Letter: Sex before the Pill

Sir: Deborah Orr writes that "sexual liberation ... began with the advent of the oral contraceptive" ("The myth of sexual freedom", 8 January).

I am now 81 and before I was 20 I had some happy love affairs. This was before the Second World War and long before the advent of the Pill. I had to be very careful about contraception and used a cap, which didn't bother me or my lovers. As I did not at that age want to have a baby, I did not consider a lover as a potential father and felt wholly responsible for not allowing him to be.

If a woman does not want a baby she can prevent it unless she is careless or very unlucky. She herself can be in control of this very important issue and I cannot see why she should want to share her control with a man, unless she wants to have his baby, in which case they should discuss it.

I would prefer to remain anonymous for the sake of my children and grandchildren.

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