#2005-01: Redefining and Measuring Sexual Revolution, with an Example from the IPUMS Census Data 1880-2000

Author: Nathanael T. Lauster, University of Minnesota

ABSTRACT: In this paper I redefine the concept of sexual revolution and suggest two new measurements for the process. I review prior definitions and measurements of sexual revolution. I redefine sexual revolution in response to a Victorian script linking the public statuses of marriage and childbearing to the privacy of sexual experience. I measure sexual revolution as resistance to this script. In particular, women break the link between sex, marriage, and childbearing, and make sexual behavior public by being wives without children or being mothers without ever marrying. I demonstrate the historical relevance of these measurements in the United States by using IPUMS census data from 1880-2000. I compare metropolitan and nonmetropolitan populations, black and white populations, and the populations of four metropolitan areas (Boston, Richmond, Indianapolis, and San Francisco) with respect to sexual revolution. The results indicate that these new measurements of sexual revolution both correspond with and confirm past research on sexual revolution and point towards the possibility of further research.