Career and Marriage in the Age of the Pill

Abstract

Genuine change in the economic and social status of U.S. women did not emanate simply from their increased labor-force participation, but rather, from their increase in professions and as "career women." Those changes first began in the late 1960's and early 1970's. We examine here one factor of momentous impor- tance in this break with the past. The Economist (31 December 1999) recently named it the greatest science and technology advance in the twentieth century. It is the oral contraceptive, known worldwide by its moniker "the pill." In 1960, 18.4 percent of professionals were women, as were 4.7 percent of "high-powered professionals." 1 By 1998, 36.4 percent of pro- fessionals and 25.1 percent of the high-powered subset were women. We explore in this article a series of connections that link the birth-control pill to the increase of women in professional occupations. Our evidence for the impact of the pill relies largely on the timing of various changes. Changes in laws giving minors certain adult rights and lowering the age of majority enabled young and unmarried women to obtain the pill. Young women's control over their fertility di- rectly reduced the costs to them of engaging in long-term career investments. The pill also served to increase the age at first marriage and thus indirectly reduced a potential penalty of delaying marriage to pursue professional edu- cation and training. All of these changes began in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The late 1960's and early 1970's were years of tumultuous social and political change. How can we separate the impacts of affirmative ac- tion, the resurgence of feminism, changes in social norms, and abortion reform from the im- pact of the pill? The simple answer is that the timing of several of these changes is far less convincing than is that of the pill in affecting career investment. But that is not the complete answer. The economic impact of the pill did not occur in isolation. Legal change made it possi- ble for young women to obtain contraceptives. These changes, paradoxically, did not stem pri- marily from concerns regarding access to con- traception. They were, instead, part of the larger political movement of the 1960's. The pill, moreover, unleashed social change by enabling an increase in the age at first marriage. There is also no doubt that the rebirth of feminism, long in the making, served to complement and rein- force the pill's impact. Our argument for the importance of the pill in affecting women's career decisions relies on the correspondence among breaks in various time series and in the logic of the relationships among the pill, career, and marriage. We will begin with the time series on career and mar- riage, which can be viewed as the dependent variables. The evidence on the diffusion of the pill (the independent variable) is taken up next. The logic of our argument relating pill use, career, and marriage follows, and finally we present our defense for why we believe the pill packed considerable power in altering the social and economic status of American women. I. Career and Marriage