The Male Pill: Will It Help Advance Gender Equality?

Last month, I was honored to be named one of the BBC 100 Women of 2019, which is a list they compile each year of inspiring and influential women. The list includes women from around the world of all ages (from teenagers to nonagenarians) and various professions. People from around the world will be familiar with the names of some of the women, such as Alexandria of Ocasio-Cortez, Megan Rapinoe, and Greta Thunberg, while other women will be new to the world stage. This year’s theme was the female future and some of the 100 Women were invited to London or Delhi to answer the question, “What would the future look like if it were driven by women?” In my talk, I claimed that a future driven by women would engender more male contraceptive options. Currently, women are responsible for the vast majority of contraception and have over a dozen contraceptive options, whereas men have only 2 options – condoms and vasectomy – and under 10% of women worldwide rely on male methods. The introduction of “the pill,” which was the first long-acting, reversible contraceptive and the first hormonal contraceptive, was a significant milestone in women’s rights since it allowed women to effectively control their reproduction without their partners’ knowledge or involvement. It is important for women to have a variety of contraceptive methods available so they can control their fertility yet being the main ones responsible for contraception also...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Health Care Pharmaceuticals Author: Campo-Engelstein feminist ethics reproductive medicine reproductive rights Research and Development Sex and Sexuality syndicated Women's Reproductive Rights Source Type: blogs