One issue that I found when looking back through the 20th century, was the issue of birth control, which was introduced in 1952. You would never think that a pill that is so commonly used now, and shown on T.V. and in magazines, was such a huge issue in the 1950s. Women in the 1950’s had a difficult time obtaining birth control, mostly because of how patriarchal American society was then. Most doctors required signatures from both the husband and the wife before prescribing birth control. This alone shows how different society was then compared to how it is now. Even before the invention of birth control pills, it was extremely difficult for women to keep from getting pregnant. In 30 states over the U.S. it was a CRIME to buy a condom. One of the stories I read was about a woman who became pregnant 18 times, had 11 children, 7 miscarriages, and died early from having so many births.
There were so many issues related to the birth control pill even once it had been invented. First there were the religious reasons. Devout Catholic families refused to use birth control, and if the woman died from birthing 15 children into poverty then so what? Priests would tell women who used any type of birth control that the faces of their unborn babies would haunt them. But of course, the debate came along with the baby boom in the 1950s. It was not uncommon for there to be 5 or 6 children in a single household. Finally, people were starting to realize that they could not support such a huge family. Especially in lower class families, there was no way to feed, dress, and house all of the children they were having. Finally, in 1960 the FDA approved the pill, which brought along the wave of feminism. Finally, women were able to chose if and when to have children. This also led to women being able to have careers, and choosing whether or not to marry.
So when you look back now on and invention that helped and continues to help so many women, and save so many lives, it seems crazy that there was even a debate about this pill. But it just shows it is not even an issue we really worry or think about anymore because of how much society has changed over the past 50 years.
1 comment:
Actually, I think the birth control problem is coming back, but in a reciprical way.
Look at all the teenage pregnancies that have popped up across our nation, just within this past year. Therefore, after the whole birth control [freedom or use] crisis...it's as if the women who earned their right and all womens' rights to use birth control wasted their time.
There are girls who know and understand about the protection of birth control and disregard its use anyway.
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