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 altered gender relations. In this exploration of the pill's cultural and medical history, the author re-examines 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. Watkins' study seeks to help us understand the contraceptive revolution and to appreciate the misinterpretations that surround it. The author argues, for example, that the pill did not instigate the sexual revolution and she describes how the media's blurred coverage of sexual behaviour and contraception produced the enduring, but inaccurate image of the pill as the 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 recordings, professional journals, popular magazines and newspapers, the text provides a history of one of the 20th century's most significant medical and cultural developments.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
This is an exemplary study of how the nation which first had access to oral contraceptives first came to terms with their advantages, and their drawbacks.
-Jon Turney, Times Literary Supplement Intelligent and well-structured . . . An admirable exercise in social history.
-Richard Davenport-Hines, Nature A particularly fascinating issue, trim and focused, sophisticated and helpful, fresh and very interesting.
-Rickie Solinger, American Historical Review In every carefully organized, lucidly written chapter Watkins provides surprising corrections to conventional thinking about the new birth control method . . . One especially noteworthy theme is the book's exploration of the politics of the pill, including Planned Parenthood [Federation] of America's concerted efforts to rebut critics, federal officials' dramatically shifting positions from the 1950s to the 1970s on birth control, population control and family planning, and pill-induced tensions among feminists.
-Janet Farrell Brodie, Journal of American History Any study of the development of the birth-control pill will be centrally concerned with the expansion of women's reproductive choices. But, as this book so clearly demonstrates, it involves other questions too. In part, it is about the risks that come with the ingestion of oral contraception. It is about the relationship between women and doctors, between women and their partners and between science, medicine and the media. Not least, it is about how women have responded differently to this intervention into their bodies. Underpinned by some excellent archival material, interviews with key individuals and an extensive use of the newspapers, magazines and medical journals of the time, this study is particularly strong in its discussion of concerns over the safety of the Pill . . . This is not the only area of interest within this valuable book. Anyone concerned with the debate over scientific advance and medical authority will find this a highly stimulating study . . . For her, the Pill brought the possibility of voluntary pregnancy, and feminist (and other) critics of its medical effects and social repercussions will need to engage carefully with her arguments if this important debate is to be taken to a new level.
-Martin Durham, Journal of American Studies
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Für Beruf und Forschung
Illustrationen
7 s/w Abbildungen
7 Illustrations, black and white
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 20 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-5876-5 (9780801858765)
DOI
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Elizabeth Siegel Watkins, who has her Ph.D. degree in the history of science from Harvard University, writes, teaches, and consults in Pennsylvania.
Autor*in
Dean, Graduate Division, and Professor, History of Health SciencesUniversity of California, San Francisco
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Genesis of the Pill
Chapter 2. Physicians, Patients, and the New Oral Contraceptives
Chapter 3. Sex, Population, and the Pill
Chapter 4. Debating the Safety of the Pill
Chapter 5. Oral Contraceptives and Informed Consent
Chapter 6. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index
