A six-month study of 200 Iranian women taking oral contraceptives showed only a 12-percent success rate among those who themselves assumed responsibility for taking the pills but a 93 percent success rate among those whose husbands dispensed the pills to their wives. The male dominance of the society and the women's need for offspring to ensure their status contributed to the latters' inability to assume responsibility for birth control. The author discusses the implications of his findings and stresses the need for multiple models of birth control.Abstract Teaser