female reproductive independence and the entrance of women into the workplace, voluntary sterilization has provided a permanent way for women to control their fertility and ease their worries of unplanned pregnancy (Blank 44). A less conspicuous form of birth control than contraceptives such as the pill or diaphragm, sterilization has helped to create a feeling of "sexual liberation" (Petchesky cited in Shapiro 88) for women whose birth control depended on male cooperation. With the growth of sterilization making it the most common form of birth control for women over 25 since the 1970s, many women feel they now have a more forceful type of control over their own bodies (!
             Defoe-website). To many women, sterilization has been an alternative to birth control which has had to please both the man and the woman.
             While on the surface sterilization does offer a strong level of reproductive control, these advantages have not always worked in the best interest of women. Examining the time period from the 1930s onward, through out the decades many women have been misled as to the dangers and permanence of sterilization. Under State social policies whites, Blacks and Native Americans have all been subject to unethical sterilization policies.
             Throughout American history, the traditional role of white middle to upper class woman has been to be a mother; a nurturer and protector. Thus, when white upper class women began voicing their desires for limited family size they were going against the norms of society. Hoping to encourage white women to have children, doctors were often reluctant to provide sterilizations to these women. For example, using what is called the "120 formula," an informal statute that says a woman's age multiplied by the number of children she has must equal 120 or higher in order to make her a candidate for sterilization, gynecologists and obstetricians have restricted women's access to ...