Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill (review)

In Sexual Chemistry, Lara Marks sets herself an ambitious goal: she strives to describe and examine the political conception, the scientific development, the medical delivery, and the cultural maturity of the birth control pill. Basing her project on archival sources, popular and scientific publications, and scores of interviews, she has given us an important, if controversial, account of the pill. Two [End Page 980] of her contributions are especially significant. First, she insists that the history of oral contraceptives cannot be told while respecting national borders; according to Marks, the history of the pill is—at every level—an international story. Second, she challenges the view that the birth control pill was a product of "male scientists to control women" (p. 11); instead, she argues that in a variety of roles—as clinicians, activists, patrons, volunteers, and consumers—women were essential participants in the history of the pill. In support of the first of these claims, she has written a convincing and compelling account; her second claim is more problematic.