Control of Reproduction and Women's Rights

Trigger warnings: rape, sexual coercion, cissexist language

So I'm taking an exam soon, and I'm studying for it, and I came across something that I really found interesting.

[I'm flat out going to use cissexist language and own up to the fact that it is cissexist, with the supposition that women are "people with vaginas that can get pregnant by people with penises" and the supposition that men are "people with penises that can get people with vaginas pregnant," unless specified otherwise. Note that this doesn't include infertile cisgender people, either. I apologize for my phrasing. I might go back and change this to "males" and "females," but I'm not sure that will work either. I'm going to figure out a good way to explain this. I'm open to suggestion. I'm really, really sorry.]

Women's rights were boosted by two things in the West that occurred after World War II (yes, I realize that this is totally cut and dry, and not very intersectionally-minded, but bear with me here).

• The introduction of women to the workforce, mostly because of the loss of men during and after the war, which allowed them financial independence. Women no longer had to marry men for the purposes of supporting themselves, they could now work and support themselves independently. They could be more picky with their partners and freer in their self-expression.
• The invention of the birth control pill, putting the control of reproduction in the hands of women. Women can decide to opt out of pregnancy without having to have a man's consent, which meant for the first time, the balance of power has shifted to one that more closely resemble's a man's sexual autonomy. Abortion did exist before this, but birth control allowed for a much easier control of when and with whom a woman will get pregnant.

I'm going to take a line from Broad City, when Ilana Wexler responds to the news that Abbi Abrams had sex without a condom. "I can't even imagine how many dudes would love to lock you down with an unexpected pregnancy! I mean, your body is a temple, you have to respect it!"

It's such a weird line to think about now-a-days, isn't it? When we think about that line, it's typical it goes the other way around - a woman locking a man down financially or emotionally through an unexpected pregnancy. It's a power dynamic shift.

But it makes me wonder - how much are women's rights dependent on reproductive control? What happens when we view major feminist concerns through a reproductive framework?

• Rape developed not as a form of sexual release - which it clearly is not - but as a way for men to control women. Rape is a means-to-an-end for an pregnancy without consent, and is the ultimate form of control, by taking a woman's bodily autonomy away from her.

• Anti-abortion movements developed as a result of the fact that women cannot be controlled through pregnancy - as long as they can receive abortions, they can no longer be controlled by men who are their sexual partners.

• The pay wage gap is typically supported with the argument that women can still get pregnant, and therefore represent a "bad investment," as women can get pregnant and remove themselves from the workforce. 

• One of the causes of transmisogyny is the result of the public perception of a woman as being an individual who is capable of sustaining a pregnancy.

• In the case of surgery on intersex children, particularly children with CAH, gender assignment is recommended based on "normal heterosexual function" and "fertility potential." Children that are believed to still have the ability to become pregnant are typically assigned as "female."¹