Marie Carmichael Stopes

Born in Edinburgh on October 15, 1880, Marie Carmichael Stopes built an unusual career across both science and public life. She studied at University College London, earned a doctorate in Germany, and became known for important work in paleobotany and the study of coal. She also taught at the University of Manchester, where she was the first woman on the academic staff.

Stopes became widely famous as an author after publishing Married Love in 1918, a book that spoke openly about marriage and sexual relationships at a time when such topics were rarely discussed in public. In 1921, she helped found Britain’s first birth control clinic for married women, and her lectures, pamphlets, and campaigns made her one of the most visible advocates of contraception in the country.

Her legacy is complicated. Alongside her support for women’s access to contraception, she also promoted eugenic ideas that are now widely rejected and condemned. Today she is remembered both for expanding public discussion of reproductive health and for the harmful beliefs that shaped part of her activism.