Bengaluru: Economic historian Claudia Goldin, one of two authors of the landmark paper, Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions, received the Nobel Prize in Economics this week.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, also known as the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, was given to Goldin for the year 2023 in recognition of her “having advanced our understanding of women’s labor market outcomes”. Her work deals with understanding the historical growth and measure of how women change labour markets historically and how women’s participation in the workforce has changed in the US and Europe.
Her work spans decades, and she was awarded for her lifetime body of research, but the Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions, published in 2002, stands out above all.
In this important paper, Goldin and her colleague Lawrence F. Katz outline how the rollout of the birth control pill greatly increased the number of women enrolling in workforce around US in the 1960s and ’70s owing to more reproductive autonomy.
The prize comes at a time when Americans are grappling with far-right state governments imposing stringent anti-abortion laws (and restrictions on access to contraception), and the country’s Supreme Court saw the overturning of the legality of abortion.
ThePrint looks back at Goldin and Katz’s findings in the paper and also explains how the oral contraceptive works.
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Goldin’s findings
In this paper, Goldin and Katz — who were both affiliated with Harvard University and National Bureau of Economic Research, USA — outlined the changes brought about to women’s economic life after the approval of the birth control pill by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1960.
Through their research, they found that the careers of American college graduate women and their age at first marriage, both changed with the generation that was born in and around 1950.
They found that while women made up 10 percent of first-year law students in 1970, the number went up to 36 percent in 1980, owing to the ability of the pill to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
When it came to marriage, the paper found that among female graduates born in 1950, nearly 50 percent were married before the age of 23. But for those who were born in 1957, less than 30 percent had married by the same age.
“The pill directly lowered the costs of engaging in long-term career investments by giving women far greater certainty regarding the pregnancy consequences of sex,” write the authors, explaining that the pill also had the indirect effect of deducting the marriage market cost to women, who were now able to delay marriage to pursue a career.
To prove that such changes in women’s participation in the labor market were a result of the birth control pill, Goldin and Katz lay out how the pill’s use spread among single women in the late 1960s and ’70s, after it had become popular with married American women.
This coincided with the legal age for consent being lowered to 18 years in most American states during this period, before which, single unmarried women required parental consent to obtain birth control. By 1969, women in nine American states could obtain family planning services without a legal hurdle, while by 1971, this figure rose to 30 states.
The legal changes in lowering the age of marriage and legal consent are attributed to the war in Vietnam between 1954 and 1975, which saw active involvement of the US, and increased deaths.
Owing to its medical advantages, the pill was also beginning to be used to regulate erratic menstrual cycles, and its use became firmly intertwined with family planning in American society in the 1960s and ’70s, starting with groups of women who were born after the year 1945.
The paper also explored the direct and indirect effects of the spread of the pill among women.
According to the paper, before the 1960s, young couples who engaged in sex and ended up pregnant, often ended up immediately marrying, but the pill changed this — with its direct effects being delaying marriage and increased career investment and indirect effects being “thickening” of the marriage market for those who delay marriage, leading to “better matches for career women”.
This, the authors state, led to a social multiplier effect, meaning that the marriage market improved even for women who were not taking the pill, encouraging more women to delay marriage and choose a career.
How does the birth control pill work?
The birth control pill, made by several brands, is an oral tablet to be consumed daily by menstruating women. It contains two hormones — estrogen and the synthetic form of progesterone, called progestin.
The pill alters and adjusts the menstrual cycle to make it more regular, by preventing ovulation, which is necessary for the sperm to fertilise the egg. Estrogen and progestin prevent eggs from being released from the ovaries. Progestin prevents the thickening of the endometrium, or the lining of the uterus, which is necessary for implanting a fertilised egg, and which is shed without pregnancy as periods. It also decreases water content and thickens protective mucus in the cervix, preventing sperm from moving further and reaching an egg.
One pack of the pill is designed to be consumed for a 28-day cycle. For the first 21 days, users consume a daily tablet containing the two hormones, while during the next seven days, users take a placebo to induce blood flow resembling a typical period, called withdrawal bleeding. Variations of this pill are available that avoid monthly bleeding and allow for withdrawal placebo days once in three months or not at all.
Since there is no hormonal action resulting in actual ovulation and thickening of uterine lining, there is no production of menses. Therefore, skipping a monthly period this way has shown to be completely harmless to women, although breakthrough bleeding (which occurs despite the pill) is known to occur no matter what the pattern of use is.
Birth control pills are also used for their non-contraceptive properties of regulating menses and treating hormonal conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, and even acne.
The pill is suitable for use for most women around the world, except those who are at a risk for breast and ovarian cancer, who have liver damage, who are pregnant or have recently given birth, and those prone to increased blood clots.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)