Women, Birth Control, and the Market Place in the 1930’s Analysis

Most historians have long believed that contraceptives were mostly available to the well-to-do Americans till the period around the First World War due to the Comstock law. Andrea credibly topples the opinions these historians have through evidence from advertisements, patent documents, medical articles, trade catalogues and even trial transcripts. This article demonstrates that for she writes “Americans of all walks created a zone of tolerance in which birth control was routinely made, sold, bought and used.” Also, Andrea puts forward captivating pieces of contraceptive entrepreneurs suggesting that they were principally women and migrants who were ready to fill the market gap that reputable producers had left vacant. Tone through the article highlights that even in the halcyon days of Comstockery, the laws courts in session redirected ”broadly based support of bootleg birth control”. However, although Andrea through her article requests for over the counter contraceptives, it is hard to imagine of a chemical contraceptive which would not require the doctor’s supervision.

Explanation of the Advertisement at the Beginning of the Essay in my Own Words

The ad in the Lysol Feminine Hygiene Magazine seeks to reveal the tremendous growth of the contraceptive in an era in the nineteen thirties a period which most women were depressed about the state of their hygiene. Also, the ad reveals that the issue of contraceptives does not affect the wives only but also their husbands.

Andrea Tone’s Main Argument

Through her article, Tone argues that although the military numerously tried to suppress the American contraceptive industry, it has always remained resilient. The courts even openly showed support of the bootleg contraceptives for they denied that the state had any power to bar the use of contraceptives. Also, in the essay, she dismisses the belief that contraceptives were only available to the well-off Americans for she claims that the contraceptive trade was easy to venture and the contraceptives during those eras were easy and cheap to produce to produce in homes and even in small shops.

Tone’s Thesis Sentences

  ”Hope for the vexed woman was at hand, however”, ”In fact, it was close to the neighbourhood store”, ”Feminine hygiene would contribute to a woman’s sense of fastidiousness while freeing her from habitual fears of pregnancy”. Manifestly, these sentences prove that Andrea tones are about to talk about the solution to women’s depressions which is contraceptives.

Tones Topic Sentence

”Tragically, Linguistic clues could not protect individuals from products adulteration or marketing fraud.” (Andrea 360)

The Main Point

The paragraph mainly talks about how the contraceptive manufacturers made contraceptive easily assessable creating a mass market. The massive growth was however made possible by birth control movements which emerged in the nineteen-tens and twenties spearheaded by Margaret Sanger and popularized contraceptives. Further, the paragraph describes how Sanger was at the far front championing for contraceptives to the extent of her defying the law.

Quotes Supporting Tone’s Main Idea

”Singer insisted that women’s sexual liberation and economic autonomy depended upon the availability of safe, inexpensive and effective birth control”. ”In October 1916 she opened in Brooklyn the first birth control clinic in the united states where she instructed neighbourhood women on contraceptive techniques.” (Andrea, 361)

How Tone Concludes Her Essay

In conclusion, Tone claims that the commercialization of contraceptives in the nineteen thirties was an eye-opener to the importance of the role of contraceptive manufacturers played in shaping birth control development in America (Andrea 368). Besides, these engendered impacted women and women in that era. She also claims in her conclusion that industries during that period revealed the connection between gender, sector and reproduction.

Works Cited

Andrea Tone “Women, Birth control and the Market place in the 1930’s”