15/08/13
The link above is to Martha Bailey's study 'More power to the pill' which highlights, in relation to the US, the fact that there has been limited evaluation of the impact of the contraceptive pill on women's paid work.
Findings:
As no study exists in the UK I am counting on the similarities of the economies and societal characteristics of the UK and the US.
The UK experienced a strong growth in female employment through the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1971and 2011, women's economic activity rate rose from 59% to 74%, the vast majoritty of which took place in the 1970s and 1980s.
Findings:
- Her thesis is that early access to the pill potentially impacts women's employment through their lives by reducing the costs of pursuing careers and increasing the likely returns.
- The Pill enabled young women to invest in their career through more education or on the job training whilst at the same time being sexually active and / or getting married. It also
- enabled women to time their pregnancies in a way which minimised the impact on their career.
- 'with early legal access to contraception, the participation rates of women ages 26 to 30 were around 4 percentage points higher' than the mean and it is the delay in childbearing which is responsible for the difference.
- 'oral contraception appears to have had large and permanent effects on young women's fertility and labour market activity'.
As no study exists in the UK I am counting on the similarities of the economies and societal characteristics of the UK and the US. The UK experienced a strong growth in female employment through the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1971and 2011, women's economic activity rate rose from 59% to 74%, the vast majoritty of which took place in the 1970s and 1980s.
