Barbara Rogers

Barbara Rogers writes about international issues for a general audience, and her books have also be used as academic sources. Her most recent book, "Children by Choice? Double standards, population and the plane,t" challenges the conventional view that poor or uneducated women can't make decisions about their own pregnancies, and calls on the international community to step up programmes to bring safe and effective family planning to Third World countries. She also defines the new Eugenics as coming from racists, fundamentalists and nationalists who seek to force "their own" women to have as many children as possible, regardless of their own health and welfare, and the wellbeing of their children and wider families.

This is a highly controversial subject, covering religious dogma and fundamentalist, sectarian and racist pressures on women to have more babies. It addresses the fixation on population numbers which has failed to resolve the barriers to family planning which millions of people face. Barbara also challenges the panic over slightly declining numbers in a few countries, as well as the constant fear of a supposedly "ageing society" which results from better health and survival rates in the wealthier nations. She also calls for a serious challenge to the Holy See (Vatican) and its "diplomatic service" which is seeking to block family planning not just for its own church members but for the whole world. Finally, she calls for a move away from advocating family planning as a matter of "reproductive rights" and towards a real appreciation of people's needs.

Please note that this new book is a fully revised and updated version of "A Matter of Life and Death",

Barbara Rogers has previously written "The Domestication of Women" which challenges the downgrading of women's work by development economists and aid agencies. This book has had a major influence on moves to integrate women into development.