Happy Birthday Birth Control Pill

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

This essay was previously posted on Daily Kos.

The birth control pill turns 50 this year.  In June, 1960 the Food and Drug Aministration (FDA) approved a pill containing estrogen and progesterone for use in the United States as a contraceptive method.  Currently more than 100 million women worldwide and 12 million women in the United States use this combined oral contraceptive (COC) as their preferred method of planning parenthood.

This diary offers background on the inception of this method and how it influenced the long-lasting inequality between women and men.

In the beginning there was the women’s movement.  

in 1848 the first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York.  The 68 female and 32 male participants sign a Declaration of Sentiments.  A set of 12 resolutions is adopted calling for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women.

In 1869 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. The primary goal of the organization is to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the Constitution.

August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granting women the right to vote, is signed into law by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.

In 1921 the American Birth Control League, later to become Planned Parenthood, is founded by Margaret Sanger.  Sanger coined the phrase “birth control.”

In 1936 the federal law prohibiting the dissemination of contraceptive information through the mail (See Comstock Act) is modified and birth control information is no longer classified as obscene. Throughout the 1940s and 50s, birth control advocates are engaged in numerous legal suits.

Margaret Sanger a lifelong advocate of women’s rights and the use of birth control underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill. Sanger raised $150,000 for the project.  Clearly that amount was a drop in the bucket of the total cost of the research, but it wasn’t a bad fund raising effort.

In June of 1957 the FDA approved Enovid 10 mg. for use in menstrual disorders, and in July, 1959 the drug manufacturer Serle filed a supplemental application for Enovid 10 mg, 5 mg, and 2.5 mg to be considered for use as a contraceptive pill.  

On May 10, 1960 the FDA anounced it would approve Enovid 10 mg and 5 mg for contraceptive use, but not 2.5 mg.  Actual approval occurred on June 23, 1960. It would take many more years, however, until all women could receive a prescription for COC’s, and not just married women.  That didn’t happen until 1972. All things considered, though, the introduction of COC’s was a Big F***ing Deal.

By the 1970’s society was beginning to take note of the impact of COC’s on traditional gender roles. Women now did not have to choose between a relationship and a career.  Singer Loretta Lynn commented on this in her 1974 album with a song entitled “The Pill,” which tells the story of a woman’s use of COC’s to liberate herself from her traditional role as wife and mother.

For the first time women were not forced into motherhood because of their biology.  Women could now shape their lives planning when to have children and how many to have. Meanwhile, they could pursue higher education and careers.

From the Religious Consultation

“Women cannot compete with men as long as they’re childbearers first and employees second,” said Lynne Luciano, a history professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. “The pill allowed women to stay in their careers, and get pregnant when they feel like it, not by accident.”

In conclusion I once again want to wish a Happy Birthday to the birth control pill. The pill (as it is commonly known) might not be the only factor in the movement toward equality for women, but it certainly is not a minor player.  Without it the road would be longer and slower.  The birth control pill changed family structure and size and helped shift slightly the balance of power between the sexes.