This week marks 50 years since the introduction of The Pill. This easy-to-use contraceptive has had far-reaching effects in areas no one would have imagined.
Because of The Pill more women have been able to go to work. Women are more able to make their own plans for their lives.
Less women feel that they need a man to provide for them, because pregnancy is no longer inevitable and unpredictable. Women can earn a living for themselves, and their children if need be. So the dynamics between men and women have been changed.
Because of the Pill, it has become more likely that the women raising children are doing so because they decided to, not because they'd had an accident. The dynamics between mother and child, and father and child, have been altered.
"In the 1950s, women made up about a third of the workforce. Today, women hold nearly half of all U.S. jobs. In the 1950s, American women on average had 3.8 children. Today, that number has dropped to 2.1."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/06/earlyshow/health/main6465686.shtml