Birth control, whether It’s a pill, an implant, an IUD, or something else, it seems to be just an ordinary part of a woman’s day. Perhaps it’s seen as a part of a daily routine, and for some, it’s hardly even thought about. Birth control nowadays is taken for reasons starting from regulating menstrual cycles to clearing acne from the skin to reducing the chances of unplanned pregnancy. However, the history of the female contraceptives has had tremendous impact on the way society and the economy functions today. Something that seems as routine as taking a pill every day has so much historical and social impact. The emergence of the birth control pill has influenced modern day feminism, and has allowed women to enter the workforce, contribute to society, and become key actors in the international economy. Additionally, its emergence facilitated long- lasting societal views of sexism and racism by contributing to malicious attacks on gender within the communities of color.

The emergence of female contraceptives, in many cases, provided women with the opportunities to enter the workforce, ultimately giving way to modern day feminism. Birth control allowed women to escape the role of caregiving mothers, delay pregnancy, and enter the workforce. The feminist movement today focuses largely on female participation in the workforce, particularly in high level positions. Birth control made way for women to put education and career first, so without it, modern day feminism would could very well have been much further behind in progression. The contribution of birth control and feminism has positively impact of the economy, and the overall inclusion of women in the workforce and continues to put revenue into the economy and benefit capitalism. Tone writes,

By focusing on capitalism as well as Capitalists, she is able to able to show how relations of domination and subordination are internalized within individuals. Reproductive freedom…requires not just information about birth control, important as that is, but freedom from the pressures of having children, and equally, the freedom to have children under healthy and socially liberating conditions (Tone 206)

Here, Fee explains the importance of female liberation from the home- making, child-bearing role. Birth control provided women with the ability to have children when they wanted to have children since it strengethend the economy and liberated women.

The birth control movement ignited systematic social change that allowed feminism to emerge and flourish, ultimately creating an environment more inclusive of women. Gordon writes, “The rise of women’s employment was one of the largest single factors contributing to demands for birth control, women’s sexual freedom, and women’s political rights” (Gordon 362). Here, Gordon explains the link between employment and birth control. As more women entered the workforce, the more the demand for birth control increased. The ability to delay pregnancy liberated women from traditional pre- industrial gender roles. Eswaran writes,

look at the enrollment over time of women in law and medical schools, because these professional degrees require considerable commitments of time. They found that these enrollment rates (as a proportion of all students enrolled in B.A. degrees) sharply increased around 1970—coinciding with the timing of when the pill was becoming available to single women (Eswaran 286).

Here, Eswaran explains how she found that with the emergence of available birth control, more women were enrolling in colleges to receive degrees. The relationship between birth control and college enrollment suggests that without the burdens of unplanned pregnancies, women were able to pursue professional jobs that they were never able to before. Holtzman writes, “Due to contraceptive access, these more advantaged women were able to plan for and delay childbearing and invest in their education and careers, resulting in higher labor force participation, better jobs, and higher wages” (Holtzman). Here, Holtzman links the availability of birth control to better education, better jobs, and higher pay for women. Birth control ultimately allowed women to invest more time in themselves rather than their children and families, therefore their success in the labor force was dramatically increased. Overall, the effects of birth control made way or women to be more involved in voicing their political rights and sexual freedoms.

Birth control created a market for women’s health and feminine products, making them primary consumers. Tone writes, “But it was profits from female contraceptives-sales of which outnumbered those of condoms five to one by the late 1930s-that fueled the industry's prodigious growth. Then, as now, women were the nation's leading contraceptive consumers” (Tone 486).

The sales of birth control became so high, women became primary consumers in the market. Markets were able to profit from the female spending, which contributed to the fueling of the economy. Tone writes, “Contraceptive manufacturers did not create the desire to control fertility, but they preyed on and compounded women's fears of pregnancy to reap higher profits. Printed ads and commissioned door-to-door sales representatives deliberately manipulated women's ignorance of the physiology of conception to hawk goods that were useless as contraceptives and dangerous to women's health” (Tone 487). Here, Tone explains the downfalls of birth control. Women had become such profitable consumers, that industries began to exploit them by selling sometimes dangerous products, marketing them to be safe and effective feminine products. Although women had become key players in the international economy, they were still set up to be exploited by the market. Despite the exploitation of women within the market, it is important to recognize that those who were the primary consumers were white women. The majority of women who were both benefiting from the advancements in birth control and being exploited by te market were white, and the minority women were either unable to afford it or being viciously controlled by it through racist sterilization.

When talking about the historical impacts the emergence of birth control has had on feminism and the economy, it is necessary to discuss the ways in which this has also facilitated racism and sexism, specifically on the women of color. History has shown that birth control use was mostly a privilege of white women and used as a weapon to facilitate heinous acts of sexism and racism against minority women. In the years between 1970 and 1980, the birthrate of indigenous women was 7 times higher than the birthrate of white women. However, Indigenous women were used by the government to reduce their birthrate by use of sterilization and birth control tactics. The use of birth control allowed the indigenous women to be heinously attacked by the government, which essentially facilitated racial and sexist population control. Birth control essentially gave the government the ability to encourage and carry out a genocide based on race and gender(Ralstin-Lewis).Additionally, in 1965, when the United States began to greatly encourage the widespread use of birth control, Brazil took it into their own hands to control the reproductive rights of black women. At the time, Brazilian’s racist rhetoric largely revolved around black women giving birth to criminal children. With complete disregard of social and economic disadvantages stemming from the era of slavery, the Brazilian government deemed it necessary to use birth control and sterilization tactics to control the population of black individuals (Dos Santos). Similar to the Indigenous women in the United states, The Brazilian government used birth control as a genocidal attack on the black women of the nation.

Birth control had considerable effects on the international political economy. The availability of birth control allowed women to take control of their own lives, rather than conforming to the pre- industrial gender roles of child- bearing and homemaking. From my research, it is clear that birth control was a significant influence on the feminist movement, which fueled the liberation of women, and provided them with freedom to pursue education, high paying jobs, and experience sexual freedom. The effects of the availability of birth control has led women to enter the workforce, contribute to the economy, and even become primary consumers of a market that advertises specifically to them. However, that is not without its downfalls. Women have become an exploited group because of the demand for contraceptives. Advertisers have marketed products that have been potentially ineffective and dangerous for their own profits and benefits. The ways in which the economy works makes the exploitation of women as a primary consumer exploitative. Additionally, the availability of birth control has been so often used as a weapon against the communities of color. Racist and sexist rhetoric and attitudes have been affirmed and facilitated by the governments of many nations. Birth control has allowed for racism and sexist to remain ingrained in cultures globally, by controlling the reproductive rights of women of color. While the emergence of birth control has been extraordinarily advantageous for the rise of feminism, we must remember that it mostly benefited the privileged, particularly white women, while it demonized and attacked women of color.

It’s difficult to see beyond something as routine as taking a small pill every day, but the impact of that small pill has been tremendous on the individual, national, and international level. The little pill that women take every day has guided them towards a strong movement of liberation from the constraints of pre-industrial gender roles and into the role as key players in the international economy. The ability to delay pregnancy safely has given women the opportunity to pursue education, careers, and sexual freedom, ultimately allowing them to contribute the international economy. Because of birth control, feminism has made its way into the sphere of the international political economy. However, the availability of birth control has allowed racism and sexism to remain ingrained in cultures all over the world. The racism against black and indigenous women fueled an attack on their reproductive rights against them. The genocides against them has only further facilitated racist and sexist ideology that are still prevalent today.