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The Contraceptive Pill Analysis

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“This was the pill, the one they’d been waiting for, the one that changed everything”.
Within the works of Sanger and Friedan it is suggested that the reality of female biology and their reproductive obligations prevented women from being socially equal to men as well as be sexually liberated. It is therefore interesting to consider whether the legalization of the contraceptive pill in the US in 1960 achieved the desired freedom that Sanger pioneered for, as well as contemplating whether this legalization marks the finality of the second wave of feminism. ‘Enovid’ was the first oral contraceptive approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of contraception; there had been cases previous to this legalization where drugs …show more content…

However with this legalization of the pill it not only gives women the freedom to control their bodies but it also gives them a level of responsibility to control the rates of reproduction. This viewpoint generates ideas over the blame of a woman for an unwanted pregnancy as it is now her responsibility to ensure that it doesn’t happen even though she is now sexually liberated. After 1960, women are now the ones to suffer the side-effects of the surplus of hormones in their system; they are the ones to ensure that they are up to date on their medication; to suffer the financial burden of acquiring these forms of contraception. Does this new burden for women cancel out the achievement of sexual liberation? Or is it merely a small price to pay for the freedom of their own sexual organs? Joanna Schoen evaluates this element of choice and highlights how although these new forms of contraceptives were now available, they were not so easily accessible if you weren’t of a certain criteria. In her book ‘Choice and Coercion’, Schoen discusses a poor African American woman who despite begging for birth control and diaphragms was denied this freedom by health professionals and her husband. They denied her of her own reproductive rights even though these means of contraception was legally available. Once again in society, women …show more content…

The birth of the pill gave women control over their bodies which allowed them to spend more years in education, the workplace as they were now able to plan when they had children around their lives. Having children was no longer the focus of a woman’s life, she was now able to have both a career and a husband before deciding when it was financially suitable to have children. Women were now able to move not only into the workforce but to move up the ladder and to adopt senior positions as they now had no biological constraints holding them back. They no longer had to be mothers first. Gloria Feldt, the former CEO of Planned Parenthood believed “If women are going to have control and power in society, they have to be able to control when they have children, and they have to be able to make money. The pill brought together the economics and the fertility timeline in a neat little package”. Sanger pioneered for women to have sexual liberation, to be able to enjoy sex without worry and this pill allowed just that to happen. Tied in with the sexual liberation, women were now able to have multiple relationships before marriage without worrying about unwanted pregnancies, they were able to enjoy sex without shame. Sanger wanted women to have control and this

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