Still Potent After All These Years: 50 Years of The Pill in America
2010 marked the 50th anniversary of the FDA approval for an oral contraceptive for women- aka The Pill-a milestone in female contraception and cornerstone of the Sexual Revolution. Quickly embraced by second-wave feminists, The Pill became the mascot of reproductive control with high expectations by its advocates that it would end poverty and promote stable family planning, one empowered woman at a time. But as historian Elaine Tyler May discusses in her book, America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation, the controversial pharmaceutical released more than just a package of hormones into the bloodstream of women across the country. The Utopian expectations set forth by its developers quickly led into more complex issues surrounding safety and access to the drug, demanding an overall better understanding of health care for women.
From blind acceptance to tough questioning, attitudes about taking The Pill have certainly changed since the women behind the initial concept were successful in making it a reality. As evidenced in May's book, despite the far-reaching vision of mothers of invention Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick (the activists/philanthropists who funded its scientific research), they lacked foresight when pharmaceutical companies began monopolizing an industry that proved to be very lucrative and when Sanger, in particular, came under fire for supporting eugenics. Milligram by milligram, the choices in hormonal female contraceptive have grown throughout the last half-century, with May's book giving us a chance to understand the science and the politics (of course) behind them. Hear her discuss The Pill's important history this afternoon at BookPeople.
