I’m sure we have all heard of the pill and we’ve also been taught about it’s revolutionizing effects, but what if I told you the pill was one of the most economically formative things ever.

When the pill first came out it essentially allowed women to decide if, when and how many kids they would have. While this might seem irrelevant to the economy, it actually allowed many more women to work and many more women to work better jobs.

In 1970, the pill had been introduced for almost a decade but accessibility was freshly out of its infancy, jobs like doctors, dentists and lawyers were all above 90% male. By 1980 however, the women who could plan a career with the pill were into college, and the work force dropping these numbers down to 60-70%. Essentially, the pill didn’t allow women to work, but allowed them to work continually and made it much easier to pave a path through post secondary education.

Before the pill, one small mistake could derail a woman’s professional dreams. After the pill on the other hand, the world had taken one more step towards equality. Women could now have an even playing field at their dreams, their life and beyond.