How does the author describe the changes brought on by the availability of the contraceptive pill for the women in France (1960s) as noted in the memoir, The Years (Ernaux)?

The contraceptive pill became legal in France in the 1960s, when the woman in the photographs was already of age. She describes the moment as being one which women everywhere celebrated and yet feared at the same time. The utterly new concept of sexual freedom -- the kind only men could enjoy before the pill -- startled women and made them feel stronger. Ernaux describes the pill as somewhat of a miracle, even attempting to make the reader understand that what is taken for granted today was, many decades ago, celebrated as the product of a long and secret struggle.