Researcher seeks women who pioneered use of "The Pill" in 1960s Ottawa
Posted Feb 26, 2010 By Desmond Devoy
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EMC Lifestyle - A Carleton University doctoral student is looking to talk to Ottawa women who used the birth control pill when it was first introduced in Canada in the 1960s. 
Desmond Devoy, Ottawa East EMC
Third year Carleton doctoral student Jessica Haynes, seen here in The Glebe earlier this month, wants to speak to the first generation of women to have used The Pill.
"I'm still actively seeking women to interview for my study," said Jessica Haynes, a third year doctoral student at Carleton's History Department during a speech on "Canadian Women and the Birth Control Pill in the 1960s" at the Abbotsford House seniors drop-in centre, 950 Bank Street in The Glebe on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 3. "The project is still very open (and) is still subject to change. It's still ongoing."
So far, Haynes has spoken to more than 46 women about their experiences with the pill, back when it was still somewhat taboo, and she wants to speak to "women from a variety of backgrounds, classes and incomes...It's been a very challenging and rewarding experience. It's a difficult process."
Those interested in taking part in Haynes's study can reach her by phone at 613-963-0371, via email at jhaynes2@connect.carleton.ca, or online at sites.google.com/site/thepillincanada.
"I am aware that this is a private matter. You can choose to be anonymous in the report," Haynes added of the interviews, which can take between one and two hours.
Haynes has been seeking to publicize her study through posters at libraries, community centres, Abbotsford House, on the web site of the local Canadian Federation of University Women's branch, and through "a lot of bridge clubs! My grandma mentioned it at her bridge club."
In the 1960s, the ideal family was a nuclear family, with "an emphasis on the home life. The father was to be the bread winner, the mother stayed at home."
In fact, during the red scare in the 1950s, the family was even held up as "a defence against communism," since, the thinking went at the time, "if the family fell apart, western democracy and civilization would be at risk."
With families moving to the suburbs, and people making more money and spending more on consumer goods, the suburban family life was idealized as "proof that capitalism was successful."
However, behind this successful veneer, Haynes recounted that "some women found it (suburban life) confining."
Following World War II came the Baby Boom. In 1945, the year the war ended, there were 300,000 live births in Canada. By 1952, Canada recorded 400,000 births, with the peak of the child boom coming in 1959.
"Babies were everywhere," she said. While women had proven themselves in the workplace during WWII, in factories and offices while the men were away fighting in Europe and Asia, after the war women "were often encouraged to quit their jobs once it became obvious that they were pregnant. In some ways, Canadian society remained quite conservative."
Surprisingly, "in teaching, there seemed to be less tolerance towards pregnancy," than in other 'acceptable' female jobs like nursing or secretarial work. "God forbid a child should see a pregnant woman."
That began to change in Canada and elsewhere. In Quebec, for example, the Quiet Revolution was changing old ideas, while many Canadians began to agitate against the Vietnam War and nuclear proliferation. On top of this, "there were changing sexual values."
In 1967, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women was set up "to ensure more equal rights for women." Haynes noted that of the report's recommendations, "some of them could be implemented today."
Into this heady mix of pro-family, conservative values, the pill was launched.
Before the pill, there was a "constant dread for women," of getting pregnant, when they felt that they were "at the whims of fate and the calendar."
At the time, contraceptive options for couples, married or not, were somewhat limited.
"In the 1950s, couples could use condoms, foam, diaphragms...and the not-so-popular rhythm method, and abstinence, again, not so popular," she said. Even for the more popular diaphragm, there were drawbacks.
The diaphragm "didn't always work," and decreased "spontaneity," in the bedroom. One woman she talked to had three children in the space of two years while on the diaphragm: "not the intended result."
(In fairness, the pill was, and is still not, 100 per cent effective. "I have spoken to one woman who took the pill religiously, never missed it, and she still had a third child. Her son was that one per cent," said Haynes.)
Income sometimes made a difference in which choice of contraception a couple would choose since diaphragms or IUDs (which hit the market in 1959) had to be inserted by a doctor, and this was in the era before universal health care in Canada. Also, "some doctors in the 1960s did not want to prescribe contraceptives to non-married women," since they did not want to appear to be promoting pre-marital sex, since women were expected to still be virgins on their wedding night.
"The quiet majority of women who were on it in the 1960s were married," said Haynes.
However, in her research, Haynes has discovered that there were sometimes loopholes women could exploit to access contraceptives.
"The engagement ring did give them a pass into that option," she said. "They would go on it for a few months before their weddings."
There were other societal factors at play too that restricted access to the pill.
"I've also considered religion in my study," Haynes said. "The Roman Catholic Church was opposed to any unnatural form of birth control...(But) some Catholic women did it anyway (because) they didn't want any more children than they could love or support."
Technically, contraceptives were illegal in Canada until 1969, but "it was flagrantly ignored." The birth control pill became available in this country in 1961, and by 1969, 500,000 Canadian women were taking it regularly.
"Sex would no longer be such risky business," for women, and indeed, men.
Originally, the pill came in bottle form, but quickly changed format to the now-familiar dial packs.
"Most husbands supported their wives in their decision. They just seemed relieved," said Haynes of the male reaction. However, there were some exceptions, since "one or two men opposed it for reasons of control...One man didn't think it would work. He continued to use condoms while his wife was on the pill."
Interestingly, amongst women, the reaction was a little bit more mixed.
"I found it evenly split. Some women said they were very open discussing it the pill with their friends," she revealed. On the flip side, some women felt that "it was a private matter between you, your husband and maybe her doctor."
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