosa analyse the colour green at pro-choice protests. In June 2022, protesters across the USA took to the streets to signify their … Continue reading
Rachel Harris explores the history of menstrual hygiene products, including their availability, variety, and use, in Australia during World War II. Historians have examined many of the privations experienced by Australian women during World War II. Something that has received less … Continue reading
Vera Mackie, Nicola J. Marks and Sarah Ferber reveal some of the stories that make up the global history of IVF and assisted reproduction. Candice Reed was born on 23 June 1980 in Melbourne. She was conceived through in vitro … Continue reading
Cassandra Byrnes explores the complex relationship between reproduction regulation, feminism and race in Australia since the 1970s. Tasmania’s primary surgical abortion service provider closed down in the first two weeks of 2018. This decision disproportionately affects pregnant people who cannot … Continue reading
Lisa Featherstone discusses contraception and reproduction in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Australia, a period of high anxieties about national reproductive imperatives. By the mid-1880s, the birth-rate had begun to fall across women from all classes in white Australian society. This was surprising, … Continue reading
Catriona Fisk explores the material and visual record of fashions and dress for pregnant women across the nineteenth century. It is a fact generally acknowledged that pregnancy was a central component of women’s historical experiences. Just as widely accepted is … Continue reading
The VIDA blog reproduction series begins with Paige Donaghy’s exploration of how a history of early modern “other” births might create a better understanding of women’s varied experiences of pregnancy, past and present. In the sixteenth-century medical treatise On the … Continue reading