Beyond Vice and Decay: Canadian Women’s Organizations and the Technologies of Sex, 1930-1955

Abstract

This thesis utilizes an historical sociology approach to examine women’s organizations in Canada between 1930 and 1955. I consider their responses to changes in women’s lives among three key areas: birth control, sex education and motherhood in the context of macro level events in Canadian society. This research utilizes a moral regulation framework to consider the ways in which the discourses, images and programmes of women’s organizations such as the National Council of Women and the Women’s Institutes created a space for norm-based adaptations to women’s intimate lives during the mid-twentieth century in Canada.