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I think there is a strong case to consider that the pill is a result of feminism. From to Will Durant's citing Roman sources, it appears that the Romans had abundant access to various herbs and knowledge of practices that could basically prevent pregnancy. And if that all failed, there was always exposure. The Roman elite died out, and were replaced by more very fertile Christians who had a very a hard-line against contraception. And then only after feminism took hold in the 1920s, the Lambeth conference legitimized birth control for the most powerful Anglo-American denomination, states started legalizing birth control, etc. Only after that did companies start investing in research on contraception. In previous eras, they would have simply been forbidden from doing so.
TMK proven Roman methods of birth control were things that required male cooperation, although there are lines in early Christian writers condemning the use of contraceptive drugs we don’t know how well they worked. A fertility transition using lots of the pull-out-method(and IIRC that was doing most of the work behind the 19th century French fertility transition) and infanticide it doesn’t seem fair to blame feminism for because those things were probably down to male heads of household desiring smaller families.
Do you mind elaborating on your position? Are you arguing that the 19th century fertility transition being due to men basically just pulling out more ("men's pull out game was stronger")? Assuming for the sake of the argument this is true, why did this occur?
Isn't the social effects of industrialisation in the 19th century a more reason explanation (including mass urbanisation)?
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