Author(s): Jane Tolerton

NZ History

Ettie Rout fought a battle for safer sex in the First World War - and won. She 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 wouldn't 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. Also available as an eBook