Tolerton, Jane,

Ettie Rout : New Zealand's safer sex pioneer / New Zealand's safer sex pioneer. Jane Tolerton. - 256 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 21 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ettie Rout gave New Zealand the best sexual health system when its army adopted her prophylactic kit and made every soldier going on leave take one, while she was banned from the pages of the newspapers so New Zealanders would not find out. In Paris, having transformed Madame Yvonne's into a safer sex brothel, she met soldiers at the railway station and convinced them to go there if they chose to have sex. Armed with a wicked sense of humour, an intolerance of hypocrisy and boundless energy, Ettie Rout proved the case for safer sex decades before the term was coined and the soldiers loved her for it. This book celebrates an unlikely heroine of the First World War who is now internationally recognised for waging a successful public health crusade. A woman way ahead of her time.

9780143573241 (paperback)


Rout, Ettie Annie, 1877-1936.


Health reformers--New Zealand--Biography.
Sexually transmitted diseases--Prevention--History--20th century.
World War, 1914-1918--Medical care.
World War, 1914-1918--Women.

613.95092