ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a historical review of birth control practices and their relationship to gender roles and responsibilities. Contraception and abortion seemed to fall increasingly out of public favor from the fourth century onward, along with the spread of religion and a decline in the status of women. The economy of western Europe improved from the sixteenth century onward but poverty and landlessness prevailed. In the eighteenth century, it experienced rapid population growth, and families made deliberate efforts to control their fertility. Population policies in developing countries have been motivated mainly by a preoccupation with population growth. Several feminist issues linked closely with contraception are relevant here. Nonetheless, cooperation from male partners and their involvement in reproductive decisions and in the use of contraception are essential to this process. Female-controlled methods can help free women from dependence on others and can give them a measure of confidence in their ability to control their own reproduction.
