The Politics of the Pill: Gender, Framing, and Policymaking in the Battle Over Birth Control

In The Politics of the Pill, Rachel VanSickle-Ward and Kevin Wallsten tell the story of contemporary birth control policy and the role that women played in it. First, they chart the twists and turns of a fascinating, controversial and consequential policy debate. Second, they use their analysis of contraception politics as a vehicle for identifying more generally the position of women in the public sphere and the influence that gender exerts across policy-making and media venues.


About the Author
Rachel VanSickle-Ward is Professor of Political Studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. Her research interests include public policy, public law, state politics, and gender and politics. She has published work on the politics of statutory language, gender and political ambition, and administrative law. Her first book, The Devil is in the Details: Understanding the Causes of Policy Specificity and Ambiguity (2014; winner, Herbert A. Simon Book Award), explores the impact of political and institutional fragmentation on policy wording, focusing on the dynamics of social policy construction in the states. She is a frequent commentator on KPCC's Take Two (Southern California Public Radio). Her writing has appeared in Talking Points Memo, The Washington Post (The Monkey Cage), and U.S. News and World Report.

Kevin Wallsten is Associate Professor of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach and former President of the American Political Science Association's Section on Information Technology and Politics. He has published over 20 research articles in the areas of American elections, public opinion, political communication, social media and race and ethnic politics. Two of these articles have been acknowledged with awards by the American Political Science Association and, collectively, his papers have been cited in nearly 1,000 other published works. His research has been discussed in mainstream news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He has also appeared as a political analyst on television news programs such as ABC 7 News, Charter Local Edition and CSULB's Beach TV.