Coming in to this course, I did not know what to expect due to the fact that I have never taken a women and gender studies course. Now that we are at the end of the course and I am able to reflect on what I have learned, I believe that the topic that I was most interested in and learned the most about was reproductive rights. While reflecting on what I have learned regarding reproductive rights, I will be discussing: the dangers that women experienced without forms of contraceptives, important people who aided in the fight for legal contraceptives as well as the creation of a birth control pill, and the battle to legalize contraceptives. First, there were many dangers that women experienced during the time when forms of contraceptives
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Margaret Sanger was one person who had a very large impact on the legalization of contraceptives. She was a nurse who fought almost her whole life for contraceptives to be legal, and for a contraceptive pill to be created. She was the one who came up with calling contraceptives “birth control”, and she was the one who originally came up with the idea of creating a pill form of birth control for women to take orally. She opened the first birth control clinic in the country in 1916, which she was ultimately arrested for when it was shut down after only 10 days, and in 1921 she founded the American Birth Control League, which ultimately became the basis for the Planned Parenthood Federation (PBS- The Pill, People and Events: Margaret Sanger). Margaret Sanger later met Katharine McCormick, the heiress of the International Harvester Company during the Women’s Suffrage movement, which McCormick was extremely passionate about. McCormick believed that a woman’s right to control her body was just as important as the fact that women should have the right to vote (PBS- The Pill, People and Events: Katherine Dexter McCormick). As soon as Sanger told her of her idea about oral contraceptives, McCormick was enthused by the idea for the project due to the fact that she was a feminist and that she had a degree in biology, she ultimately funded most of the project (PBS- The Pill, People and Events: …show more content…
I was one of those women who prior to taking this course, did not know the history behind birth control and the struggles that women went through before it was legal, and in order to legalize it for all women. In this paper I have reflected on what I have learned throughout this course regarding reproductive rights, including: the dangers that women experienced without forms of contraceptives, important people who aided in the fight for legal contraceptives as well as the creation of a birth control pill, and the battle to legalize contraceptives. Learning the history of contraceptives was fascinating to me, and and as a woman who uses birth control pills each month, it really helped me to appreciate the fact that I am able to obtain my birth control legally and for free each
Margaret Sanger was one person who had a very large impact on the legalization of contraceptives. She was a nurse who fought almost her whole life for contraceptives to be legal, and for a contraceptive pill to be created. She was the one who came up with calling contraceptives “birth control”, and she was the one who originally came up with the idea of creating a pill form of birth control for women to take orally. She opened the first birth control clinic in the country in 1916, which she was ultimately arrested for when it was shut down after only 10 days, and in 1921 she founded the American Birth Control League, which ultimately became the basis for the Planned Parenthood Federation (PBS- The Pill, People and Events: Margaret Sanger). Margaret Sanger later met Katharine McCormick, the heiress of the International Harvester Company during the Women’s Suffrage movement, which McCormick was extremely passionate about. McCormick believed that a woman’s right to control her body was just as important as the fact that women should have the right to vote (PBS- The Pill, People and Events: Katherine Dexter McCormick). As soon as Sanger told her of her idea about oral contraceptives, McCormick was enthused by the idea for the project due to the fact that she was a feminist and that she had a degree in biology, she ultimately funded most of the project (PBS- The Pill, People and Events: …show more content…
I was one of those women who prior to taking this course, did not know the history behind birth control and the struggles that women went through before it was legal, and in order to legalize it for all women. In this paper I have reflected on what I have learned throughout this course regarding reproductive rights, including: the dangers that women experienced without forms of contraceptives, important people who aided in the fight for legal contraceptives as well as the creation of a birth control pill, and the battle to legalize contraceptives. Learning the history of contraceptives was fascinating to me, and and as a woman who uses birth control pills each month, it really helped me to appreciate the fact that I am able to obtain my birth control legally and for free each