Choosing the Pill: How Young Women Navigate Ambivalence Towards Hormonal Contraception on a Liberal American Campus

Abstract

This thesis explores the question of what the birth control pill represents for young liberal women today. Drawing on ethnographic interviews of Princeton students with liberal and feminist views of the pill, I illustrate how young liberal women characterize their experiences and perceptions of contraceptive decision-making with ambivalence and uncertainty. I argue that while they maintain the historical legacy of the pill as a symbol of women’s independence and believe in the importance of women’s right to choose, the hesitations and frustrations that emerge in their discussions of their personal use illustrate how this framing of the pill as a liberatory and individual choice does not fully reflect the contradictions that they encounter. My interlocutors value the ways in which the pill helps them prevent pregnancy and exert control over their reproductive health, but they also articulate how in choosing the pill, they are often choosing compromise. Moreover, I illustrate how my interlocutors rely on networks of knowledge and guidance from their friends and family members to make their contraceptive-decisions and find space to openly voice their frustrations.