Janet Chance
VERY LOCAL (like, the building I’m doing my PhD in right now) AND VERY RELEVANT (like, could be written about 2022 USA) HERSTORY TIME! Have you heard of Janet Chance (10 February 1886 – 18 December 1953), a Scottish feminist writer, sex education advocate and birth control and abortion law reformer? Janet Chance was born in Edinburgh to Jane Elizabeth Barbour and Alexander Whyte, a Scottish Calvinist minister who also served as principle of New College (aka University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity, where I’ve been studying for the last 7 years and which is crying out for some herstory!). Her middle brother was killed during the first world war, but her eldest brother survived and went on to earn a knighthood for his political work. Janet lived with her family in a fancy house in the Edinburgh New Town until she married businessman and stockbroker, Clinton Frederick Chance in 1912. The newlyweds moved to London, where they became enthusiastic advocates and benefactors of the Engli