Encyclopedias: Spartacus Educational: The Emancipation of Women: Birth Control

Description: Abstract - Working class women were expected to work until they had children. These women tended to have more children than upper and middle class wives. In the middle of the 19th century, the average married woman gave birth to six children and over 35% of all married women had eight or more.Birth control was a prohibited subject, opposed by both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church as well as government. Many were jailed for the publication of materials and the advocacy of immoral behaviour.