Family Values: Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood
Revisited
University of KentJune, 2010
Susan Moller Okin
Mothers and Potential Mothers
Gender Regimes
Sexual Regimes
I. The Old Order: The World before 1964
II. What Changed?
III. The Consequences of the Change
IV. Abortion and the Politics of [Marital] Motherhood
I. The Old Order
What The Old Order Looked Like in 1963
• Contraception was formally illegal– Not displayed in public– Not available over the counter
• Abortion was illegal
• Large majorities of Americans disapproved of premarital sex
What The New Order Looked Like in 1974
• Abortion legal and accepted – Mostly on the “soft reasons”– Before Roe v. Wade
• Dramatic changes in % of people who found premarital sex “always wrong” (a decline of almost 20 points)
• Contraception legal– Advertised in public– Available over the counter
II. Causes
Technological Change
Ideological Change
Legal Change
III. Consequences
Dramatic Changes in Women’s Lives
• Adapted from Goldin and Katz:On The Pill
"Women should take care of the home and leave running the country up to men"
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
1974 1975 1977 1978 1982 1983 1985 1986 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 1996 1998
Series1
Agree by Education by Gender
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
LT HS HS Jr BA GRAD
Education
Males
Females
Abortion and the Politics of Marital Motherhood
Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood argued that abortion divided women along the lines of the meaning of motherhood.
Advanced Degrees, Again
• Adapted from Goldin and Katz:On The Pill
What’s New?
It’s not motherhood, it’s MARRIED motherhood
Marriage has become a luxury good
Marriage by Education
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
No HS (or GED) HS (or GED) Some College College Graduate
Percent Married or Cohabiting
Ed
uca
tio
n
%Married
% Cohabiting
Marriage by Poverty Level
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
% Married % Cohabiting % Never Married
Per
cen
t M
arri
ed o
r C
oh
abit
ing
0-149%
150-299%
300+%
The Second Demographic Revolution
Conclusions and Implications for Policy
