>From this point on, the specter of women's "forgetfulness" stubbornly attached itself to the discourse around birth control. A slew of ads targeted at physicians encouraged a paternalistic approach, depicting women as "scatter-brained, incompetent, and in need of guidance," Gossel writes.

I'm aware that the times were unjust to women but whenever you're marketing a product at a massive scale, like 51% of the population, you should be as simplistic and as helping as possible. Simply because you're dealing with all kinds of people, not just the smart ones.

So I just don't see the reason to paint a picture of a paternalistic conspiracy against women here. It's rather sensible marketing to a massive audience.

How come we've gone 60 years with these pills? There are women who have entire careers behind them in biology and medical science and we're still using these pills.

I remember in the early 2000's meeting some women who were using a staff instead. But at least one stopped because she felt she became too hormonal with the staff under her skin.