On the pill : a social history of oral contraceptives, 1950-1970 / Elizabeth Siegel Watkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Watkins, Elizabeth Siegel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Birth control--Social aspects--United States.

Birth control.

Birth control--Social aspects.

Sex customs.

History.

Oral contraceptives.

United States.

Oral contraceptives--United States--History.

Sex customs--United States--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

viii, 183 pages, 7 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Summary:

There can be no doubting the importance of the "the pill" in post-World War II culture. The commercial availability of the birth control pill in the early 1960s permitted women far greater reproductive choice, created a new set of ethical and religious questions, encouraged feminism, changed the dynamics of women's health care, and forever altered gender relations.

In this fresh look at the pill's cultural and medical history, Elizabeth Watkins reexamines the scientific and ideological forces that led to its development, the parts women played in debates over its application, and the role of the media, medical profession, and pharmaceutical industry in deciding issues of its safety and meaning. Her study not only helps us to understand the contraceptive revolution as such but also to appreciate the misinterpretations that surround it.

Watkins argues, for example, that the pill did not instigate the sexual revolution and she describes how the media's blurred coverage of sexual behavior and contraception produced the enduring, but inaccurate, image of the pill as fine symbol of sexual revolt. She demonstrates that the women who requested oral contraceptives from their physicians in the 1960s became more active participants in their own medical care. Drawing on traditional sources as well as interviews, television news recording, professional journals, popular magazines, and newspapers, On the Pill is an engaging history of one of our century's most significant medical and cultural developments.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [163]-173) and index.

ISBN:

0801858763

OCLC:

38249763