I can’t write a preface to one of the early and essential texts of the ’70s women’s health movement without admitting the bias of my personal gratitude. The young woman, of course, is me, and this story serves as full disclosure. The pill’s manufacturers, convinced of the dangers, reduce the estrogen dose by a third. Some years later, the data compiled by 'feminist hysterics proves to be scientific and overwhelming. No it isn’t, she says, crossing her arms. Oh, that’s just a bunch of feminist hysteria, he says. She doesn’t trust the high estrogen levels-she’s read the research, newly unearthed by women health activists, about the heightened risk of strokes, heart attacks, blood clots. Finally, seeing she is not to be dissuaded, he says that if she must use birth control, he will put her on the pill. He frowns, not used to obstinate behavior from female patients. I’m going to college, is all she will say.

She thinks this is patronizing and none of his business. Introduction SUSAN FALUDIĪ STORY FROM THE ’70s: A YOUNG WOMAN GOES TO see a gynecologist. Great feminist books of the past fifty years don’t fade away. THE MIDDLE-CLASS OFFENSIVE: BIRTH CONTROL THE MIDDLE-CLASS OFFENSIVE: PUBLIC HEALTH THE SPECIAL DANGER OF WORKING-CLASS WOMEN THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF FEMALE FRAILTY Women and Medicine in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Introduction: A Perspective on the Social Role of Medicine

Barbara ehrenreich and deirdre english