• In The Birth of the Pill, Jonathan Eig credits philanthropist and feminist Katharine McCormick — advised by Margaret Sanger — with being the sole funder of crucial early-stage research leading to the development of the combined oral contraceptive pill, now one of the most common and convenient birth control methods.

“In the mid-1800s, gynecologists experimented with the surgical removal of the clitoris (known as a clitoridectomy) or the ovaries (an oophorectomy) to treat hysteria. Isaac Baker Brown was a well-known gynecologist in England and the president of the Medical Society of London. He recommended clitoridectomy as a treatment for insanity, epilepsy,