by Joy Mosenfelder

Created on: December 05, 2008   Last Updated: March 06, 2010

The Effects of Gender Oppression and Privilege in regards to Contraceptive Responsibility

Everyday in the United States thousands of men abort or distance themselves, both intentionally and unintentionally, from the process of becoming fathers. Males have this luxury because of biological and societal biases that seem to place the sole responsibility for conception on women.

It is easy for a man who does not wish the consequences of fatherhood to distance himself from his offspring before and after birth takes place. A Woman, however, is bound by both physiological features and societal expectations to her unborn children and must undergo great effort if she wishes to separate herself from the process of giving birth. The burden of responsibility placed a woman is disproportionate to the expectations placed on her male partner. Only the childbearing female is subject to public censure if she does not continue what is seen to be her responsibility from conception to the child's birth, yet it takes both a male and female partner to conceive a child.

In the following example I'll demonstrate the disproportionate levels of responsibility assumed by male and female partners during and following the act of conception. The names used here are fictional, but the scenario presented actually occurred.

Mary and Tom had been dating for about two months when they first decided to have sex. They were at Tom's when the condom broke. Both were fairly upset, but their conversation skirted around the issue and they never really discussed the possible outcomes of what had happened. Over the course of the next week Tom went from expressing extreme concern for Mary and about the situation, to ceasing all contact with Mary without indicating the reasons for his change in attitude or even that there had been a change in attitude other than by his sudden cessation of communication. In future months when he saw Mary he did not talk to Mary or even make eye contact with her, let alone try to find out whether or not they had conceived.

Mary, however, was left with the acute possibility that conception had occurred and the need to find out, because of how a positive answer would impact her life. After two home pregnancy tests and two trips to the clinic, Mary discovered that she was indeed pregnant. Unlike her male partner who had just shrugged it off, absented himself from the situation and proceeded normally with his life, any choice she made would have both economic and social consequences

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