Birth Control Pill

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Birth Control Pill

• YouTube - 1950s Education On "Women"

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Context Post WWII, there was a dramatic increase
in global population. Why?

• baby boom (Western Cultures)
• advances in science were lowering death rate
  (Internationally)
• Countries were beginning to look outside of their
  own country and address international issues,
  especially with non-government organizations
  which also improved conditions
• -Western cultures began acknowledging that
  countries where resources were limited and
  economic output was low, that they would not be
  able to support increases in population

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Why 1950s? (Social Change)

• Versus

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Social Change (continued)

• Female image perpetrated by mass media
• 15 million tvs sold in US in 1952
• In 1960 46 million in homes
• WHAT DID BEING A WOMAN MEAN?
• YouTube - mona lisa 1950s women

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Why 1950s? (Social Change)

• During WWII- women forced into the factories and
  into the workforce
• Post WWII- women forced from the working
  positions that they had obtained during the war
• Imbalance for women their work had been
  acknowledged as important, yet they were sent
  back home?
• Women began rejecting their postwar life (ie
  Feminine Mystique in 1963)
• Increase in Feminist Movement and other groups

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Development began in 1950s what kind of
objections did it come up against?

• 1873- The Comstock Act- classified contraceptive
  literature and devices as obscene materials
• 1917- Margaret Sanger opens first birth control
  clinic in the US, and put in jail for 30 days for
  being a public nuisance
• 1951- Oral Contraceptive acknowledged in Time
  Magazine (p. 318)
• 1953- Population Council formed in US to observe
  population trends
• 1953- International Planned Parenthood formed
• 1954- Birth Control Pill tested in Puerto Rico
• 1958- Introduced to American market for menstrual
  disorders
• 1960- US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  approves pill for contraceptive use
• 1970s- UN recognized that ALL people have a right
  to an acceptable standard of living including the
  right to family planning

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How does the Birth Control Pill work?
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Opponents and Problems caused a huge decrease
in usage up to 1980s

• The Roman Catholic Church (p. 323)
• Evidence linking to high blood pressure, stokes,
  blood clots, maybe tumors?
• Some doctors believed effects of the pill could
  not be reversed in some women
• Feminists pharmaceutical companies took
  advantage (p. 325)
• Cost of the pill
• Does not get distributed to Third World Countries
  (sterilization still popular)

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Impact of the Pill

• More women joined the paid work force
• More women could pursue educational goals
• Women had to take on a double life
• Lower birth rate- school enrolment, hospitals,
  and decline in baby market
• Teenagers and swinging sixties- sex before
  marriage?

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• Birth control the magic pill - CBC Archives
• Birth control the pill meant women could - CBC
  Archives

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• Birth Control Video History.com