Contraceptive diaphragm from the
1950s. Powerhouse Museum collection.
Female barrier contraceptives
Female barrier contraceptives existed long before the rubber cervical cap was invented. Plugs made of animal dung, sea sponges and lemon peel have all been used for this purpose. In some cultures women inserted leaves or seaweed into their vaginas, and in China today women can buy little sheets of plastic film to cover the cervix.
Nowadays the most frequently used female barrier contraceptive is the rubber diaphragm. Wider and flimsier than the cervical cap, it blocks off the upper end of the vagina and also acts as a sort of dam to hold spermicidal cream.
The diaphragm was invented in the 1880s and was introduced into Australia in the 1920s. It became the contraceptive method favoured by the Racial Hygiene Association, which opened Australia's first birth control clinic in Sydney in 1933. The main concern of those who established birth control clinics around that time, whether in Australia, England or the USA, was improvement of the human race. This meant ensuring that fewer babies were born to people who were poor, unhealthy or otherwise considered 'unfit'.