The Effect of Birth Control Pill on Women's Empowerment

In the 1960s-1970s, the United States was introduced to a new birth control method: oral contraception. This medical treatment provided the female population with a new approach to family selection, which was less harmful than abortion. Recent economic research proved the hypotheses that the pill has subsequently opened doors to more educational and career opportunities for American women. It can be projected as an economic benefit. However, if we extend this issue to household economics, it is unobvious whether oral contraception is somehow connected to the women’s economic power in her family and whether the pill holds any significant impact on it. In this paper, my aim is to analyze the link between women’s legal access to the birth control pill and the change of bargaining power between husband and wife. Specifically, I prove the hypothesis that the pill improves the empowerment of women who were single at the time of legalization, and that these women are facing more benefits (in terms of economic power within the household) than those who were already married at the year of legalization. The empirical study is conducted with the usage of the National Longitudinal Surveys in the United States, starting from the legalization of contraceptives from 1968 to 1972.