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Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the Twenty-First Century
Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics (Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the 21st Century)
Understanding the social history and urgent social implications of gendered compulsory birth control, an unbalanced and unjust approach to pregnancy prevention.
The average person concerned about becoming pregnant spends approximately thirty years trying to prevent conception. People largely do so alone using prescription birth control, a situation often taken for granted in the United States as natural and beneficial. In Just Get on the Pill , a keenly researched and incisive examination, Krystale Littlejohn investigates how birth control becomes a fundamentally unbalanced and gendered responsibility. She uncovers how parents, peers, partners, and providers draw on narratives of male and female birth control methods to socialize cisgender women into sex and ultimately into shouldering the burden for preventing pregnancy.
Littlejohn draws on extensive interviews to document this gendered compulsory birth control—a phenomenon in which people who give birth are held accountable for preventing and resolving pregnancies in gender-constrained ways. She shows how this gendered approach encroaches on reproductive autonomy and poses obstacles for preventing disease. While diverse cisgender women are the focus, Littlejohn shows that they are not the only ones harmed by this dynamic. Indeed, gendered approaches to birth control also negatively impact trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming people in overlooked ways. In tracing the divisive politics of pregnancy prevention, Littlejohn demonstrates that the gendered division of labor in birth control is not natural. It is unjust.
The average person concerned about becoming pregnant spends approximately thirty years trying to prevent conception. People largely do so alone using prescription birth control, a situation often taken for granted in the United States as natural and beneficial. In Just Get on the Pill , a keenly researched and incisive examination, Krystale Littlejohn investigates how birth control becomes a fundamentally unbalanced and gendered responsibility. She uncovers how parents, peers, partners, and providers draw on narratives of male and female birth control methods to socialize cisgender women into sex and ultimately into shouldering the burden for preventing pregnancy.
Littlejohn draws on extensive interviews to document this gendered compulsory birth control—a phenomenon in which people who give birth are held accountable for preventing and resolving pregnancies in gender-constrained ways. She shows how this gendered approach encroaches on reproductive autonomy and poses obstacles for preventing disease. While diverse cisgender women are the focus, Littlejohn shows that they are not the only ones harmed by this dynamic. Indeed, gendered approaches to birth control also negatively impact trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming people in overlooked ways. In tracing the divisive politics of pregnancy prevention, Littlejohn demonstrates that the gendered division of labor in birth control is not natural. It is unjust.
181 pages, Paperback
Published August 31, 2021
21 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
May 3, 2023
A love letter to condoms. In all seriousness there were some very compelling arguments. My biggest issue is that while it takes both male and female bodies to conceive a pregnancy, the burden of carrying the pregnancy is not shared. While I appreciate that gender norms have certainly influenced how we think about the “responsibility” of contraception and that both parties play an equal role, I can’t shake the idea that only one party truly holds the consequences of contraception failure.
April 15, 2022
I am in love with this book. It's concise, easy to understand, but with a thesis that packs a punch. Littlejohn premiers the concept of a "gendered compulsory birth control system", focussing on gender roles that obligate cisgender women to do the labor of being on hormonal birth control within most of their relationships.
This book uses interviews, or oral histories, a historically feminist and matricentric medium to illustrate each point made in the book. Littlejohn is very transparent about the people she interviewed for the project, and often lists their age as well as race before or after using their quotes. As part of a literautre that has historically focussed on white women and acted as though white is the default, this stands out in a postitive way.
Additonally, at 171 pages, the book was totally able to keep my attention, and wasn't repetive. I find other books of a similar literature, like Judith Walzer Leavitt's Brought to Bed, while a good fundemental read, is longer than it needs to be, and tends to reiterate the same point excessively. And, in 171, Littlejohn also does not fall short of effectively illustrating her point. This book is a perfect length.
Next, as I talked about briefly above, the way Littlejohn has written this book makes it much easier to digest than other things I have had to read in as a college student. I think that accessibility in literature is so important; work that references a ton of other work and concepts I am unfamiliar with is a chore to read, and I find it a relief that this book doesn't partake in this institutionalized, chronically academic style of writing.
Finally, I think the thesis of this book is fucking revolutionary. Littlejohn's theory of a "gendered compulsory birth control system" will be the best new feminist talking point in the next three years. It reminds me of Kimberly Krenshaw keying the term "intersectionality", and now it's so hard to imagine how we had conversations without it. It's been the central point to a research paper I am writing this semster in my History of Reproduction class, where I talked about the lack of hormonal birth contorl for cis men.
Anyway, I highly recommmend this book to anyone whose eye is caught by it. As I read it, conversations I had with freinds echoed back to me; discussing why and for what reasons we got put on the pill at an age we now consider too young.
This book uses interviews, or oral histories, a historically feminist and matricentric medium to illustrate each point made in the book. Littlejohn is very transparent about the people she interviewed for the project, and often lists their age as well as race before or after using their quotes. As part of a literautre that has historically focussed on white women and acted as though white is the default, this stands out in a postitive way.
Additonally, at 171 pages, the book was totally able to keep my attention, and wasn't repetive. I find other books of a similar literature, like Judith Walzer Leavitt's Brought to Bed, while a good fundemental read, is longer than it needs to be, and tends to reiterate the same point excessively. And, in 171, Littlejohn also does not fall short of effectively illustrating her point. This book is a perfect length.
Next, as I talked about briefly above, the way Littlejohn has written this book makes it much easier to digest than other things I have had to read in as a college student. I think that accessibility in literature is so important; work that references a ton of other work and concepts I am unfamiliar with is a chore to read, and I find it a relief that this book doesn't partake in this institutionalized, chronically academic style of writing.
Finally, I think the thesis of this book is fucking revolutionary. Littlejohn's theory of a "gendered compulsory birth control system" will be the best new feminist talking point in the next three years. It reminds me of Kimberly Krenshaw keying the term "intersectionality", and now it's so hard to imagine how we had conversations without it. It's been the central point to a research paper I am writing this semster in my History of Reproduction class, where I talked about the lack of hormonal birth contorl for cis men.
Anyway, I highly recommmend this book to anyone whose eye is caught by it. As I read it, conversations I had with freinds echoed back to me; discussing why and for what reasons we got put on the pill at an age we now consider too young.
January 4, 2022
**a few spoilers below, the first two paragraphs do not have any spoilers, but are my thoughts**
I think this book could be incredibly eye opening & informative, depending on the audience. If you have never ventured into RJ before & are looking for more information or are wondering why you should care, this could be a great start. It is well written, clear, and concise. The author does a great job of making the content accessible and relatable. I did appreciate the deep dive into the intersections of race, class, and gendered expectations around birth control.
That being said, I don’t think I was necessarily the target audience for this book. I’ve been an RJ organizer for ~6 years and much of the information in the book felt like common knowledge to me. I was lent a copy by a friend who had read it and wanted to go over it together, which is the main reason I read all the way through. If you have a solid background in RJ, I don’t think you will gain too much from reading this.
**here come the spoilers**
I had two main issues with the book. First, was the amount of time spent discussing queer and trans identities. While it was briefly notated a few times throughout the book that cis women were being talked about, it wasn’t until page 133 (out of 134) that the author mentioned the fact that trans men and some nonbinary people can and do get pregnant. I was really hoping the author would at least have a small section discussing the intersections of trans identities and RJ and was disappointed that it was only in the 2nd to last paragraph. Additionally, I was disappointed that there was no inclusion of dental dams as a viable form of protection from STIs. People with vaginas who have sex with one another very rarely use protection since there is no risk of pregnancy. That being said, STIs can still be transmitted and there is little conversation around that in general.
The second thing I was frustrated about was the exclusion of disabled people from the discussion. With intersectionality in mind, it is impossible to separate RJ from disability justice. Eugenics, with the intention to eradicate disabled people from the population, is so deeply tied to conversations about birth control, and RJ as a whole.
I think this book could be incredibly eye opening & informative, depending on the audience. If you have never ventured into RJ before & are looking for more information or are wondering why you should care, this could be a great start. It is well written, clear, and concise. The author does a great job of making the content accessible and relatable. I did appreciate the deep dive into the intersections of race, class, and gendered expectations around birth control.
That being said, I don’t think I was necessarily the target audience for this book. I’ve been an RJ organizer for ~6 years and much of the information in the book felt like common knowledge to me. I was lent a copy by a friend who had read it and wanted to go over it together, which is the main reason I read all the way through. If you have a solid background in RJ, I don’t think you will gain too much from reading this.
**here come the spoilers**
I had two main issues with the book. First, was the amount of time spent discussing queer and trans identities. While it was briefly notated a few times throughout the book that cis women were being talked about, it wasn’t until page 133 (out of 134) that the author mentioned the fact that trans men and some nonbinary people can and do get pregnant. I was really hoping the author would at least have a small section discussing the intersections of trans identities and RJ and was disappointed that it was only in the 2nd to last paragraph. Additionally, I was disappointed that there was no inclusion of dental dams as a viable form of protection from STIs. People with vaginas who have sex with one another very rarely use protection since there is no risk of pregnancy. That being said, STIs can still be transmitted and there is little conversation around that in general.
The second thing I was frustrated about was the exclusion of disabled people from the discussion. With intersectionality in mind, it is impossible to separate RJ from disability justice. Eugenics, with the intention to eradicate disabled people from the population, is so deeply tied to conversations about birth control, and RJ as a whole.
January 15, 2023
Littlejohn exposes our cultural understanding that condoms are "male birth control," the pill and other prescription methods are "female birth control," and that when couples are in long term sexual relationships, the expectation is that condoms will be phased out once prescription birth control is in use. This, despite the fact that condoms are the only birth control method that protect against STIs.
The primary argument being made here is that we have to remove the gendered understanding of condoms being "male birth control" and instead think of condoms as a "couples method." The reason that this is necessary is because relying on men to provide condoms and use them properly has proven to put women on the fast track to pregnancy, as it relies on women's consitent access to and use of prescription birth control methods. Interviews with men weren't included in the book, but many of the women shared intense dissatisfaction with the options that we are provided for birth control. This was a key takeaway for me - there is still a lot of work to be done on providing new birth control methods that people are satisfied using. This dissatisfaction leads to the failure to use birth control properly, which then leads to unintended pregnancy.
Another takeaway is that as a culture we are mostly on board with the idea that, "Men won't use condoms unless they are forced to," which is pretty shitty. Men should be fucking stoked to use condoms because it helps them prevent pregnancy and protect themselves and their partner from diseases. Like many women do with prescription birth control, men should take the time to try lots of different condoms to see which kind they like the best. Women should also always have condoms on hand so that even if their partner didn't bring a condom, they can still protect themselves. With that, women should also learn how to properly use a condom so that condom failure is less likely.
Littlejohn points out that certain structures promote the idea that condoms are no longer necessary once a woman has a birth control prescription. Why aren't condoms free like birth control pills are with insurance? Why did my mother take me to get birth control pills but never take me to the pharmacy to buy condoms? Why didn't my doctors provide a year's supply of condoms when I went in for my annual appointment? Why didn't my friends shame me when they knew I wasn't using condoms?
I had never heard of the birth control burden that is placed on women as a form of domestic labor, but I am so here for that categorization and I will be using it in my relationships from now on. For example... Elijah: "Hey Kate, can you do the laundry today?" Kate: "No, you are going to have to do it. I have already done my fair share of domestic labor by dealing with the side effects of my copper IUD. By having a copper IUD, I am saving you from having to do your fair share of pregnancy prevention." End scene. Am I trying to be funny? Yes. Am I also 100% serious? Absolutely.
More on prescription birth control as domestic labor: "I argue that the gendered compulsory birth control system, which emphasizes birth control use only for women, exploits women's bodies as well as their labor. Indeed, only in the context of the gendered exploitation of women's bodies can the work women do to help millions of men prevent pregnancy every year be cast as natural, and indeed beneficial, only for women" (15).
One reason that many couples stop using condoms is because they are seen as less effective than using prescription birth control methods. However, this argument is inherently flawed, as by far the most effective birth control method, and the one that protects each partner from STIs, is the use of prescription birth control AND condoms. Essentially, Littlejohn's argument is that couples should always use condoms unless they aren't trying to prevent pregnancy.
On the issue of efficacy, Littlejohn writes, "Methods like the pill, patch, and ring are 99 percent effective when used perfectly... but are only 91 percent effective in everyday practice... Condoms are 98 percent effective when used perfectly... but 82 effective in practice... What focusing only on effectiveness obscures, however, is that the pill, patch, and ring are only as effective as they are in practice because women commit to using them regularly. As I've shown, the women in the study experienced a great deal of both pressure and support to help them do so... Thus, recommending prescription methods only on the basis of their being more effective than condoms treats effectiveness as an unchangeable scientific fact, rather than as a moldable social outcome influenced in part by gender expectations of men's and women's responsibility for preventing pregnancy" (125-6). What would happen if men were given support and pressured to help them use condoms (or seek other methods of birth control available to them, such as vasectomies?)
If this review has you excited to check out this book, just keep in mind that I am a huge nerd for sociological studies of birth control, and this reads more like a research paper, not like a book, so be prepared for somewhat dense academic language.
The primary argument being made here is that we have to remove the gendered understanding of condoms being "male birth control" and instead think of condoms as a "couples method." The reason that this is necessary is because relying on men to provide condoms and use them properly has proven to put women on the fast track to pregnancy, as it relies on women's consitent access to and use of prescription birth control methods. Interviews with men weren't included in the book, but many of the women shared intense dissatisfaction with the options that we are provided for birth control. This was a key takeaway for me - there is still a lot of work to be done on providing new birth control methods that people are satisfied using. This dissatisfaction leads to the failure to use birth control properly, which then leads to unintended pregnancy.
Another takeaway is that as a culture we are mostly on board with the idea that, "Men won't use condoms unless they are forced to," which is pretty shitty. Men should be fucking stoked to use condoms because it helps them prevent pregnancy and protect themselves and their partner from diseases. Like many women do with prescription birth control, men should take the time to try lots of different condoms to see which kind they like the best. Women should also always have condoms on hand so that even if their partner didn't bring a condom, they can still protect themselves. With that, women should also learn how to properly use a condom so that condom failure is less likely.
Littlejohn points out that certain structures promote the idea that condoms are no longer necessary once a woman has a birth control prescription. Why aren't condoms free like birth control pills are with insurance? Why did my mother take me to get birth control pills but never take me to the pharmacy to buy condoms? Why didn't my doctors provide a year's supply of condoms when I went in for my annual appointment? Why didn't my friends shame me when they knew I wasn't using condoms?
I had never heard of the birth control burden that is placed on women as a form of domestic labor, but I am so here for that categorization and I will be using it in my relationships from now on. For example... Elijah: "Hey Kate, can you do the laundry today?" Kate: "No, you are going to have to do it. I have already done my fair share of domestic labor by dealing with the side effects of my copper IUD. By having a copper IUD, I am saving you from having to do your fair share of pregnancy prevention." End scene. Am I trying to be funny? Yes. Am I also 100% serious? Absolutely.
More on prescription birth control as domestic labor: "I argue that the gendered compulsory birth control system, which emphasizes birth control use only for women, exploits women's bodies as well as their labor. Indeed, only in the context of the gendered exploitation of women's bodies can the work women do to help millions of men prevent pregnancy every year be cast as natural, and indeed beneficial, only for women" (15).
One reason that many couples stop using condoms is because they are seen as less effective than using prescription birth control methods. However, this argument is inherently flawed, as by far the most effective birth control method, and the one that protects each partner from STIs, is the use of prescription birth control AND condoms. Essentially, Littlejohn's argument is that couples should always use condoms unless they aren't trying to prevent pregnancy.
On the issue of efficacy, Littlejohn writes, "Methods like the pill, patch, and ring are 99 percent effective when used perfectly... but are only 91 percent effective in everyday practice... Condoms are 98 percent effective when used perfectly... but 82 effective in practice... What focusing only on effectiveness obscures, however, is that the pill, patch, and ring are only as effective as they are in practice because women commit to using them regularly. As I've shown, the women in the study experienced a great deal of both pressure and support to help them do so... Thus, recommending prescription methods only on the basis of their being more effective than condoms treats effectiveness as an unchangeable scientific fact, rather than as a moldable social outcome influenced in part by gender expectations of men's and women's responsibility for preventing pregnancy" (125-6). What would happen if men were given support and pressured to help them use condoms (or seek other methods of birth control available to them, such as vasectomies?)
If this review has you excited to check out this book, just keep in mind that I am a huge nerd for sociological studies of birth control, and this reads more like a research paper, not like a book, so be prepared for somewhat dense academic language.
November 24, 2024
Read this for a class. Loved the thesis/concept, but i wish there had been more substance. I think the same 3 basic points were essentially phrased in a bunch of different ways, and the content could have fit in a long essay of ~50 pages rather than a book
September 23, 2025
I don't feel like I learned anything? Except that vasectomies aren’t covered by the ACA while female sterilization is, which just boils my blood. Would have been nice to have more history or critical analysis in this book. It was honestly a slog to get through for me and I was surprised that a professor of sociology didn’t give us something more fresh and nuanced. Bit disappointed by how surface-level this was
April 19, 2024
I would not have finished this book were I not required to for my Sociology class. This book is a hot mess and relies on faulty analysis of the conception of gender, class, and race in the context of contraception. It doesn't even define the different modes of contraception! Littlejohn FINALLY talks about contraception and the efficacy of T H R E E different forms, but discusses at least five different forms throughout the book? And when she mentions it, she includes it in the CONCLUSION and uses maybe 2-3 sentences to "fully" talk about it. The wording of this book is horrendous, with every other paragraph saying, "In this book I will..." or "In this chapter," and relies on elementary transitions to move from point to point. The only real point she makes is that women bear the responsibility for contraception use and pregnancy prevention, which is literally common knowledge. She says she does all this analysis and builds upon notions when she literally barely adds anything to the conversation.
In a book ABOUT AND CENTERING contraception use, she barely talks about gendered violence and refuses to talk about rape and SA, which is a grave disservice to SA victims around the world. I can look over her lack of She says so much without showing the audience ANYTHING. The interviews she conducts are hard to read, as she includes unnecessary anecdotes and additional words and phrases that do nothing but complicate her argument. Quotes should NOT say "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah" or "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know" repeatedly; it makes the reader uninterested and makes the author seem like they are trying to meet a specific word count. Her interviewees and the structure of the interviews were so very sorry and precise to a particular geographic location:
"I share the experiences of over a hundred diverse women from the San Francisco Bay Area, whose stories I learned about when I was part of a research team that conducted interviews from 2009 to 2011. I use pseudonyms to protect their identities. The women, all unmarried and between the ages of 20 and 29, were recruited from two community colleges and two four-year universities to gather a broad swath of perspectives across socioeconomic status."
Littlejohn wrote this book in 2021! Why is she using interviews from over 10 years prior?! How is that effective? How is it representative of anything?
To say more about the interviews, what is she actually trying to claim by using them? She makes some good arguments, but their effectiveness and strength dwindle until they are no longer claims and just opinions. At one point, she inserts her own opinion of why one of her interviewees had different condom sizes at her disposal and says this horrid, outlandish, and grammatically incorrect sentence:
"Her decision to tell him “whatever size you need” further underscored her comfort around condom use and her sexuality, clearly indicating to her partner that he was one of many men with whom she could have sex."
Is she being for real right now??? She didn’t actually just say that, right? Judgmental insinuation aside, this is genuinely a ridiculous statement and infers stuff outside the premise of the book and is slut-shamey. Slut-shaming in a book about REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE is actually insane lol like what???
She doesn't even MENTION reproductive justice (other than in her introduction) until 90 pages into the book. 90 pages! In a book about reproductive justice! When she mentions it in the conclusion, she frames it in a way that solves all the gender inequality surrounding contraception. Umm no. She’s an apparent sociologist, she should know that RJ is not enough to help, education is not enough, and campaigns aren’t enough. Real policy and social change must happen for this to occur, and men need to start being held accountable. (Don’t even get me started on how she handled men’s socialization in this book because wow, it’s not good.
I just want the world to see this sentence bc it is so bad it's laughable. She finally talks about SA and rape within a contraceptive context, and when she does, it's unclear and hard to read? Like just because I get what you're trying to say, and what you're saying does need to be a part of sex education, doesn't change how you should've been a better writer when discussing such sensitive topics.
"Women’s experiences with partners who 'slipped condoms off ' and a lack of recognition that doing so constitutes sexual assault suggest women would benefit were lessons on contraception to include discussions about affirmative consent."
I have so many more negative things to say about this book, but I must save them for the assignment that forced me to read this horrendous book. I genuinely wish I never read this book because it is actually useless. I appreciate the work Littlejohn puts into writing the book, as I do not know the stress and effort it takes to even complete a book. However, her writing this book does not negate the fact that it essentially adds nothing to a conversation about contraception that I didn’t know at age 16 from an infographic posted by a feminist Instagram account.
In a book ABOUT AND CENTERING contraception use, she barely talks about gendered violence and refuses to talk about rape and SA, which is a grave disservice to SA victims around the world. I can look over her lack of She says so much without showing the audience ANYTHING. The interviews she conducts are hard to read, as she includes unnecessary anecdotes and additional words and phrases that do nothing but complicate her argument. Quotes should NOT say "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah" or "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know" repeatedly; it makes the reader uninterested and makes the author seem like they are trying to meet a specific word count. Her interviewees and the structure of the interviews were so very sorry and precise to a particular geographic location:
"I share the experiences of over a hundred diverse women from the San Francisco Bay Area, whose stories I learned about when I was part of a research team that conducted interviews from 2009 to 2011. I use pseudonyms to protect their identities. The women, all unmarried and between the ages of 20 and 29, were recruited from two community colleges and two four-year universities to gather a broad swath of perspectives across socioeconomic status."
Littlejohn wrote this book in 2021! Why is she using interviews from over 10 years prior?! How is that effective? How is it representative of anything?
To say more about the interviews, what is she actually trying to claim by using them? She makes some good arguments, but their effectiveness and strength dwindle until they are no longer claims and just opinions. At one point, she inserts her own opinion of why one of her interviewees had different condom sizes at her disposal and says this horrid, outlandish, and grammatically incorrect sentence:
"Her decision to tell him “whatever size you need” further underscored her comfort around condom use and her sexuality, clearly indicating to her partner that he was one of many men with whom she could have sex."
Is she being for real right now??? She didn’t actually just say that, right? Judgmental insinuation aside, this is genuinely a ridiculous statement and infers stuff outside the premise of the book and is slut-shamey. Slut-shaming in a book about REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE is actually insane lol like what???
She doesn't even MENTION reproductive justice (other than in her introduction) until 90 pages into the book. 90 pages! In a book about reproductive justice! When she mentions it in the conclusion, she frames it in a way that solves all the gender inequality surrounding contraception. Umm no. She’s an apparent sociologist, she should know that RJ is not enough to help, education is not enough, and campaigns aren’t enough. Real policy and social change must happen for this to occur, and men need to start being held accountable. (Don’t even get me started on how she handled men’s socialization in this book because wow, it’s not good.
I just want the world to see this sentence bc it is so bad it's laughable. She finally talks about SA and rape within a contraceptive context, and when she does, it's unclear and hard to read? Like just because I get what you're trying to say, and what you're saying does need to be a part of sex education, doesn't change how you should've been a better writer when discussing such sensitive topics.
"Women’s experiences with partners who 'slipped condoms off ' and a lack of recognition that doing so constitutes sexual assault suggest women would benefit were lessons on contraception to include discussions about affirmative consent."
I have so many more negative things to say about this book, but I must save them for the assignment that forced me to read this horrendous book. I genuinely wish I never read this book because it is actually useless. I appreciate the work Littlejohn puts into writing the book, as I do not know the stress and effort it takes to even complete a book. However, her writing this book does not negate the fact that it essentially adds nothing to a conversation about contraception that I didn’t know at age 16 from an infographic posted by a feminist Instagram account.
October 26, 2023
changed the way i think about contraception, probably forever. wow. i need to reread this at some point and really sink into what the implications are for healthcare providers in order to break down the gendered dimensions of contraception and think about contraception in a justice centered framework for my own career!
July 23, 2022
I have just been vibing lately with books that teach me things and give me insight into the world. And I truly had never thought about how gendered various forms of pregnancy prevention is or how it is often women who do the physical and emotional labor of avoiding pregnancy. Definitely a short but great read into what goes into birth control management.
December 13, 2022
The writing and research done for this book is brilliant. Grateful for the new insight into reproductive justice.
January 25, 2023
Un brillante y certero periodicazo en el hocico de muchas suposiciones sobre el uso de anticonceptivos.
November 24, 2025
A book I wish every man would read !!!!!!!! Loved the anecdotal style of it also; emphasises the variation in experiences people face
January 25, 2025
i love a methodological appendix
January 27, 2025
everyone should read this
September 19, 2021
Using a reproductive justice lens, in Just Get on the Pill Prof. Littlejohn reveals the intersectional gender politics of contraception among young women and their partners, providing incisive analysis of in-depth interviews. The uneven burdens that she uncovers involve the gendering of “his” and “hers” contraceptive methods, which in the context of unbalanced gender power result in women shouldering the load of managing both contraception and, when it fails, pregnancy. With careful attention to their family socialization, structural barriers to health care, and relationship dynamics (as seen by the women interviewed), she situates a diverse sample of women in the conflictual maelstrom of constrained choices and stressful interactions they inhabit – with suboptimal results. In a key chapter on women who experienced a pregnancy, she shines much needed light on the race/ethnic diversity in young women’s experience at the intersection of sex and contraception, one in which Black women display both efficacy and vulnerability that belies either a simple resilience or multiple-oppression narrative. In addition to addressing crucial questions of the day – both in the stream of research and in the gendered life of our society – the book is excellently crafted, highly readable, and completely persuasive.
February 29, 2024
I really enjoyed this book but found that way in which participants were presented (as interviewees of various races, ages, etc) reifies what readers think about these characteristics
February 19, 2025
this ate so so bad. as someone who is in repro justice organizing, I think this is such an important read. i learned a lot! while I know that pregnancy prevention is inherently gendered, I loved seeing the narratives and examples.
This book is a call to action to do better. Men need to do better at stepping up to the plate. researchers need to do better at finding male birth control options. pregnancy prevention should not just be a responsibility for people with a uterus.
one thing I would have loved to see in this book is people's stories about getting their IUD inserted. iud insertion can be traumatizing and painful--i would have loved to see how the people interviewed for this dealt with that. this could have also shed light on how clinicians need to do better at providing pain treatments for such invasive procedures.
overall, I enjoyed this book. it could have been longer, but that's okay. this is a critical read for organizers, clinicians, and researchers. i will keep this book in mind for a repro justice book club. 5/5.
This book is a call to action to do better. Men need to do better at stepping up to the plate. researchers need to do better at finding male birth control options. pregnancy prevention should not just be a responsibility for people with a uterus.
one thing I would have loved to see in this book is people's stories about getting their IUD inserted. iud insertion can be traumatizing and painful--i would have loved to see how the people interviewed for this dealt with that. this could have also shed light on how clinicians need to do better at providing pain treatments for such invasive procedures.
overall, I enjoyed this book. it could have been longer, but that's okay. this is a critical read for organizers, clinicians, and researchers. i will keep this book in mind for a repro justice book club. 5/5.
December 23, 2025
Actual Rating: 3.5.
This was a quick, interesting read exploring how we use gendered language to place the onus of pregnancy prevention onto women.
I read this for a very specific project which, unfortunately, this wasn't as related to as I expected. Still, I'm very interested in questions of "refusal" and found this to be a good introduction to some of the complexities inherent to "not-taking" a prescribed treatment.
Littlejohn has a very plain, easy-to-read writing style, so I can see people from a range of backgrounds being able to read and enjoy this book. It also caused me to reflect on my own history with birth control and how gendered expectations did/did not impact my decisions around it. In that way, it makes a nice companion piece to Come As You Are, which I read earlier this year.
Overall, I had a good time reading this book and would definitely recommend it to people interested in the intersections between gender, sex, and medical decision-making.
This was a quick, interesting read exploring how we use gendered language to place the onus of pregnancy prevention onto women.
I read this for a very specific project which, unfortunately, this wasn't as related to as I expected. Still, I'm very interested in questions of "refusal" and found this to be a good introduction to some of the complexities inherent to "not-taking" a prescribed treatment.
Littlejohn has a very plain, easy-to-read writing style, so I can see people from a range of backgrounds being able to read and enjoy this book. It also caused me to reflect on my own history with birth control and how gendered expectations did/did not impact my decisions around it. In that way, it makes a nice companion piece to Come As You Are, which I read earlier this year.
Overall, I had a good time reading this book and would definitely recommend it to people interested in the intersections between gender, sex, and medical decision-making.
March 28, 2022
I love this topic and I really wanted to like this book. It has a lot of basic information on topics in reproductive justice. It draws a lot of information from interviews, which were interesting to read. I was disappointed in the breadth of the research.
The author states: "I share the experiences of over a hundred diverse women from the San Francisco Bay Area, whose stories I learned about when I was part of a research team that conducted interviews from 2009 to 2011. ... The women, all unmarried and between the ages of 20 and 29, were recruited from two community colleges and two four year universities to gather a broad swath of perspectives across socioeconomic status." This is not a broad swath of perspectives - it is an extraordinarily narrow selection, from a very precise geographic location.
The author states: "I share the experiences of over a hundred diverse women from the San Francisco Bay Area, whose stories I learned about when I was part of a research team that conducted interviews from 2009 to 2011. ... The women, all unmarried and between the ages of 20 and 29, were recruited from two community colleges and two four year universities to gather a broad swath of perspectives across socioeconomic status." This is not a broad swath of perspectives - it is an extraordinarily narrow selection, from a very precise geographic location.
March 10, 2023
2.5 - The title of this book holds so much potential and the reality is so disappointing. 140 pages of whining that women bear the hormonal birth control responsibility while men get away with not bringing condoms and women are socialized to not bring them. The conclusion offered few concrete solutions. The argument ignores cost of prescription birth control vs. condoms until the very end and completely ignores reasons other than preventing pregnancy that women might obtain birth control. Only at the end does it barely discuss that male hormonal birth control does not yet exist in an FDA-approved form, and it implies that the 82% typical use success rate of condoms is equivalent to the over 90% typical use success rate of hormonal methods. It is full of “in this essay I will…” sentences, and while I know it’s an academic work, authors can do better than this.
June 10, 2025
i would consider myself to be well-educated on contraceptive matters so i enjoyed this book to a reasonable extent - i believe others who would not have the same knowledge may learn a lot more from it.
i enjoyed the layout of the book and the use of real life experiences of women told through interview snippets.
unfortunately i felt like the same thesis points were constantly repeated - that the responsibility of contraception falls to both parties equally, however no matter the case made in the book - in heterosexual relationships the burden and responsibility of contraception will typically fall on the woman.
i can see how this would be an amazing research paper but for a published work, i guess it just fell a little flat 🤏
i enjoyed the layout of the book and the use of real life experiences of women told through interview snippets.
unfortunately i felt like the same thesis points were constantly repeated - that the responsibility of contraception falls to both parties equally, however no matter the case made in the book - in heterosexual relationships the burden and responsibility of contraception will typically fall on the woman.
i can see how this would be an amazing research paper but for a published work, i guess it just fell a little flat 🤏
December 31, 2024
Hace un muy buen trabajo mostrando las expectativas sociales que, desproporcionadamente, se ponen en las mujeres al hablar de la contracepción. Sin embargo, siento que está demasiado centrado en experiencias binarias y cisgénero, y que varios métodos no son mencionados. Hay muchas historias y entrevistas de mujeres de distintos grupos, aunque al final sigue siendo una muestra algo limitada.
En general, es una lectura accesible y rápida, y por sobre todo un recordatorio de lo geniales que son los condones. :)
En general, es una lectura accesible y rápida, y por sobre todo un recordatorio de lo geniales que son los condones. :)
September 2, 2022
Definitely an interesting and informative read! My only issue was that I wished she had spoken in less academic terminology in the summary. I had to reread several sentences throughout to try to translate the academic language into layman's terms. I feel that I understood it overall, but I wish there had been a small section in the summary where she clarified her points without so much academic jargon.
April 29, 2023
Societally we must protect the right to abortion and the right to parent, particularly for those people with uteruses. We have to stand up for reproductive justice and the organizations that advocate for reproductive freedom. And we need to recognize that reproductive justice is the center of the international human right to reproductive freedom. And we have to eradicate gender oppression in our society. Our children depend on it.
May 16, 2023
This book would serve as a good introduction to reproductive justice, and I appreciated the use of interviewees and real-world experiences. That being said, this book didn’t really expose me to much new information, and it extended relatively simple arguments into lengthy discussions that didn’t add much to the overall conversation.
So a good place to start if you’re new to reproductive justice! And still a good little book to skim if you already have a decent amount of background.
So a good place to start if you’re new to reproductive justice! And still a good little book to skim if you already have a decent amount of background.
June 14, 2023
I was in shock when I read this series of interviews. As a cisgender, gay man, I knew of quite a bit of the issues regarding reproductive governance and justice from my friends but I never quite realized how deep they were and how systemic they are. The government and their treatment towards women in minorities is absolutely ridiculous and hearing all of the firsthand accounts from these women really drives forward the message Littlejohn is driving in the book.
October 13, 2021
Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in reproductive justice and/or intersectional feminism. While there is little that is earth-shattering, the book provides a concise introduction to the topic of contraception methods and the ways in which they can both help and hinder women (and those with the ability to become pregnant) in their ability to prevent pregnancy.
September 27, 2023
This is mostly written about condoms and becomes somewhat repetitive at times. However, it is a quick read that I think is worth doing.
December 8, 2023
loved this but it was very trans exclusionary and only talked about cisgender women
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