The design of the combined oral contraceptive pill has evolved over time, yet it has retained an essential form: small, simple, and customizable.
From the beginning, the size of the pill allowed it to be inconspicuous. At the time of its inception, the women’s rights movement in the United States, particularly in the workplace, was growing stronger. However, women had never before had the ability to take control of their sexual freedom in such definitive way as the birth control pill allowed. The pill “provided, for the first time, an effective, convenient, and non-intrusive means of avoiding pregnancy” (Gibbs). That is, its size lends itself to truly modest, unimpressive consumption; it is nowhere near the size of some large, dramatic “horse pills” required to treat or prevent ailments. According to one story, one mother “admitted that she was already slipping [a birth control pill] into her daughter’s milk at breakfast” (Gibbs). Because it is so small, the pill has been designed to be easily incorporated into a woman’s daily rituals.
The simplicity of the pill is another crucial aspect of its design. Because women are primarily interested in the function of the pill over its aesthetic qualities, they can be easily and ostensibly cheaply produced on an extremely massive scale. Depending on healthcare coverage and type of pill, monthly costs range from $0 to $50 (Palmer). When weighed against the costs of having an unexpected pregnancy, this monthly price to pay approaches nominality. Because the form of the pill does not vary within a particular brand/type, it is also easily replicable and echoes its intended repetitive use. The simplicity and related economical advantages of the pill’s design allows for its expansive proliferation and accessibility.
Finally, the birth control pill is customizable to a woman’s individual needs. Aside from packaging (more information here), the pill comes in different colors, quantities, and dosages. This gives a woman many options depending on her personal body chemistry and lifestyle. For example, if a woman has an adverse reaction to one type of pill (such as more painful menstruation), she can switch to a different dosage. If someone identifies themselves as particularly forgetful (as is the case for one of our group members), some pills come in packs of 28 with a week’s worth of placebo/sugar pills to just keep up the habit. Sometimes these pills are color coded as well, which is a design element that functions to organize the pills, triggering memory and creating a visual hierarchy for pills with different dosages. These variations provide another design aspect that allows women to take more control over their bodies.
From the beginning, the size of the pill allowed it to be inconspicuous. At the time of its inception, the women’s rights movement in the United States, particularly in the workplace, was growing stronger. However, women had never before had the ability to take control of their sexual freedom in such definitive way as the birth control pill allowed. The pill “provided, for the first time, an effective, convenient, and non-intrusive means of avoiding pregnancy” (Gibbs). That is, its size lends itself to truly modest, unimpressive consumption; it is nowhere near the size of some large, dramatic “horse pills” required to treat or prevent ailments. According to one story, one mother “admitted that she was already slipping [a birth control pill] into her daughter’s milk at breakfast” (Gibbs). Because it is so small, the pill has been designed to be easily incorporated into a woman’s daily rituals.
The simplicity of the pill is another crucial aspect of its design. Because women are primarily interested in the function of the pill over its aesthetic qualities, they can be easily and ostensibly cheaply produced on an extremely massive scale. Depending on healthcare coverage and type of pill, monthly costs range from $0 to $50 (Palmer). When weighed against the costs of having an unexpected pregnancy, this monthly price to pay approaches nominality. Because the form of the pill does not vary within a particular brand/type, it is also easily replicable and echoes its intended repetitive use. The simplicity and related economical advantages of the pill’s design allows for its expansive proliferation and accessibility.
Finally, the birth control pill is customizable to a woman’s individual needs. Aside from packaging (more information here), the pill comes in different colors, quantities, and dosages. This gives a woman many options depending on her personal body chemistry and lifestyle. For example, if a woman has an adverse reaction to one type of pill (such as more painful menstruation), she can switch to a different dosage. If someone identifies themselves as particularly forgetful (as is the case for one of our group members), some pills come in packs of 28 with a week’s worth of placebo/sugar pills to just keep up the habit. Sometimes these pills are color coded as well, which is a design element that functions to organize the pills, triggering memory and creating a visual hierarchy for pills with different dosages. These variations provide another design aspect that allows women to take more control over their bodies.
Photo above: There are many different brands of birth control pills on the market, but regardless of packaging and dosage, they are all designed to be small, circular, and unobtrusive.
Photo above: To give a better sense of the size of a typical combined oral contraceptive pill, we’ve placed one non-placebo tablet (marked with a “b”) next to a U.S. quarter as well as an Advil gel tablet (medication used to treat minor pains).
Chinese Paper Pill
Some oral contraceptives have been dispensed on small squares of perforated filter paper designed to be torn off, chewed and swallowed. This Chinese paper pill, acquired by the Smithsonian in 1988, measures 4.0 cm x 5.8 cm (Source: PBS).
Color-Coded Pills
Berlex Laboratories, Inc. packaged its sequential Tri-Levlen 28 pill in three different doses and hormone combinations, to more closely mimic a woman's menstrual cycle. Each type of pill was a different color and had to be taken in sequence as the arrows on the package directed. This 1988 package features a sliding cover (Source: PBS).