PUBH 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: American Birth Control League, Gregory Goodwin Pincus, Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill
Women’s Health
● Gender: socially constructed role, behavior, activities and attributes
● Sex: biological and physiological characteristics
○ Male: higher death rates
● Many aspects of women’s health care were not based on evidence but instead
conjecture, superstition and outright chauvinism
○ Defined by biology: provide offspring
○ Women’s health was defined by adding women’s reproductive system to male
model
○ No considerations were given to the idea that differences existed between men
and women
○ Women bodies not seen as human beings
● 1920: 19th amendment ratified: given women right to vote
● Shift in demonstration in workforce: women entered workforce as men went to war
● Perceptions of women
○ Women as virgins
○ Delicate flower needing protection
○ Inferior being
○ property
○ Worth of women tied to market for marriage/childbearing
● Contraception (women as vessels)
○ 1850: egyptian pessary: earliest contraceptive device
■ Concoction: crocodile dung, honey and sodium carbonate
○ 15th century: glans used for contraception
○ 16th century: lienne condoms for protection against syphilis
○ 1873: comstock laws: made all forms of contraception illegal
● Margaret sanger (1879-1966)
○ Observed illegal abortions, poverty, high mortality rates, infant mortality
○ Opened first birth control clinic in 1916
○ 1921: founded american birth control league (planned parenthood federation of
america)
○ Family planning education
■ Understanding fertility, menstruation, empower women about
reproductive outcomes
○ 1951: Persuaded endocrinologist: gregory pincus to work on birth control pill
○ 1952: pincus tested progesterone in rats
■ Teamed with gynecologist john rock
○ 1954: rock and pincus conduct human trials on 50 women (disguised as fertility
study)
■ Went to FDA for licensure as product for “menstrual disorders”
● 1957 FDA approved sale for first oral contraception: enovid
Document Summary
Gender: socially constructed role, behavior, activities and attributes. Many aspects of women"s health care were not based on evidence but instead conjecture, superstition and outright chauvinism. Women"s health was defined by adding women"s reproductive system to male model. No considerations were given to the idea that differences existed between men and women. Women bodies not seen as human beings. 1920: 19th amendment ratified: given women right to vote. Shift in demonstration in workforce: women entered workforce as men went to war. Observed illegal abortions, poverty, high mortality rates, infant mortality. Opened first birth control clinic in 1916. 1921: founded american birth control league (planned parenthood federation of america) Understanding fertility, menstruation, empower women about reproductive outcomes. 1951: persuaded endocrinologist: gregory pincus to work on birth control pill. 1954: rock and pincus conduct human trials on 50 women (disguised as fertility study) Went to fda for licensure as product for menstrual disorders .
