Sex, religion, and the single woman c.1950-75: the importance of a 'short' sexual revolution to the English religious crisis of the sixties

The English 'sexual revolution' has recently become increasingly conceived as 'long', lasting many decades, and by some historians as a gradual phenomenon, but reaching a peak with the introduction of the oral contraceptive pill in the 1960s. At the same time, the 'religious crisis' of the same decade has been attributed by some recent scholarship to liberal Christian revolt within the churches, and largely unconnected with sex. This article offers different views. First, based on the illegitimacy rate, it argues that, after a period of decline, restraint, and only minor change in the period 1946-59, the 1960s witnessed a sudden growth in pre-marital heterosexual intercourse before the pill's availability to single women, implying a cultural rather than a technological cause. Second, based on contemporary social surveys, it argues that there is clear evidence of a strong inverse correlation between levels of religious activity and levels of pre-marital sexual intercourse. Third, it argues that in the 1950s the dominant conservative Christian culture restrained single women from pre-marital sexual intercourse, but that from the early 1960s changing attitudes led to rising levels of sexual activity, led by single women, which reduced religious attitudes and Christian churchgoing, thus constituting a significant instigator of the religious crisis.     

Review Article: Westward the Course of Empire

ARTHUR POWER DUDDEN. The American Pacific: Prom the Old China Trade to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xx, 314. $39.50 (CDN)

SUNG-HWA CHEONG. The Politics of Anti-Japanese Sentiment in Korea: Japanese- South Korean Relations under American Occupation, 1945–1952. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991. Pp. xv, 190. $43.00 (US)

HIDEO IBE. Japan Thrice-Opened: An Analysis of Relations between Japan and the United States. New York: Praeger, 1992. Pp. 294. $49.93 (US)

RICHARD B. FINN. Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Pp. xxi, 413. $42.00 (US)

ROBERT P. NEWMAN. Owen Lattimore and the ‘Loss’ of China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Pp. xvi, 669. $36.00 (US)

H. W. BRANDS. Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xii, 384. $39.50 (CDN)

ODD ARNE WESTAD. Cold War and Revolution: Soviet-American Rivalry and the Origins of the Chinese Civil War, 1944–1946. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Pp. x, 260. $16.50 (US).     

Women's paid work and moral economies of care

Female labour force participation has been increasing in recent decades, in part encouraged by state policies to raise the employment rate to encourage economic competitiveness and combat social exclusion. Social provision for care, however, has lagged behind this increase, creating practical and moral dilemmas for individuals and for society, facing parents with complex choices about how to combine work and care. In this paper, we draw on a qualitative study in London to explore the extent to which the large-scale entry of women into waged work is altering women's understandings of their duties and responsibilities to care for others. We conclude that their decisions are influenced by class position, entrenched gender inequalities in the labour market, varying abilities to pay for care and complex gendered understandings of caring responsibilities.     

EFFICIENTLY MANAGING SPATIALLY COMPETING WATER USES: NEW EVIDENCE FROM A REGIONAL RECREATION DEMAND MODEL*

ABSTRACT In arid regions, managing water efficiently among competing demands depends critically on measuring comparable economic values of each end use. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to measure recreational values of water in the arid western U.S. These difficulties result from open spaces, few sites, and low incomes typical of the region. We examine whether water used for recreation can economically compete with agriculture. We accomplish this objective by extending the travel cost model to account for conditions unique to arid environments. We use demand systems theory to estimate a regional travel cost model which accounts for travel time, substitute sites, and discretionary travel cost. Findings from New Mexico's Pecos River Basin reveal recreational values of water which are 4040 percent higher than would result from conventional travel cost methodology. Measured recreation values of $130 per acre-foot compare with equivalent values of water in irrigated agriculture of $25–$40 per acre-foot.