Having learned extensively about the suffrage movement and the issue of birth control, determine whether the vote or the pill more significantly empowered women in 20th century America. You should post twice and be sure to use evidence from class sources.
Transcript of The Pill.
I believe that the Pill was more empowering to women than the vote or any other factor in the 2Oth Century. This is because while the vote was empowering to achieve and it was the 'greatest' civil rights victory for women in america, the extent of its influence was very limited, especially into the everyday lives of women. Yes, it granted women the power to vote for elected officials that supported causes they cared about, and it was a SINGLE field where they became equal to men, but intimately, economically and educationally men still dominated women.
ReplyDeleteThe Pill drastically changed this. The primary way it did so was to give women control over when they had children and how many children they had. Raising a child is a time consuming thing and takes up a lot of energy; and especially at this time it was mostly the women doing the raising, so to have that burden lifted off of a woman's shoulder was like taking handcuffs off of a prisoner: it set them free. As Loretta McLaughlin said in her interview for the film 'The Pill', "Women became lawyers because law firms no longer had to worry that the woman was going to get pregnant in the middle of a big case. Women became doctors because they could space their children." This new economic freedom allowed women to make money to support themselves even in a marriage, and the new time allowed them to become more educated, in turn creating better soldiers to fight the women fight. That is why the pill was more beneficial to advancing women in america in the 2Oth century.
Upon further reflection on this issue, and simply feeling the urge to play the role of devil's advocate, I have discovered just cause for why the vote may at some point not surpass the importance of the pill, but at the very least match it.
DeleteIn class the past few days, we have been discussing the need for a '3rd Wave' in the fight for women's equality. The end of the first wave was of course marked by the winning of the fight for women's suffrage, and the second wave was marked by the point in time when birth control education, pills, and even abortions became legally and widely available. Building upon historic changes such as those in such a short time span, it is a surprise to many that a significant third wave of the women's movement has not started yet, however ever optimistic, to me that just means a third wave is just around the corner; and that is where the importance of suffrage and the first wave will become prevalent. As we discussed in class, there are far less women in positions of power, whether it be in the private or public sectors, than there are men, and in order to have an effective third wave of the women's movement, women must take the right they won in the first movement, the vote, organize effectively and use boldly use it to its maximum potential, placing their own and those sympathetic to their cause in real positions of power. Positions such as CEO's and other executives, supreme court justices, and even President. Only once that have done this, and shown in force that they have just as much control over the current and future state of this nation, can women truly hope to gain a tangible equality, socially, economically, and politically.
In my quarter group, we discussed that fact that the pill accomplished what the vote should have done. The vote was the first step towards empowering women, but as "The Pill" explained, the pill was the most important step toward women's equality in the 20th century. In 1911, whilst women were fighting for their freedom, Helen Keller said, "We vote? What does that mean"(Zinn 503).
ReplyDeleteEven though the pill left a greater impact than the vote, suffrage opened new doors for women. As we saw in "Iron Jawed Angels" and several other sources, women were arrested for protesting for suffrage. However, when the women were protesting against the side effects of the pill, there were no consequences. Because of the authority women gained from protesting for their rights before they gained suffrage, they were able to successfully use this method when they were being mistreated by doctors. This led to safer birth control pills and a better relationship between doctors and female patients.
Overall, both the suffrage movement and the issue of birth control significantly empowered women in 20th century America. Without the two forces working together, women's rights would have had to be gained differently.
I believe that the pill gave women a bigger sense of empowerment than obtaining the right to vote. I would argue this because the creation of the 19th amendment did not actually physically impact women. This was only an emotional achievement; whereas the pill actually helped women both physically and emotionally.
ReplyDeleteOne of women’s biggest desires was to get married simply to have sex and be known as Mrs. The creation of the pill enabled women to have sex before marriage. Women now had the liberty to have sex as much as they wanted without having to have 9,000 babies. And most importantly, women were able to have sex and practice their careers at the same time without really putting their careers in jeopardy. These were only some of the various physical benefits that the pill had to offer. On the other hand, women also felt a huge emotional impact with the creation of the pill. First of all, women were stress-free since they could do anything they wanted and have sex at the same time. Years later, when the symptoms of the pill were discovered, women were unified and marched together in the streets for better rights. Since over 75% of women had consumed the pill throughout the course of their life, it was no wonder that hundreds of women marched together in the streets.
All in all, I feel that the pill brought a lot more benefits and happiness than the creation of the 19th amendment. In fact, the right to vote did not offer nearly as many benefits as the pill did. This is what the 19th amendment states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” The 19th amendment’s main and only goal was to let women vote. It does not say, “From now on, women and men will be equal.” In my opinion, I don’t think anything really changed after women achieved the right to vote. I mean they obtained the right to vote, so what? The pill actually brought happiness and many other benefits.
- Diego Alanis
Overnight I realized a good example that I forgot to mention yesterday. I would simply like to add that women obtaining the vote was like turning 16 years old. You wake up the next day and don’t really realize it until you get your license or in women’s case, when you vote for president. However, this change is certainly not a very big one. Whereas the pill actually changed women’s perspective and their way of life. Immediately they were able to enjoy themselves, pursue a career, and remain stress-free.
Delete- Diego Alanis
I believe that the pill was much more significant than the right to vote. In my quarter group, we discussed what life was like for women after they gained the right to vote and before the Pill was created. We found out that not much changed in society after women were allowed to vote. Other than World War two, women were generally house wives and went to college just to find a husband. The few jobs that women did have were no where near as powerful as what some men had. As Howard Zinn in 'A Peoples History of the United States' states:
ReplyDelete"By 1969, women were 40 percent of the entire labor force of the United States, but a substantial number of these were secretaries, cleaning women, elementary school teachers, saleswomen, waitresses and nurses."(506)
Yes women now have jobs, but the quality of the jobs is inferior to that of men. Jobs were not the only issue that they faced. They were mobile baby making machines. As soon as they were married, they would just keep getting pregnant and would have between four to nine children. Even if they did have a job opportunity there wouldn't be any way that they would be able to accept it because they had eight children they would have to care for at home. The Women were now apart of society and could vote, but they were far from equal to men.
However, once the Pill was created and distributed everything changed. Women now could go to college to peruse a career rather than just a husband. They could go and have a career and life and when they were ready, then they could settle down and have a child or two. They were free, they were not restricted to their homes anymore. The options were endless. They could go to college and find a career and a husband. Or she could go have a career and then settle down and have one child. Their job opportunities were rising, while their baby exportation numbers were decreasing. The creation of the Pill was a far more significant moment for women than the right to vote.
One of the largest factors responsible for the exclusion of women from the work force was the fear they would become pregnant and need to quit. Society rationalized this behavior by teaching girls that “truly feminine women did not want careers, higher education, or political rights (Friedman). Women went to college solely to find a husband, and obtained “degrees” such as “Mrs.” or “Ph.T” (putting husband through). The pill liberated women in that it allowed them to pursue an education and career without being burdened with the duties of motherhood. Sylvia Clark stated in the documentary “The Pill,” “The pill enabled women to see themselves for the first time in all of history as economically self-sustainable units.” They no longer needed nor relied on a husband to support them financially. Women grew to be respected as independent and capable human beings rather than a doll or childbearing machine. The pill granted women control over their bodies, and opened to door a realm in which they were previously excluded. The pill was not just a simple form of birth control; it empowered women to become equal to men politically, socially, and economically.
ReplyDeleteThe vote allowed for women to vote. Nothing more. Stanton and Anthony’s much anticipated for feminist revolution did not occur. According to Howard Zinn, “After 1920, women were voting, as men did, and their subordinate condition had hardly changed.” Women continued to be viewed as prizes to be won rather than living, breathing human beings. Men had created formulaic recipes measuring the amount of cosmetics a woman should apply, and the time a secretary should be able to open and close a filing cabinet, to the thousandth of a second. Women’s roles in society did not progress until the birth control pill, and this is why I believe the pill most significantly empowered women during the 20th century.
After watching the movie, “The Pill” I couldn’t help but feel upset. We spent so much time on learning how the women fought for their vote, and essentially what they thought what bring them equality. But to still believe that the vote was the most monumental thing that happened for women, even after watching this movie? That’s absurd. Zinn even said, “After 1920, women were voting, as did men, and their subordinate condition hardly changed” (503). The vote may have given women power, but as I discussed with my quarter group they didn’t do any substantial thing with it. Mainly, I’m guessing, women just ended up voting what their husbands were voting, and that just double backing the same men with the same ideas as were under power before they had the vote.
ReplyDeleteMy group made a time line and found that there was a huge span of time from the end of World War II to the real change in women’s rights in the 1960’s. When I brought this up in class and talked about the huge housewife stereotype that emerged with that gap period, the idea of the TV came up. I’d never thought of that the TV facilitated this gender role so much; it did as much to women as the pill did. As said at the end, “The Pill would help launch a generation of activists, not only in the doctor's office, but in the streets, in the bedroom, in society.” While the vote gave women power to decide who ruled, the pill gave women the power of their own bodies, and also of their lives and who decides things for them, with the rise in popularity of the pill also came the rise in feminism.
With the vote, women thought they could do anything, but with the two wars and the long lasting “return to normalcy” they ended up further pushing themselves into their housewife role. Coming out of the right to vote, Alice Paul and others hoped the women of the future would go to college and become equals to men. But after the vote was gained, women started only to go to college to get a MRS degree, and in hopes to find a husband. Women weren’t trying to do this for the country because they were busy trying to find husbands, but this all changed with the pill. Women were now allowed to become lawyers and doctors because they could control when they were having kids. This empowered them a lot more than getting the vote.
Like many people have said above, I also agree that the pill was more significant pertaining to women then the vote. While the vote was a step towards equality, it change very little for the condition of women as the "kitchens were once again the center of women's lives" (Friedan). The vote was supposed to allow women to get out of the house but 43 years later, they are still in the same domain.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that has yet to be mentioned about was how young women were getting married. Freidan stated that "by the end of the nineteen-fifties, the average marriage age of women in America dropped to 20 and... Fourteen million girls were engaged by 17." This is such a low number compared to when people are getting married usually at the earliest in their mid to late twenties. Since this average marriage age was 20, these women had no chance to pursue any career goal or aspirations because they were constantly getting pregnant. Also these women were not exploring the world to try and find true love because when they got to college, it was expected they find a man to marry. Now with the creation of the pill, women can delay having kids for as long as they want, which would allow them to possibly try and get a new job because employers knew that their employees would not just suddenly go on maternity leave. This helped revolutionize the possibilities of what women could do because before they were restrained from the outside world except for positions such as secretaries and nursery school teachers.
Although the pill had many negative side effects such as migraines and even death, the benefits far out weigh the negative, which empowered the women much greater than the vote. Remember all the vote did was allow women to vote. It did not change laws against women or help bring them into the working society like the pill did. Even though the vote had no negatives for women, it still didn't do nearly for women what the pill did by allowing the women to become part of the working field and not have to have football-team families like they were having before.
Like everyone else, I agree that the pill more significantly empowered women in the 20th century than the vote did. When I first read this question, I automatically assumed that I would write about how the vote more significantly empowered women in the 1900’s, because I believed that it was the most important achievement in the women’s rights movement. However, after thinking about it and talking about it in class, the obvious choice of the vote being the most significant event, slowly turned around and became not so important at all. The main reason for my change of heart was because I asked myself, what did the vote do to help women? Obviously it gave women the right to vote, but beyond that their “subordinate condition had hardly changed” (Zinn 503). However, the pill had quite the opposite affect, and was called by some such as Loretta McLaughlin as the single most important factor for the equality of women in the 20th century (“The Pill”).
ReplyDeleteThe invention of the birth control pill helped to give women power to control themselves and their lives, and helped to liberate them from old society. The most direct affect of the pill was that it gave women control of their bodies by letting them control pregnancies and their sexual life. The pill led to “a world in which every woman is the presiding genius of her own body”, and if women had control of their bodies, then they had control of their lives (Zinn 513). The pill gave women control of their lives because it gave them economic opportunity and the freedom to have a job. By women taking the pill, they could control when they wanted to become pregnant, and could space out their pregnancies and could now not have to worry about having children at a early age, and could instead focus on their career and go to college. This economic opportunity that the pill provided led more women to go to college not to get a MRS degree, but a degree that would help their career. Additionally because employers did not have to worry about women missing work because of planned pregnancies thanks to the pill, women were now able to gain higher status jobs with their new degree such as becoming doctors and lawyers. Overall, the pill helped women in so many ways and significantly empowered them more in the 20th century than anything else.
I agree with the fact that the pill gave women the most empowerment in the twentieth century. In 1920 women received the right to vote through the nineteenth amendment after years of suffering and fighting for their rights. After gaining this right, women didn’t really face freedom or equality. Zinn stated “…attitudes toward women did not seem to have changed much since the twenties” (504). As many of you have already said the 19th amendment only gave women the right to vote, not much more. For a very long time women were taught that “their role was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers” (Friedan 1). They were also “taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents”(Friedan 1). Women were acting as if they had no rights in society, which demonstrated their “struggle for change” (Zinn 504). These women were following the tradition of their roles and not embracing their potential until the pill came around.
ReplyDeleteLater in the 20th century when the women were introduced to the pill they no longer contained “a sense of dissatisfaction” (Friedan 1). Women were able to control the amount of children that they had, making their freedom and opportunity greater. They no longer had the need to have sex, therefore causing them to marry very young and rushed, they could have sex before marriage and continue their education. These women were given much more breathing room when they had access to the pill causing them to have economic stability and a sense of empowerment. When the pill caused them to have side effects women came together, and the protesters demanded safety. When the pill was seen as safe women began to fully embrace their freedom, and when the pill was seen as unsafe women spoke up and defended themselves. This pill was much more empowering than the vote because the women took action.
While the 19th amendment allowed women to vote, it did little to make them truly equal to men. For example, even by 1967, though "women were 50 percent of the voters... they held 4 percent of the state legislative seats, and 2 percent of the judgeships" (Zinn). Officially, women had the same rights as men regarding voting, but the vast majority of the government was still made up of men. Working conditions were also severely unjust as, "the median income of the working woman was about one-third that of the man" (Zinn). By 1969. " women were 40 percent of the entire labor force of the US" (Zinn). However, the majority worked the jobs that the media "designated" for women, such as teachers, cooks, and secretaries. Women were not given the same opportunities as men economically despite their right to participate in the government.
ReplyDeleteThe pill allowed for women to deviate from the house-wife stereotype and pursue careers formerly designated for only men. Prior to the pill, women rushed into marriage in order to have sex... but were then bombarded by children that they were unready or incapable of handling. With the pill, women did not have to rush into marriage as they were free to have sex as they pleased without the risk of having a child. Women were able to enter into professional careers such as law and medicine as employers didn't have to worry about women becoming pregnant in the middle of a big case, for example. Young marriage and pregnancy was no longer a women's inevitable destiny - the birth control pilled allowed for countless social and economic opportunities for women as they were no longer a slave to their body's will. Though women had already been present in the workforce, the pill allowed for them to hold respected, skillful jobs rather an unskilled factory job. The large presence of women in the current-day workforce in the US would not have been possible without the birth control pill.
The birth control pill has had an impact on more women than the 19th amendment. Approximately "eighty percent of all American women born since 1945 have taken the pill" (the pill). In comparison, only 46.2% of American women 18 and older reported voting in 2010. Not only does it have an impact on more women, but the impact that the pill has on a woman is far more significant than the impact that a vote has. One woman's vote will not change the present state of her life. In great numbers, it may have an effect on an election, but at least in the modern day, there is never a great disparity between the candidates that men and women vote for. According to the Center for the American Women and Politics, there has never been a gap of more than 11% between the candidates that men and women have voted for since 1980. Still today, even though women have been voting for decades and compose half the population/voters, there has never been a female president. Men still dominate politics, leaving little room for the voice of women. The vote had little effect on the everyday lives of women.
DeleteOn the other hand, the pill completely changed the life of women. Prior to the pill, society's view of women was that they were largely dependent on men. After the pill, women were able to break free of this stereotype by being able to pursue education and careers. For the first time in history, women "became economically self-sustainable" (the pill).
After much incubation, I delivered and cradled the belief that the Pill and the topic of birth control gave life to the women's cause. All puns aside, the Pill paved the way for a bit more freedom for women economically, socially, politically, and even medically. At first, when Loretta McLaughlin stated, “the Pill did more for the equality of women than any other single factor, certainly, in the twentieth century,” I instantly doubted that big statement. Then I changed my viewpoint through Zinn and the Women’s Unit addressed beforehand. The vote functioned as a platform to make men and leaders of the nation understand how women needed to express their knowledge and femininity. For example, “women, after becoming involved in other movements of reform—antislavery, temperance, dress styles, prison conditions—turned emboldened and experienced, to their own situation” (Zinn 120). So, women were ready to make their voices heard on other issues and through the organization NAWSA they “reached across the boundaries of class and ethnicity” (Born for Liberty; Source/Era 3).
ReplyDeleteStill, the topic of birth control affected all women and was a topic that was addressed by many different members of society – from doctors, to priests, to legislative bodies. In the movie, “The Pill”, it was narrated that “the Pill would help launch a generation of activists, not only in the doctor's office, but in the streets, in the bedroom, in society.” Granting voting rights to women was a great way to instill hope in women but it did not completely change their role in society. Also, “after 1920, women were voting and their subordinate condition hardly changed,” (Zinn; 503). There was not change in society for women. Voting became an act, which affected the nation in a minor manner than expected. Don't get me wrong all that was done to receive the vote in 1920 was effective at the time but later on it's hype died down. Also, men still had the power over women as well and abused it. For example, in the chapter Surprises, Zinn talks about the rape of women by police officers. The pill offered more of itself to women everywhere, and all women could relate to the issue whereas voting was seen as “improper” by high society women, creating a break between classes and races. Historian, Linda Gordon felt that the pill “was amazing, it was amazing. I think there were a million users in a year and that's just a phenomenal, uh, rate of uptake, especially because you don't have this kind of direct advertising and because it's not an over-the-counter drug.”
The Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal” which is an overall statement for all civilians of society, including women, but women are not physically equal to men. Thus, when it comes to the issue of birth control women were fighting for their own specific treatment. The pill changed the lives of women overall because they were free to live their life without having to be dependent on men. Loretta McLaughlin said: “Women became lawyers because law firms no longer had to worry that the woman was going to get pregnant in the middle of a big case. Women became doctors because they could space their children so that they had time to do the internships and the residencies. Women went to work.” The Pill not only played an active role in the past, once the side effects were maintained, but it still plays an integral role of how women act today. I finally came to the point where I agree with the fact that the Pill did a lot for women and also to women.
It was believed that securing women the vote in 1920 would finally equalize the status of men and women in the United States. Suffragette, Elizabeth Cady Stanton proclaimed in 1848, “For I saw clearly that the power to make the laws was the right through which all other rights could be secured.” Though enfranchisement was monumental in the history of women, it still failed to give women the true freedoms and status that they both needed and desired. As professor Howard Zinn states, “After 1920, women were voting, as men did, and their subordinate condition had hardly changed” (Zinn, 503). The power of women having the vote failed to transpire through to other areas in which women were subordinate. By 1960, 40 years after women were first given the vote, 36% of women were working, however, “the median income of the working woman was 1/3 of the man” (Zinn, 504). In addition to pay inequality, women were also being treated unfairly in the workplace, oftentimes being punished if they had to take time off to care for their children. Though enfranchisement was hoped to be the changing force for the status of women, continual suppression shows that Stanton’s prediction did not hold true.
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1900s, society inculcated the idea that all women should become the perfect wives and mothers. Women were taught to find a husband and quickly start having children. They were supposed to be the perfect mother, the best-looking wife, and a gourmet cook. They were expected to have dinner on the table by the time the husband got home and to keep the house spotless. Author Betty Friedan states, “They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights” (Friedan). Women were valued for their appearance, domestic inclinations, and their childbearing potential. As the average marriage age of a woman dropped into the teens in the mid-1900s, fewer and fewer women completed college with actual degrees, instead with fake “MRS” and “PH.T” degrees. From early marriage, women began to have children, blocking the chances that they had at a career. Women were trapped into the roles of dutiful wife and mother by their own fertility.
With the introduction of The Pill in 1960, women had complete control over a major aspect of their own lives, something that placing a ballot in a voting box could not do for them. This gave women a sense of liberation, as they were able to pursue a career and a relationship at the same time. The idea of planned pregnancy opened up career paths that used to be unattainable to women because of the possibility of pregnancy, “Women became lawyers because law firms no longer had to worry that the woman was going to get pregnant in the middle of a big case. Women became doctors because they could space their children so that they had time to do the internships and the residencies. Women went to work” (“The Pill”). The Pill also gave women a sense of courage, they no longer were so dependent on men and did not feel as though they had to have a husband. More and more women began graduating college with degrees other than MRS’s or PH.T’s. As a result of the pill, women were able to achieve higher positions in better jobs, thus gaining economic freedom and personal liberation from men. The Pill gave women to opportunity to develop themselves and do something for themselves instead of becoming someone’s wife and someone’s mother. The Pill gave women much more empowerment than the vote.
Although women's acquisition of suffrage in 1920 is widely recognized as one of the biggest factors in the on-going effort to achieve gender equality, the evidence and information that I have been given covering both our first wave and second wave of the Women unit has led me to believe that the creation of a functioning birth control pill has played a bigger role in the battle for equality than the acquisition of the vote did. When watching the movie, The Pill, I had first found it foolish when the woman said that "the pill played the biggest factor in gaining freedom for women in the 20th century," to the point where in the reaction I wrote after watching the movie, I called this statement ridiculous. However, when my quarter group began to start brainstorming ideas for what the pill did for women, I slowly but surely came to the "ridiculous" conclusion that the pill did in fact play a huge role in gaining women freedom.
ReplyDeleteWhen brainstorming for this "for women vs. to women" table, I began to really reflect on what I had read in Zinn the night before and the though I had kept in the back of my mind all along when learning about women's fight for the vote, and that is if the right to vote really changed anything for the women. I mean, sure, the idea of having a voice and more power is definitely important, but I have to imagine that the majority of the thousands of women who eagerly voted once the nineteenth amendment was ratified left the voting ballots with a feeling of, "Is that all?" that seems to have plagued women for decades and even centuries. As a matter of fact, Howard Zinn comments on this idea further, stating, "After 1920, women were voting, as men did, and their subordinate condition had hardly changed" (503). Although women made sure to take advantage of this right, the actual voting process took up an extremely small portion of their life, and thus the right to vote did not really cause any women to feel any better about their submerged status, and left them to continue asking, "Is this all?"
Coming back to my revelation that the pill was, in fact, the gateway for women to gain equality, when looking back at my notes from the movie and from Sanger's articles, I realized that women's sole purpose was to become the woman of the house and have baby after baby that they would take care of, to the point where the most unfortunate were responsible for over a dozen children with no husband to help them along with the thousands of responsibilities that come with having more kids than you can count. This led me to truly understand that the birth control pill was the best and easiest solution to this horrible epidemic and feeling of "Is this all?" . Not only did the pill allow women to stop having baby after baby, but it also allowed women to focus on pursuing an education and ultimately achieving a career that they were interested in or had been really aiming for for their entire life. The pill acted as women's gateway to live individually and do something for themselves, instead of everything for everyone else, as the vast majority of women were forced to before the pill's existence because of the demands of being a housewife. Even though women just wanted the pill so that they could stop having a dozen kids, the pill achieved something much more powerful for them. The pill had finally allowed them to have a dreams and goals in their life and allowed them to pursue a career and education, just as men had at the time and for centuries prior. In essence, these women had believed that the vote would have a bigger impact than it actually did, while they had believed that the pill would have a smaller impact than it actually did. For these reasons, I have no choice but to believe that the pill more significantly empowered women in America in the 20th century.
Reading over all of the other posts, it seems as though we all have similar thoughts about the impact of the birth control pill. Its profound effect on women’s social and economic status has been explored. I found it really interesting to see how peoples’ initial reactions differed to both the film and Loretta McLaughlin’s statement that, “The Pill did more for the equality of women than any other single factor, certainly, in the twentieth century” (The Pill). Personally, I had no hesitations when I initially heard the controversial statement. After seeing countless examples in the film and Margaret Sanger’s work of women trapped by fertility and children, I immediately agreed. However, reading posts by people such as Robby and Jack made me think about how dynamic and profound both the vote and the Pill were. Their evidence as to why the Pill was much more powerful, along with the film and readings from class, I was able to grasp to true effects of the Pill. As mentioned by many, the Pill gave women the opportunity to purse careers, not just low-level jobs. They could develop themselves and were not destined to be just a wife and mother. As Sylvia Clark said, “Women began to see themselves for the first time in all of history as economically self-sustainable units” (The Pill). Combining this with the knowledge of women’s subordinate status in society at the time of the Pill’s introduction, I began to question if the Food and Drug Administration. They approved the Pill in 1960, giving way into a sexual revolution and the liberation of women. Were they conscious of the profound effects of the Pill, far beyond that of preventing pregnancy? Still, 52 years after the Pill was introduced in the United States, women earn 77 cents on every dollar that a man in the same position earns (Fitzpatrick). Additionally, only 15% of corporate business leaders are women (Sandberg). Women were ready for liberation and equality, however proper laws were not set in place in order to protect the integrity of the newly free woman.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what everyone has been saying about the impact of the birth control pill. I completely agree with what the movie said, “The Pill did more for the equality of women than any other single factor, certainly, in the twentieth century” (The Pill). After seeing many examples of women being liberated by the pill only reaffirms the idea that the pill did much more for women than attaining the vote. Since everyone has similar ideas, a question I want to pose is how much has the pill actually affected women today in other aspects of lfe? Looking into this, I wanted to know how many women vote today and how many women have obtained their bachelor’s degrees. The first number, what percent of women vote, I didn’t find surprising, 46.2%. When I looked up how many women are actually getting Bachelor’s Degree’s I was shocked; according to infoPlease.com, “29.6% of women 25 and older who had obtained a bachelor's degree or more as of 2010” (U.S. Census Bureau). From what I understood from the documentary, the pill allowed more women to become doctors because the pill would allow them to spread out when they had babies and allowed them to become lawyers because they would not have to disappear in the middle of a case to have a baby. But the fact that only 29.6% of women had actually attained a bachelor’s degree or more astounds me.
ReplyDeleteBy the time of doing this second post, I would have surely thought that someone would have disagreed with me and said that the vote was more empowering to women than the pill was in the 20th century, but no one has. Like Katie said, everyone who has posted so far has said that the pill was the most empowering, and most people gave similar reasons as to why as well. However, I believe that the pill was the most significant significant to women in the 20th century not because of the fact that it just prevented pregnancy, but because of the effect that it had on the women's rights movement.
ReplyDeleteThe pill allowed women to take full control of their bodies like they never had been able to before. This was important to women, because as Adrienne Rich said "women are controlled by…their bodies" (Zinn 512). The pill let women take over their bodies and led them to take control of their bodies even further. Soon the influential book called Our Bodies, Ourselves was published, and gave information on "women's anatomy, on sexuality and sexual relationships, on lesbianism, on nutrition and health, on rape, self-defense, venereal disease, birth control, abortion, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause" which led women to take even further control of their bodies and their lives (Zinn 512). However, the pill did not just redefine women physically, but emotionally and mentally too. In the 1960's, "womens groups" began to become popular, and allowed women to rethink their roles, gain confidence, and create a feminine bond. These "womens groups" were "perhaps the most profound effect of the women's movement of the sixties" (Zinn 511). The pill allowed women to liberate themselves from old society through many ways such as through the body and through "womens groups". By the pill giving women so many more opportunities, they were able to begin to break the gender barrier, and were starting to bring about gender equality. The pill, used by 85% of all American women, influenced and empowered women more than anything else in the 20th century.
I also agree that the pill had more of an impact on women's empowerment than suffrage did. There is no doubt that suffrage and the pill were major contributors to the power of women today, but the condition of women in the years between the suffrage movement and the development of the pill was static. pill gave women control of themselves and their own bodies, which I believe to be more significant than a vote. Women's status in society didn't change much after they gained suffrage, as they were still stuck at home raising children. The pill changed women's views of themselves, and that's what's empowering. As stated in the movie The Pill, "Women began to see themselves for the first time in all of history as economically self-sustainable units. And that I think was one of the most profound changes." The pill enabled women to have careers because employers no longer had to worry about them getting pregnant and not being able to stay. Less women were getting married right out of college, whereas previously most women were engaged by the time college graduation came around. For the women that were married and worked, that meant more stay-at-home dads emerged, because someone had to stay home with the kids. I think this was more equalizing than the right to vote because it's a question of self-power rather than voting someone else into power.
ReplyDeleteIn Margaret Sanger's work, "Hard Facts", she asked the nurse who she gathered the stories from why she believed in birth control. The nurse's response was, "to avoid the awful waste of time, strength, life, and money." When the pill was produced decades after this was written, it accomplished this. Women were physically more powerful than they were previously, without the torture of 10+ pregnancies. This enabled them to be stronger mentally as well. Women's worlds changed completely after the pill was created because they were no longer prisoners in their own homes and to their own husbands. This is a much more noticeable difference than that of women's health after the suffrage movement. Gaining suffrage did not impact women's mental, physical, and emotional health.
According to the 2010 Census, 46.2% of women voted in the congressional election. Meanwhile, an estimated 80% of women have taken the pill (The Pill). The pill has had a greater affect on women, and "would help launch a generation of activists, not only in the doctor's office, but in the streets, in the bedroom, in society" (The Pill). The effect of the pill will last through generations of American women.
I agree with you about women seeing more in themselves but I also think that could be applies to women attaining the vote as well. In order to attain the vote, they had to get out into society and campaign for their idea. In order to do this, they had to look inside themselves and completely break the social norms of women for the time period. They had to become more independent and strong enough to last through the worst things that would be thrown at them. I also like the way that you applied the idea of women's self control to the pill. In Chapter 19, Zinn said that the pill led to “a world in which every woman is the presiding genius of her own body”, and if women had control of their bodies, then they had control of their lives (513).
DeleteIt seems clear to me that pretty much everyone had the same opinion in this issue. You guys are all like, "The pill was the key to equality! Let's all kneel for the pill." Alright I'll admit it; even I favored the pill in my previous post. And truth is, I still do. Nevertheless, I do regret saying something like this in my women suffrage paper, "The obtainment of the 19th amendment marked a new start for women. It made them equal to men for once and for all." Although this statement sounds completely outrageous considering the major impact of the pill, I would still like to give the obtainment of the vote some credit. I guess I'll be that guy who stands up for the victim. For starters, I just want to point out that the ratification of the 19th amendment was the spark that led to the sexual revolution. The achievement of the vote is very important because it entirely changed women's mentality. Women were like, "Alright this country finally recognizes us. So now what's next?" And just like that, little by little women like Margaret Sanger were seeking for more change, eventually inventing a pill for birth control. I don't think men would have allowed women to use this pill had they not been able to vote. Before the vote was obtained, men believed most women were to be in the home solely to clean the house and take care of the children. So why would men want them taking pills so that they could get out of the house to pursue careers? Who would clean the house and take care of the children? I don’t think most men would want to that. This is why the ratification of the 19th amendment gave women more power. And with this power they were able to develop the pill.
ReplyDeleteI really like that idea Diego that the acquisition of the vote is what paved the way for the women to create the pill and thus greatly impact the freedoms they gained as the century 20th century went on. As I mentioned before, after women acquired the vote, they did not experience any tangible change in their lives, and thus began to realize that they needed much more than the power to vote to help them rise from their submerged status. Even though women took advantage of their power to vote, with women making up 50% of all voters in 1960 (Zinn 504), they realized that their position in society would hardly increase. This led for women throughout America to continue fighting for decades for a way to finally gain some equality, and had to have been aided heavily by the fact that they were able to pull off a major change before when the 19th amendment was ratified, so why not have another major change to really bolster their position in society? One thing led to another, and by 1960, Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick had invented a functioning birth control pill that allowed women to pursue education and careers that didn't have to do with raising children or domesticity. Although it is a unanimous decision by our HUSH class that the pill played a greater role in gaining women equality in the 20th century, the vote is what allowed the pill to happen. Nearly every woman throughout American had probably believed that the vote would be the key to gender equality, but once they discovered that it barely had an impact on getting them out of society's trenches, they were able to realize that they desperately needed something to help them. Not only this, but the actual acquisition of the vote at least was inspiring to the women, and made them confident that if they really wanted something, then they could achieve it. Thus, although the vote had no prominent direct effect on the treatment of women in the 20th century, it acted as the spark for women throughout America to fight for equality and a solution to the "Is this all?" question.
DeleteI also agree with Diego. The right to vote is what paved the way for women even to think about leading free lives. At least before women had the Pill they could vote and have a little say about what happens in their country. Before they were allowed to vote, they had no say. They were much more opressed before they could vote. The pill probably would not have been created when it was if women were not demanding it. The only way that women's demands would be heard was if they had some rights. The only way that they had some rights was the fact that they could now vote. The Pill was definitly immediatly more significant than the right to vote, but the right to vote was what started the womens movement.
DeleteAs nearly everyone has said, I believe the pill more significantly empowered women in the 20th century than women gaining the vote did. Prior to viewing, “The Pill”, I would have thought women gaining the vote would have been much more significant than birth control. The vote had been a major nationwide movement and there were years of effort put into achieving it. Thus, it seemed that women gaining the vote was synonymous with them having equal rights to men. Because of this, it seemed the pill, which was created with much less of a movement, would have much less of an impact. However, after watching, “The Pill”, I realized that birth control impacted nearly everything in a women’s life, while the vote only affected politics. For example, in the movie The Pill, Loretta McLaughlin says “Women became lawyers because law firms no longer had to worry that the woman was going to get pregnant in the middle of a big case. Women became doctors because they could space their children so that they had time to do the internships and the residencies. Women went to work.” This possibility for women to actually work without the disruption of having children, would finally give women the opportunity to be independent. This independence would make women less concerned with finding a husband immediately out of college. In contrast, when women had the vote, but no pill, they believed getting married was more important than anything else was. For example, Betty Friedan describes a girl who “refused a science fellowship at Johns Hopkins to take a job in a real-estate office. All she wanted, she said, was what every other American girl wanted - to get married, have four children and live in a nice house in a nice suburb.” (Feminine Mystique) The pill would encourage women to finish their education, rather than getting immediately married. Through this higher education, women would attain higher level jobs and be much more valuable to society than when the majority were housewives with the vote. The vote was extremely important, and proved the power of the women movement. In addition, the vote altered the view of women in the 20th century, and made the creation and distribution of the pill possible. However, the social and economical impact that the pill had on women in the 20th century was much greater than the impact of the vote.
ReplyDeleteAt first, it would be logical to assume that women acquiring suffrage in 1920 was much more important than the birth control pill. However, after watching "The Pill," it is obvious that this is not the case.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the birth control pill was a more vital factor in women's battle for equality. This is the case because the vote did not affect everyone. The vote mainly affected the wealthy women on America. Many middle class and lower class women were not able to vote, thus the attainment of suffrage had no affect on them. However, the wealthy and elite women are the ones who get all the attention in the media. This is the reason that I believe the acquisition of the vote is made to seem like a very big deal.
Contrarily to the vote, the birth control pill affected everyone. From the elites to people living on the streets. As "The Pill" said, “The Pill did more for the equality of women than any other single factor, certainly, in the twentieth century” (The Pill). I completely agree with this statement. In addition to helping so many different people. It helped them in a wide variety of ways. For example, one way that it helped was that it allowed women to attain more prestigious jobs. In the movie it mentioned how women could not be doctors or lawyers because they could become pregnant during their residency or during a big trial. No firm or hospital would want this to happen. However, the pill made it a women's choice as to when/if she wanted to get pregnant. One way that it helped lower class women is they were able to limit the amount of children they were having. This allowed them to not have an insane amount of children that they couldn't take care of. The articles we read in particular, gave many examples of cases like this and they were very powerful examples.
One last statistic that I found amazing was that, "According to the 2010 Census, 46.2% of women voted in the congressional election. Meanwhile, an estimated 80% of women have taken the pill" (The Pill). This quantifies the belief that the pill was more important because it directly affects more people than the vote does
After reading everyone's posts, it seems like everyone is saying that the pill was a bigger factor in women's equality than the vote. I agree with this claim too. However, I think it would be a good idea to look at this from the other side and examine possible arguments as to why the vote could be regarded as more important than the pill. One argument could be that women's suffrage marked the day where women were seen to be equal to mean by the law, in at least one way. Prior to 1920, it was regarded as common knowledge that women were less smart than men. This is why they were expected to stay at home and do chores such as cooking and cleaning all day. When they attained the vote, it was the equivalent of men admitting that women were not less smart. In addition, women could now have a say in who runs our country. Prior to the attainment of the vote, women had absolutely no say in who the president would be. Considering that the president basically runs the entire country, that is a pretty big deal. However, when they attained the vote they were finally able to vote for who they believed would do the best job running our country. I believe this is a perfectly valid argument in itself. However, while I do agree with all the evidence I just laid out, I feel the pill was even more important in the ongoing battle for women's equality than the vote.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the idea that bobby pointed out, I want to address the issue that some people may be biased towards the pill since it is the unit that we are currently studying. While in my first post, I was so clear cut in that I believed the pill was far superior for women rather than the vote, but I reflected on the issue and came up with one argument that is critical to the discussion of this topic, religion. The religion of women during the years leading up to the women attaining the vote, had zero relevance on the issue. This allowed for almost full participation in the campaign to acquire suffrage as opposed to what happened when women wanted birth control. The religion caused no problem for women to vote, but it soon became a complex situation for christian women when in 1968 Pope Paul IV banned the birth control. This issue tore women apart because either they could continue to have their football team sized families and continue being a practicing catholic or have a few children but remove any ties to the church. Unlike the Birth Control situation, women attaining the vote had no ramifications based on religion. So while the pill benefited the women greatly, it also forced catholic women to choose sides which possibly makes the vote better for women than the pill.
DeleteI agree with you about the idea that this argument should be looked at from both sides. While the social status of women after suffrage may have not changed much, their political status changed greatly. Now our Constitution was a step closer to becoming true, as "We people in order to form a more perfect union" not only included men but women as well. The act of voting showed that women had a say in government and this had the potential to include new legislature that favored women more. This also was one of the first instances where women stood up in order to fight for what they wanted. The act of picketing the White House during World War II was an example of this because this was the first time a war time president had ever been picketed. Helen Keller stated, "We vote? What does that mean?" (Zinn 503). The act of voting in this case is not as important as the struggle to acquire the vote because it showed that women were capable of going outside the home and fighting for their own rights. Therefore, while the pill may have had the most impact on women in everyday life, acquiring the vote was the first big step for women in attaining equal rights.
DeleteBobby, I agree with with the fact you think it is just as important to address the vote as the pill, and after reading both your post and the replies to it, I have formed my own stance on the topic. It is critical to understand the difference between the tangible effects and symbolistic significance the two events had. I have confidence, as do many of my other peers on this blog, when saying that the pill had a much greater effect on the changing face of women in the U.S. - it simply created more opportunities for women to excel in society. Even the controversy over the side effects of the pill gave women power, as described from the movie "The Pill", it gave women media coverage an opportunity to practice their right of free speech. However, when it comes to how vital the vote was for women, looking at a large period of time, it can go back and forth when determining whether the pill was more powerful. As Jocelyn mentions in one of her blog posts, my quarter group noticed the forty year gap between the suffrage movement and the emergence of the pill, when it seems women had fallen back into their secondary roles in society. In short, my argument is that while no immediate effects were taken after the vote was gained by women, the lasting benefits helped fuel things like the pill movement and the description of the modern day "Positive Woman." Basically, the vote was a seed that grew into many different possibilities for women - it just took a little while to break the surface.
DeleteAs many of us have stated, it has been agreed “The Pill did more for the equality of women than any other single factor, certainly, in the twentieth century” (The Pill). I agree with jack that at first when hearing this statement I thought that it was a crazy thing to say. We had studied women’s suffrage for so long, and learned how important them getting the vote was, that I thought this statement was completely wrong, until I discussed with my quarter group. Alike Zack, this also leaves me interested in how the pill has affected women today. When reading Myra Wolfgang’s testimony before the senate I saw that “the service industries which I represent comprise more than 5.5 million women workers…”(1). In addition to just those service industries women are now half of the employees on employee pay rolls. Heckler, who wrote a testimony for the Equal Rights Amendments discussed the problem of how women forty years ago were not seen in the higher offices, which didn’t highlight their abilities. According to American progress.org “most workers under 40 today have never known a workplace without women bosses and women colleagues”. I still believe that the pill achieved much opportunity for women, but I agree with Zack in the amount of women who have gotten their bachelors degree.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of the idea of how the pill has affected women today, another statistic is that there are an estimated 84 million mothers in the United States today, and only about 5 million are stay-at-home mothers (2010 US Census). In addition to the dropping number of stay-at-home mothers, statistically, more women work in management or professional positions than men do. This is in sharp contrast to the early 20th century when almost all women were stay-at-home mothers. The pill has continued to give women this freedom. Even though for every dollar a man makes a woman makes less, the situation has improved since the time of the pill's creation. Women at the very least are being hired. Halie made a good point that I agree with when she said, "when women had the vote, but no pill, they believed getting married was more important than anything else was". The pill has showed women that they can be independent, and that there is more to life than finding an husband-- like finding a career. As people have already said, the pill really revolutionized women's position in the work force.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading everyone else’s posts, I think we almost all agree that birth control had a larger effect on women in the 20th century than women obtaining the vote. Women having the vote had little effect on their day to day lives, unlike the pill. However, I think the importance of the vote lies more in the movement to gain the vote than the actual vote. The women’s suffrage movement created the necessity for parties such as NAWSA and the NWP to form. Also, the movement brought the issue of women’s rights to attention. All of these events would make any further movement more achievable. However, the formation of women political parties and women’s rights becoming a more relevant issue, most likely, had very little effect on the average women. Thus, the pill, which nearly all women could use, would have a much more widespread affect on women.
ReplyDeleteAlso, even though the pill was very beneficial to women, there would still be many issues remaining afterwards. As some people have mentioned, it seemed after women gained suffrage, women would be equal to men, however, they were not. In addition, after birth control, women still faced many problems. For example, it has been discussed how with the pill, way more women would be able to work at higher level jobs. However, after more women began working because of the pill, other issues were formed. For example, many women needed places to send their children while at work, “There was a push for child care centers, and although women did not succeed in getting much help from government, thousands of cooperative child care centers were set up.” (Zinn 510) Thus, while the pill solved many issues for women, there were still problems present. Also, the pill has been around for numerous years now, but, as people have shared, there are still much more men who work than women. Therefore, the pill greatly affected society, and aided towards women becoming more than housewives; however, it did not make men and women equal.
Along with basically everyone in the class, I agree that the pill was a very significant part in gaining equality for women. However, I believe that the Vote was equally as significant. Without both of the events, women would not have come as far as they did. Although the women's suffrage movement took a much longer time, and not much occurred after the movement for a while, it gave women the first push to try to gain better rights for themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt did seem, however, that at some points they started from scratch again after the suffrage movement. Women had the same problems and felt the same way. The first connection that I made between the time periods was from Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. In the first paragraph, as I mentioned in class, it talks about how women felt like they had to deal with these problems all alone. Friedan wrote, "each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night - she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question - 'is this all?'" At some points, it was all. But soon the women would come to realize that they had the power to change everything. The birth control pill was a huge influence in the way that women view themselves and they could finally pursue everything that they wanted to, even though times were still hard.
In the SNL episode from this weekend, a sketch opened up with a character saying “this morning, I took away my wife's birth control pills. I told her it was not her choice. We laughed, and she cried.” This, although not a super credible source, shows that the problems still continued, and everyone knew it.
I agree with you hannah, I believe that a confluence of events including the birth control pill and the 19th amendment empowered women and allowed them to gain the position that they now hold in society. However, it was not just these two events that aided them on this journey. Other events including the creation of the National Council Of Negro Women, which "lobbied against job discrimination, racism, and sexism," the creation of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the "first lesbian organization in the United States," and the Equal Pay Act also contributed to empowerment of women (Infoplease.org). These factors also did not just benefit the average white women - instead they helped to aid minorities including african american women and lesbians.
DeleteWhile suffrage was an important step for women in gaining equality, the benefits and outcomes of the pill were much more beneficial than those of the vote. According to Howard Zinn, "After 1920 women were voting, as men did, and their subordinate condition had hardly changed" (Zinn 503). Even after the vote women were still confined to their homes and they had no control over their own bodies. Poor women were forced to constantly have kids which they were enable to provide for and the act of frequent childbirth took a large toll on their bodies. In 1919 Margaret Sanger stated, "Mollie K, was 34 years old. She was brought to the hospital three weeks after the birth of her twelfth child; only five of her children are living... The doctors called her illness Septicemia but ought to have added death due to exhaustion" (Sanger). The pill provided a way to get out of this and prevent excessive childbirth but women still did not have full control over their bodies even with the option of the pill. Women were told to listen unconditionally to their doctors and even when they felt serious harm to themselves from the pill they were "ordered" to stay on it. This led to strokes and cancer in some women, which shows that although the pill was meant to do a good deed by preventing women from having too many babies, it also harmed them because of the excessive amounts of hormones in it. However, even with these side effects the pill's effect on women was much greater than that of the vote because it prevented serious issues in women's lives. Attaining the vote may have been a big step but after it women were still downgraded in society and the research and development of the pill showed that women wanted to take control of the harm caused to them from a multitude of pregnancies.
ReplyDeleteAll right, well clearly after spending two months and a half on suffrage we all now believe that the Pill is the biggest thing to happen in the twentieth century, after watching a hour long video. That just goes to show how powerful the Pill really is. Having a group of twenty or so kids change their opinion within an hour, is really impressive. Joan McCracken describes it as, “When women started doing this, it was just like: "Wow." It was truly a wow. How do they have enough courage? And they don't seem to be concerned whether they have a guy or not. They don't seem to be concerned whether they have an MRS degree or not. And it was...it was revolutionary to me. Me with the five children”(The Pill). The pill also helped bring on the feminist movement forward. The equality movement ended when the founders died, but the pill revived that desire for change.
ReplyDeleteA second reason I believe the pill most significantly empowered women of the 20th century is because it fell in line with Phyllis Schlafly’s philosophy of the Positive Woman. Alice Paul and her supporters more closely aligned with label “Women’s Liberationist,” which Schlafly criticized. She explained of the Liberationists, “Confrontation replaces cooperation as the watchword of all relationships. Women and men become adversaries instead of partners.” This statement encompasses the suffragist movement. Alice Paul blamed President Wilson for the undignified way in which they were treated, and she lead the movement targeting men. Schlafler argued, “If man is targeted as the enemy, and the ultimate goal of women’s liberation is independence from men, then lesbianism is logically the highest form of women’s liberation.” Although this is a little extreme, I agree with her theory. If women want to become equal to men, fighting men will not gain them any respect. The leaders of the birth control movement did fault any race, culture, or sex to obtain their goal. They advocated for birth control to become equal to men economically and socially, yet never blamed them for the conditions in which they lived. Birth control was fought for by women, for women, so they could enter and benefit a man’s world. It wasn’t a war of the sexes, which is why I believe The Pill was so effective in the progression of their society.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up some very interesting points about how birth control was fought for, and how it was fought by women for women. And it was, but when the pill first came out it was given to black women like candy. In the movie, The Pill, birth control was feared by certain races of women, blacks, for example because women thought that they would be targeted. Although it was a fight mostly done by women, for women, I don’t think that all women were happy with it all the time. I think that women who felt targeted were probably grateful, but also feared that the whites were trying to get rid of them like a version of soft genocide. Another example, from the movie, The Pill, of how birth control was used against certain races was when there was research done on women in Puerto Rico. The white women who were pushing for the pill needed women to test the new pill on and this could not be done in the U.S. because of the Comstock Laws. Instead, the research was done in Puerto Rico on women who desperately were looking to stop having babies. However, this was almost a way of targeting a group of women that were thought of as not as important as American women. It’s interesting to see how there can be damage done within the fight. Yes, the pill was fought by women and for women, but the journey to the fight was not always in the best interest of all women.
DeleteAlthough gaining the right to vote was a great stride for women, like all of the other posts, I also think that it was the pill that actually allowed women more freedom. I think that when women gained the right to vote it sounded better than it actually was. Even women who lived long after 1920, agreed that suffrage did not grant women the freedom they expected. In 1970, Myra Wolfgang said that the Equal Rights Amendment would not guarantee equality and that it was “as invalid as to assume that because women have suffrage they are independent.” Sure women could now have a voice in government, but this would only affect a certain group of women, the upper and middle class women who were educated. There was really no difference for the lower class women.
ReplyDeleteThe lower class women still had the same problems as before gaining the vote. They still had huge families that they could not support on their own and their husbands were no help. In Margaret Snager’s “Hard Facts,” she wrote that “Another woman has five living children out of eleven pregnancies. Of the living children, one is mentally deficient, and not one of the five is sound physically. Three died during infancy, and three criminal abortions were performed.” These women had no control over whether they got pregnant or not based on their situation and many lower class women experienced similar situations as the one described in “Hard Facts.” The vote would not allow women the control over their bodies that the pill alllowed.
As time passed, even educated women looked to get married early and have large families. There was nothing that could stop them from having children, until the pill. In the fifties, “the average age of women in American dropped to 20”(Friedan). Women would go to college to find husbands just to start a family. Even these educated women still wanted the lifestyle of a housewive, however after many kids, this lifestyle was no longer worth it.
When the pill came out, lower class women could work longer hours because they did not have to worry about as many children. The middle and upper class women could go to college and put off children to have a career. This idea of actually being able to support one’s self rather than rely on a man for money and still have children, became more popular because of the pill. With the pill, women were able to gain control over their own bodies and decide whether they wanted children and when they wanted children. The pill was the first time that women were able to decide their future easily, which the vote could not provide.
As stated above Woman before the Pill were "more fully identified as a slave than man can possibly be" (Class Doc). Due to this the Pill greatly increased their ability to branch out from their original position in the home to jobs throughout the country. But, as many people have stated above the Vote was just as important as the Pill. I do not fully agree with this. Yes, if the Woman had not received the ability to vote then they would not have had as much freedom that they got from the Pill. But, if Woman had only gotten the ability to vote where would they be now? They would be in the same "yellow wallpaper" "perfect life" stereotype of the 50's and 60's where the Woman ran the house and had the hardest job in the country.
ReplyDeleteNow, after the Pill woman got much more involved with the work force. According to Myra Wolfgang there are more than "5.5 million women workers and there are an additional 5 million women employed in wholesale and retail trades" (Class Doc). These numbers represent the mass amount of women now applying for jobs because they can control their social and personal life.
After discussing with my quarter group, we came to the conclusion that the pill had a significantly more powerful impact on the role of women than the gain of women's suffrage. The big reason behind this opinion is the fact that the pill simply produced more changes for more women across the board. The pill was able to control the large amounts of children that women were producing, create job opportunities for women that did not have to worry about taking maternity leaves, and to simply have more control on how they spent their domestic lives. As we watched the movie "The Pill" in class, they mentioned how women were able to become lawyers and receive higher degrees in education, quite the change from a time when "[...] girls would not study physics: it was 'unfeminine'" (Friedan). However, this incredible response from women suddenly applying themselves to their full potential could be observed to be a product of the conditions that were specific to the time period. Women were pushed to their limits from the baby-boom; with an average of around four kids before the age of thirty, and no chance to re-enter the workplace, the pill could be viewed as a godsend for these desperate women. However, forty years earlier, when suffrage was finally gained for women, women had a much more active role in society. With WWI just ending as women gained the vote, they had a larger amount of women with wartime jobs and a more concrete sense of freedom - they were not as desperate as late 50's/early 60's women to balance out quality between men and women. With all factors included though, the pill did much more to change the role of women.
ReplyDeleteWomen who were on the pill struggled with many side effects and difficulties. They never knew how detrimental it could be to their own health, and when they went to their doctors, they were prescribed more and more medication which did not benefit or alleviate their symptoms. At first, no one dared think that it was the birth control pills causing so many problems, however it ended up being completely an issue of the medicine. The FDA told doctors and the medical community that the pill was safe, so the doctors told this to their patients. Everyone believed it, until 3 women died during the trial in Puerto Rico (The Pill). This was one of the first sparks of the protests which helped women get the pill's levels of hormones lowered and “different relationships” with their doctors. These were main factors that granted women the ability to stand up for themselves. Brave women spoke out against society to gain these important developments in science, and they had the ability to speak out against the science to take it one step further to save themselves.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I believe the pill more significantly empowered women in the 20th century. The vote focused on the political aspect of women's equality, while the pill empowered women socially. I agree with the other posts that say that women gained more freedom from the pill. In enabled women to go to get an education and control their future.
ReplyDeleteIf I hadn't seen the movie, "The Pill" and someone had told me that the pill empowered women more than suffrage, I would have found that ridiculous. In "Hard Facts," Sanger explained why she believed in birth control, by giving several examples of women who need the pill. One example says, "One of my mothers has been the victim of fifteen pregnancies. She now has five living children. One of them is permanently deaf from an old case of otitis." Suffrage would not affect women like this at all. But the pill did have that power.
Although the vote positively affected women forever, the pill directly affected them in a way that the vote could not.