Melinda Gates's TED Talk about potential
global impacts of birth control.
In 1960, amid conversations about women's rights as well as population growth, the FDA approved the use of Enovid as an oral contraceptive. Women embraced the idea of "The Pill" immediately and 6,500,000 American women had prescriptions for it.
The Pill's results were profound. For the first time, women could decide when in their life they were going to have children and how many children they should have. This led to women having control of other aspects of their life. They were able to work. They were able to go to college. They were able to plan their life for decades ahead because they felt confident that children would not interfere with their plans. For all of these reasons, women could wait until they were older to get married. Demographers cite this as a reason why the fertility rate in the United States dropped rapidly after 1960.
Margaret Sanger was an early proponent
of birth control and women's rights.
Of course, there was opposition to contraceptives (as there still is today.) Producers of the birth control pill and condoms faced opposition from religious communities, as many felt the products interfered with the will of God. But social norms concerning sex and women's rights were changing rapidly, and by the 1980's the majority of Americans felt that contraction was acceptable and responsible.
A 1974 ad promoting birth control.
Concerns about the health effects of birth control pills (including links to cancer and blood clots) arose during the 1970's. Thus, a lower-dose version of the pill was introduced. The pill became easily available in other well-developed nations. Currently, about 100 million women worldwide take a birth control pill every day.
The dark blue circles represent African nations, where birth
control is rarely supplied but highly desired.
Women in Western civilizations are not the only ones who wish to have access to contraception. In a recent TED talk, Melinda Gates explained how many women in developing countries wish to take the pill, but find it unavailable. Gates recounts hearing about how, in Senegal, contraception is only available about 150 days out of the year.
Guatemala was one of the first developing nations to embrace birth control. Women there started using the pill in the 1970's. The nation saw some of the same social effects on women as the United States did. However, due to economic and social conflicts, only about 38% of Guatemalan women have access to the pill today.
The following maps compare percentages of women using contraception to the percentages of women with an unmeet need for contraception globally.
When it is available, birth control has great effects on nations in which women use it. Out of all of the African regions, Sub-Saharan Africa has the most birth control users. As a result, fertility rates seem to have gone down. Many feel that the introduction of birth control to developing nations is vital, as it will give women the opportunity to further their education, enter the workforce, and participate more in the economies of their nations.
Since its introduction, birth control has had an undeniable effect on the social and economic opportunities of women worldwide.
Sources:
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/contraceptive2011/wallchart_front.pdf
http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=5.59290322580644;ti=2002$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=0AkBd6lyS3EmpdFp2OENYMUVKWnY1dkJLRXAtYnI3UVE;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0TAlJeCEzcGQ;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=lin;dataMin=0.8;dataMax=96$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=0.836;dataMax=9.2$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BOTS9GAjc4&spfreload=10%20Message%3A%20JSON%20Parse%20error%3A%20Unexpected%20EOF%20(url%3A%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2BOTS9GAjc4)
http://www.globalization101.org/the-battle-over-birth-control-for-developing-nations/
https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-sixties-1960-1969-29/the-expansion-of-the-civil-rights-movement-220/the-sexual-revolution-and-the-pill-1226-9275/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131023090544.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment