Pregnant with Change: Contraceptive Responsibility in Contemporary America

Ksenia Gracheva, University of California, Irvine

This research explores the new focus on men in the birth control market, how men and women view contraceptive responsibility, and how those views reflect changing social trends. Are today’s couples that share egalitarian views of contemporary gender roles more likely to believe that the responsibility of birth control should be apportioned to both men and women? Individual interviews and analysis of casual interaction on Internet forums provide valuable data that exposes perceptions of the current state of contraception and the development of birth control. As gender relations continue to evolve in America, the views on birth control change, and so do its ties to traditional gender roles. Change in the birth control industry is a reflection of much larger-scale social change. Men are much more likely today to break away from traditional ideas of gender roles, and as a result, view contraception and participating in contraceptive responsibility more favorably.