Reconstructing Sexual Relations

Abstract

A crucial contributing factor to the Western development of the women's movement in the west has been what has sometimes been termed as the "sexual revolution" of the post-war period, i.e. acceptance of pre-marital sex and change of sex partners as a fairly normal part of life.

As is well-known, in most countries of Europe and in the U.S., a major catalyzing factor for the women's movement has been the struggle for a liberal abortion law and this struggle, which has been carried on since the sixties, is by no means won. Abortion as a basic right had become crucial in societies where pre-marital
sex was increasingly accepted. At the same time, the State and religious institutions (especially the Catholic Church) were trying to protect and uphold the institution of the family and to boost declining population figures by making abortion inaccessible, with hair-raising results. The estimates of illegal and often highly hazardous abortions were equaling the numbers of births in many countries.