Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics

Littlejohn will discuss insights from her book, Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics, published by University of California Press in August. In Just Get on the Pill, Littlejohn draws on interviews with 103 young cis women to understand the intersectional politics of pregnancy prevention. She shows how taken-for-granted ideas about gender shape how women and their partners think about birth control, how they use methods, and how they inequitably allocate responsibility for preventing pregnancy. She documents how these practices encroach on women’s ability to exercise bodily autonomy, prevent pregnancy, and protect themselves from disease. In the end, she shows that the gendered organization of pregnancy prevention is not natural. It is unjust.

Krystale E. Littlejohn is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and author of Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics (UC Press, 2021). She earned her PhD from Stanford University in 2013 and her BA from Occidental College in 2007. Her work examines race, gender, and reproduction, particularly at the nexus between embodiment and biomedical technologies. Her research has been published in Demography, Gender & Society, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior, among other outlets. She has received funding from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Society of Family Planning Research Fund, and the ASA Minority Fellowship program.