The Effect on Gender Expectations

The idea of sexual interactions being natural to the relations between men and women influenced gender expectations for men and women. Pleasurable sex to fulfill the sexual desires of both men and women was encouraged, and put an emphasis on men and women being able to effectively please their partners. The increased support of sexual interactions paired with increased knowledge about contraception. Marriage texts and sex education writings of the period brought the topic of contraception to the public sphere allowing open conversation between members of the public. The majority of the contraceptive methods required actions by the women therefore placing most of the responsibility for prevention on the woman. Both the religious and scientific perspectives provided the idea that women reached their point of sexual maturity before men, which implied that men should be in relationships with younger women when it was time to consider having a family. Men and women were also responsible for limiting the amount of children to an appropriate amount based on their income and family resources causing the size of families to shrink [1].

Many of the gender expectations that surfaced during the Health Movement are visible in today’s society. Since the movement, the openness of consensual sex for pleasure has increased throughout each generation. This has also continued to pair with the importance of sex education within the public sphere. There is still an idea of waiting to have children until an appropriate time and families hold the responsibility of controlling the amount of children they have based on their resources and income. With the historic past of religion and science influencing gender expectations through providing ideas about sex it is interesting to ask yourself, how will religious and scientific perspectives of sex continue to create gender expectations in the future?

1. D'Emilio, John, and Estelle B. Freedman, "Within the Family." In Intimate Matters, 55-84, Third ed. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.