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This thesis is about birth control, gender and sexuality during the Swedish fertility transition (1880-1940). The aim is to study birth control at both an ideational and a practical level, as well as to analyse the ways in which birth control was constructed and realised through different notions of gender. The ideational level includes studies of the Swedish morality debates, norms and ideals concerning both gender and birth control, and the radical socialist propaganda for birth control. The practical level analyses how ordinary people experienced birth control and how they motivated their decision to limit childbearing. The thesis is grounded in post-structuralist gender theory. Gender is seen as a process with separate implications for men and women. Respectable women were supposed to demonstrate shyness, humility and sexual passivity while respectable men demonstrated responsibility, attentiveness and sexual knowledge. A respectable man should also protect his wife from pregnancy by abstaining from sex. These norms were to some extent challenged by radical propagandists who promoted mechanical birth control, rather than abstention, as a means to control fertility. In doing this they also recognised that women’s sexual needs were similar to those of men. The second half of the thesis studies birth control at the individual level. Through a collection of letters, written by ordinary men and women and sent to the Swedish Association of Sexual Education, individual experiences and attitudes to birth control are analysed. It is concluded that preventive birth control was a male responsibility. Prevention of pregnancy intervened with sexuality and was therefore an area difficult for women to enter. The most commonly used contraceptive methods during the 1930s were withdrawal and condoms – two methods which required male responsibility. The only birth controlling method that did not intervene with sexuality was abortion. This was a traditionally female responsibility

This thesis is about birth control, gender and sexuality during the Swedish fertility transition (1880-1940). The aim is to study birth control at both an ideational and a practical level, as well as to analyse the ways in which birth control was constructed and realised through different notions of gender. The ideational level includes studies of the Swedish morality debates, norms and ideals concerning both gender and birth control, and the radical socialist propaganda for birth control. The practical level analyses how ordinary people experienced birth control and how they motivated their decision to limit childbearing. The thesis is grounded in post-structuralist gender theory. Gender is seen as a process with separate implications for men and women. Respectable women were supposed to demonstrate shyness, humility and sexual passivity while respectable men demonstrated responsibility, attentiveness and sexual knowledge. A respectable man should also protect his wife from pregnancy by abstaining from sex. These norms were to some extent challenged by radical propagandists who promoted mechanical birth control, rather than abstention, as a means to control fertility. In doing this they also recognised that women’s sexual needs were similar to those of men. The second half of the thesis studies birth control at the individual level. Through a collection of letters, written by ordinary men and women and sent to the Swedish Association of Sexual Education, individual experiences and attitudes to birth control are analysed. It is concluded that preventive birth control was a male responsibility. Prevention of pregnancy intervened with sexuality and was therefore an area difficult for women to enter. The most commonly used contraceptive methods during the 1930s were withdrawal and condoms – two methods which required male responsibility. The only birth controlling method that did not intervene with sexuality was abortion. This was a traditionally female responsibility

This thesis is about birth control, gender and sexuality during the Swedish fertility transition (1880-1940). The aim is to study birth control at both an ideational and a practical level, as well as to analyse the ways in which birth control was constructed and realised through different notions of gender. The ideational level includes studies of the Swedish morality debates, norms and ideals concerning both gender and birth control, and the radical socialist propaganda for birth control. The practical level analyses how ordinary people experienced birth control and how they motivated their decision to limit childbearing. The thesis is grounded in post-structuralist gender theory. Gender is seen as a process with separate implications for men and women. Respectable women were supposed to demonstrate shyness, humility and sexual passivity while respectable men demonstrated responsibility, attentiveness and sexual knowledge. A respectable man should also protect his wife from pregnancy by abstaining from sex. These norms were to some extent challenged by radical propagandists who promoted mechanical birth control, rather than abstention, as a means to control fertility. In doing this they also recognised that women’s sexual needs were similar to those of men. The second half of the thesis studies birth control at the individual level. Through a collection of letters, written by ordinary men and women and sent to the Swedish Association of Sexual Education, individual experiences and attitudes to birth control are analysed. It is concluded that preventive birth control was a male responsibility. Prevention of pregnancy intervened with sexuality and was therefore an area difficult for women to enter. The most commonly used contraceptive methods during the 1930s were withdrawal and condoms – two methods which required male responsibility. The only birth controlling method that did not intervene with sexuality was abortion. This was a traditionally female responsibility

This thesis is about birth control, gender and sexuality during the Swedish fertility transition (1880-1940). The aim is to study birth control at both an ideational and a practical level, as well as to analyse the ways in which birth control was constructed and realised through different notions of gender. The ideational level includes studies of the Swedish morality debates, norms and ideals concerning both gender and birth control, and the radical socialist propaganda for birth control. The practical level analyses how ordinary people experienced birth control and how they motivated their decision to limit childbearing. The thesis is grounded in post-structuralist gender theory. Gender is seen as a process with separate implications for men and women. Respectable women were supposed to demonstrate shyness, humility and sexual passivity while respectable men demonstrated responsibility, attentiveness and sexual knowledge. A respectable man should also protect his wife from pregnancy by abstaining from sex. These norms were to some extent challenged by radical propagandists who promoted mechanical birth control, rather than abstention, as a means to control fertility. In doing this they also recognised that women’s sexual needs were similar to those of men. The second half of the thesis studies birth control at the individual level. Through a collection of letters, written by ordinary men and women and sent to the Swedish Association of Sexual Education, individual experiences and attitudes to birth control are analysed. It is concluded that preventive birth control was a male responsibility. Prevention of pregnancy intervened with sexuality and was therefore an area difficult for women to enter. The most commonly used contraceptive methods during the 1930s were withdrawal and condoms – two methods which required male responsibility. The only birth controlling method that did not intervene with sexuality was abortion. This was a traditionally female responsibility

This thesis is about birth control, gender and sexuality during the Swedish fertility transition (1880-1940). The aim is to study birth control at both an ideational and a practical level, as well as to analyse the ways in which birth control was constructed and realised through different notions of gender. The ideational level includes studies of the Swedish morality debates, norms and ideals concerning both gender and birth control, and the radical socialist propaganda for birth control. The practical level analyses how ordinary people experienced birth control and how they motivated their decision to limit childbearing. The thesis is grounded in post-structuralist gender theory. Gender is seen as a process with separate implications for men and women. Respectable women were supposed to demonstrate shyness, humility and sexual passivity while respectable men demonstrated responsibility, attentiveness and sexual knowledge. A respectable man should also protect his wife from pregnancy by abstaining from sex. These norms were to some extent challenged by radical propagandists who promoted mechanical birth control, rather than abstention, as a means to control fertility. In doing this they also recognised that women’s sexual needs were similar to those of men. The second half of the thesis studies birth control at the individual level. Through a collection of letters, written by ordinary men and women and sent to the Swedish Association of Sexual Education, individual experiences and attitudes to birth control are analysed. It is concluded that preventive birth control was a male responsibility. Prevention of pregnancy intervened with sexuality and was therefore an area difficult for women to enter. The most commonly used contraceptive methods during the 1930s were withdrawal and condoms – two methods which required male responsibility. The only birth controlling method that did not intervene with sexuality was abortion. This was a traditionally female responsibility