Did the 1960s free women or did they destroy the family?

The answer to this question is purely a matter of personal opinion.  There is no way to objectively say whether the changes of the 1960s (and later years) constituted freeing women or if they constituted destroying the family.  My guess is that a person’s answer will depend on his or her political convictions.  Liberals will tend to say that the 1960s freed women while conservatives will tend to say that they destroyed the family.

The main changes from the 1960s that affected women and the family were “the Pill” and the movement of greater numbers of women into the workforce.  Before the introduction of oral birth control, it was fairly difficult for women to reliably plan their pregnancies.  This made it harder for married women to work because they were more likely to have unplanned pregnancies.  It made it riskier for single women to have sex because they were more likely to get pregnant.  What this meant is that women were more likely to marry and to stay married.  They had to get married if they wanted love and sex.  They had to stay married because they tended to depend on their husbands for money.

With the invention of the Pill and the increase in women in the workforce (particularly in good jobs), marriage became less important.  It was much safer for a single woman to have a sex life now that she could reliably protect herself from pregnancy.  Women also stopped needing men so much because more women could make their own livings through their careers.

The question for you, then, is whether this was a good thing.  Was it bad for women to be forced to marry in order to have sex and to stay married in order to have financial security?  Alternatively, is our current situation, where women do not have to marry and the rates of divorce are high worse than the way things were before the 1960?  What is your opinion on this issue?