January 1961: The Release of the Pill: Contraceptive Technology and the 'Sexual Revolution'

Abstract

There is a satisfying chronological convenience about the arrival of the contraceptive pill ('the pill') at the beginning of a decade seen as heralding a 'sexual revolution'. Like the inauguration of President Kennedy in the USA, the pill's appearance marked a new frontier announcing the arrival of the 'swinging sixties'. But was there a connection between these two phenomena: the development of the most reliable contraceptive technology in history and the 'sexual revolution'? We need to be careful of such easy associations in judging the pill's impact, for it was married women who were its most enthusiastic users, at least initially. Young single women and homosexual people - more emblematic of the sexual revolution than married straights - found it either difficult to obtain or irrelevant. But the pill's arrival was indeed a crucial moment in Australian history. It was crucial as a 'symbol' of sexual revolution but also for its substantial impact on the lives of millions of Australians.