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Modern Birth Control And Gender Roles Essay

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Before the introduction of modern birth control, gender roles emphasized the responsibility of women to conceive and raise children. Although this began to change in the in the mid-twentieth century, with the introduction of the first hormonal birth control pill, Enovid, taking place in 1960, it was not readily accessible during that time period (Buttar and Seward, 2009, p. 1-3). This did not change during the time period immediately following the introduction either; five years after the introduction of Enovid, there was still controversy surrounding the use of contraceptives. In the Supreme Court case of Griswold v. Connecticut, the legality of birth control on the market was debated, and the case concluded with the allowance of hormonal contraceptives, but it was limited to married couples only under the right of marital privacy (George and Lewis, 2016, p. 1). The controversy and secrecy that surrounded the use of birth control shortly after its introduction indicates that although it was certainly present and used in society during this time period, it still carried the negative social connotations of the past, which prevented it from being socially normalized. In contrast, the standardization of birth control in society took place decades later, from approximately the 1990 to 2010s.
In contemporary American society, birth control has become more readily accessible to women, which is indicated by the increased usage of contraception in society. The number of birth

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