Participant Information
Researcher:
Dr Natasha Szuhan is a historian who works at the Australian National University in the schools of Sociology and History. Her research focuses on the social history of science, technology and medicine, gender, sexuality, and fertility.
Project title:
An Oral History of Oral Contraception in Australia, 1955-1985
General Outline of the Project:
Description and Methodology:
This project has one main goal: to produce a history of the Pill in Australia that in the tradition of history-from-below, provides for a variety of participants from across class, experience, areas of expertise, ethnicity, religion, lifestyle, gender, and sexuality to contribute their experiences, understandings, and voices to it. This will be compiled using the data collected from a series of long-form interviews with Australians that used, influenced, worked with, or objected to oral contraceptives between 1955 and 1985.
Participants:
The participants will be women and men who interacted with, developed, regulated, prescribed, oversaw, applied, or rejected oral contraceptives between 1955 -1985 and are willing to participate in and contribute to the project. It is anticipated that approximately 55 to 60 interviews will be conducted over the duration of the project.
Use of Data and Feedback:
The data that is collected for this project will primarily be used to support a manuscript on the history of the Pill in Australia. This will likely involve significantly quoting responses, critically analysing them in relation to historical events and sources and considering them in relation to other participant’s responses and social theories. They may also be cited in journal articles, news media, online publications, and referenced in academic and public talks.
Data will be collected in long-form, one-on-one interviews with each participant and then transcribed in full within approximately six weeks of the session. A copy of the full transcript will be provided to each participant within approximately eight weeks of the interview to review and provide any necessary clarifications. I will provide each of the participants a summary of the findings via mail or email before publication and a copy of the manuscript in hard or digital copy once published. It is anticipated that the project will result in a published manuscript within approximately four years from its start date.
Participant Involvement:
Voluntary Participation & Withdrawal:
Participation in this project is voluntary. You do not have to participate unless you want to and can pull out without telling me why. You are under no obligation to answer every question posed, and all contributions are at your discretion. You can change your mind and pull out of this research at any time up until the work is prepared for publication. If you do pull out, your data will be destroyed, and I will not use anything you told me. You do not need to tell me why you have withdrawn from the project, and you can do so without any negative consequences.
Implications for professional participants:
Please be advised that participation in the research project is not an expectation of your employment/ professional relationship/ association with the research team, and your choice will not affect your relationship with any party.
What does participation in the research entail?
Participants will be asked to take part in one (or more) long-form, unstructured interviews where they will be asked questions about a variety of topics that broadly relate to oral contraceptives and their relation to their family history and values, ethnic and religious background and their impacts, education, work and care experiences, their sexuality, sex life, marriage, family life and aspirations, general health and medical issues that impacted on or related to their reproduction and fertility, Australian culture and society in the decades under discussion, women’s liberation and issues /feminism. You will be provided a copy of the transcript within approximately six weeks of any interview/s.
Some of this information is classified as ‘personal or sensitive’ under the Australian Privacy Act (1988) but vital to collect for a project such as this to make fulsome and worthwhile connections and distinctions about the ways that different individuals and groups interacted with oral contraceptive technologies in the past and their contemporary impact, if any.
Location and Duration:
The data for this project is qualitative and the data sourced will be obtained through open-ended conversations with participants. The information provided will be at the discretion of interviewees and will be provided in their own words, contextualised, and framed as they see fit, with limited intervention or prompting from the interviewer.
These interviews are anticipated to take between one and two hours and would likely be collected on a single day but can occur over more than one session at the request/discretion of the participant. Interviews are anticipated to be conducted in-person. I will come to you at your location (your home or a place you feel comfortable being interviewed), or a mutually agreed location (a university or private office space). It is
possible that a follow up interview may be requested. If this is the case, the same interview conditions will apply. I will seek additional consent for any potential follow up interviews.
Risks:
There are some limited risks in participating in this project. These relate to being asked to recollect and discuss personal experiences for recordings that will be held permanently at the National Library of Australia (or similar) and made available to future researchers.
There is a slim chance that you may experience some discomfort in speaking frankly and honestly about some of the subject matter; particularly where it relates to your sexuality, sexual and sex-/gender-based experiences and practices, family and fertility aspirations and actions, and/or intimate relationships to individuals and fertility and contraceptive technologies. Please be advised that you will not be asked to provide any details of sexual experiences (consensual or otherwise) that you do not volunteer. Should these discussions cause too much discomfort or lead to distress we will, of course, end the interview immediately (to be resumed at your discretion) and I will refer you to an appropriate counselling services (see below).
The risk of being identified (should you opt to have your interview de-identified) is low, but it is possible that you may be identifiable from the use of some details you have provided. I will make every effort to ensure that any such risks are mitigated as far as possible and will endeavour to use examples in relation to broader events, trends, and issues rather than exclusively analysing individuals without relevant context. This will be made clear in any publications that arise from this study.
In the event you experience distress and need to speak to someone, the following supports are available:
Lifeline – Telephone and online counselling service
Telephone: 13 11 14
SMS: 0477 13 11 14
Online chat service: https://www.lifeline.org.au/crisis-chat/
Website: https://www.lifeline.org.au/
1800RESPECT – Telephone and online counselling service for domestic, family, and sexual violence survivors
Telephone: 1800 737 732
Online chat service: https://www.1800respect.org.au/#chat
Website: https://www.1800respect.org.au/
QLife – Telephone counselling service by and for the LGBTIQ+ community
Telephone: 1800 184 527 (Monday to Sunday: 15:00-00:00 AEST)
Online chat service: https://m2.icarol.com/ConsumerRegistration
Website: https://qlife.org.au/
Benefits:
It is unlikely that you as a participant will personally benefit from this research. This project is not designed to have any tangible personal benefits for any party (even the researcher) but rather is being undertaken to broadly benefit the community, society, and historical knowledge and understanding.
I expect that this research will improve understandings of the various socio-cultural, classed, gendered and racialised experiences of oral contraceptives in their initial roll out across Australia, and then the subsequent two decades of its use. It is my hope that compiling these accounts of people’s interaction with contraceptive technologies will help to place users at the forefront of future histories of science, technology and medicine, and might inform policy development and future patient-centred practice.
Confidentiality:
Confidentiality:
The information you provide for these oral history interviews will initially only be accessible to the primary researcher on the project: Dr Natasha Szuhan. You will be asked to confirm whether you would like the recordings to be identified correctly or via pseudonym when being analysed for content and referenced for publications and stored at the National Library of Australia (or similar) in perpetuity.
There is a chance that a research assistant or professional may be asked to assist with some of the transcription work. In this case that individual will also have access to your recording for the purposes of transcribing its contents. This individual will be bound by a confidentiality agreement that protects your privacy.
Please be aware that confidentiality will be protected as far as the law allows. It is not possible to guarantee anonymity (if you do not wish to be identified) and therefore you should avoid providing sensitive or confidential information or information about illegal activities and should not say anything defamatory or that could otherwise harm you or others.
Privacy Notice:
In collecting your personal information within this research, the ANU must comply with the Privacy Act 1988. The ANU Privacy Policy is available at https://policies.anu.edu.au/ppl/document/ANUP_010007 and it contains information about how a person can:
Access or seek correction to their personal information;
Complain about a breach of an Australian Privacy Principle by ANU, and how ANU will handle the complaint.
Data Storage:
Where:
The data that is produced by this research (both de-identified recordings and transcripts, and all consent forms, analysis and works in progress) will be stored on ANU computers and servers. Recordings, transcripts
and all documentation, preparation and results will be stored in password-protected files by me for five years after the publication.
Thereafter, the data that is produced by this research will be stored in perpetuity at the National Library of Australia (or similar) where deidentified (or identified if that is the preference of the interviewee) recordings and transcripts will be deposited to preserve their historical value and will be made available for future researchers and to be included in in exhibitions, displays and publications.
How long:
The data that is produced by this research will be stored by me in password-protected files on ANU computers and servers for five years after the publication of the results, and then in perpetuity at the National Library of Australia (or similar).
Handling of Data following the required storage period:
I propose that both the recordings and transcripts should be preserved as an important collection with historical relevance for future researchers interested in history, sociology, culture, politics, science and technology. Therefore, the recordings and transcripts will be deposited at the National Library of Australia (or similar) to preserve their historical value and will be made available for future researchers and to be included in in exhibitions, displays, documentaries and publications.
Queries and Concerns:
Ethics Committee Clearance:
The ethical aspects of this research have been approved by the ANU Human Research Ethics Committee (Protocol H/2023/1119). If you have any concerns or complaints about how this research has been conducted, please contact:
Ethics Manager
The ANU Human Research Ethics Committee
The Australian National University
Telephone: 02 6125 3427
Email: Human.Ethics.Officer@anu.edu.au
