On the pill

by Elizabeth Siegel Watkins

There can be no doubting the importance of "the pill" in post-World War II America. 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 Siegel 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.