author
Florence Elizabeth Barrett
1867–1945
A pioneering British doctor and writer, she brought her experience as an obstetric and gynaecological surgeon to public debates about women's health, medicine, and society. Her work reflects both the opportunities opening to women in medicine and the fierce arguments of the early twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
Conception Control and Its Effects on the Individual and the Nation
by Florence Elizabeth Barrett
About the author
Born in Bristol on February 18, 1867, Florence Elizabeth Barrett became one of the leading women doctors of her generation. She trained in medicine at a time when women still faced major barriers to entering the profession, and went on to build a distinguished career in obstetrics and gynaecology.
Barrett worked at the Royal Free Hospital and the Mothers' Hospital in London, and she also held important leadership roles connected with the London School of Medicine for Women. She was widely recognized for her professional standing, eventually receiving major honors including a CBE and appointment to the Order of the Companions of Honour.
As an author, she wrote on medical and social questions for a broad readership. Her best-known work today is Conception Control and Its Effects on the Individual and the Nation (1922), a book that shows how closely medicine, public policy, and moral debate were intertwined in her era. She died on August 7, 1945.