Rights and Ownership Over the Female Body

From crotch-less bloomers and women's fashion in the late 19th century to contraception, menstruation and abortion. Episode Four of Beyond Kate explores the politics and double standards around the female body, and women's access to public space.

Women's bodies are political. While that might sound like a big statement, there are a multitude of layers and double standards that exist around the female body.

Women throughout history have been subjected to the male gaze. They have been told what they can and can't wear. Women have been outright excluded from public space, and have, for more than a century, been subjected to physical and sexual violence.

If we look at New Zealand's history, women had very few rights over their own bodies. This included the number of children a woman might bear and her access to safe contraception. In the 19th century, women were fighting for rights to raise the age of consent from 12 to 16 years of age.

Even a woman's fertility was seen as beneficial to a nation that needed to grow.

Between 1840 and 1880 New Zealand births were among the highest in the world. Colonial women were averaging approximately seven to nine births each, compared to four of five births in Britain at the same time.

Stephanie Gibson is a curator at Te Papa and says there were laws against talking about contraception in New Zealand.

"The word was considered obscene and doctors didn't talk about it, or they didn't know about it. So women might have passed down secrets about how to prevent pregnancy," Gibson says.

The public had little knowledge of safe contraception and some women resorted to homemade concoctions that were neither safe nor effective.

Part of the reason contraception wasn't talked about was that it was a highly moral issue. Young women were expected to be virgins before marriage.

"There was a lot of societal pressure on women," says Gibson.

"Having an illegitimate child was a complete disaster...so many children were given up for adoption in this country."

So how far have we really come since suffragists more than a century ago fought for the right to make decisions and have control over their own bodies?

Wellington-based, Dame Margaret Sparrow is a leading figure in sexual health reform in New Zealand.

In the 1950s she terminated her own pregnancy so that she could continue her studies. She was also a guinea pig for the first contraceptive pill, and later, went on to advocate for student access to contraception at a time when only married women were being prescribed the pill.

She says the battle for women's sexual health rights is not over yet…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details