Hannah Louisa Westwood

My PhD research focuses on the FemTech industry (women's digital health interventions), with a particular interest in digital fertility trackers that are used as contraceptives. I am conducting a critical analysis of these technologies, using the walkthrough method to study apps and performing a close reading of Instagram influencer advertisements. The project aims to draw wider conclusions about FemTech and how the industry can work towards safety, equity and accessibility of the technologies. 

FemTech, contraception, digital fertility, accessibility, feminist theory, gender and health, gender and technology

I undertook an MA in Women's Studies at the University of York (2021-22). For my dissertation 'The Pill, Blood Clots and Covid-19 Vaccines: How AstraZeneca Renewed Calls for Better Contraception' I conducted a social media discourse analysis of comparisons between blood clotting risk from the combined contraceptive pill and covid-19 vaccines. This was contextualised by an in-depth history of various controversies surrounding the pill throughout its history. My knowledge of contraception (in particular its social history) is brought forward onto my PhD and informs my analysis of contraceptive digital fertility trackers.