The Concerns Underlying Sex Education for Young People in France During the First Half of the 20th Century: Morality, demography and public health

n France during the first half of the 20th century, the issue of sex education for young people of both sexes was the focus of debate among actors in various fields. Their aims converged, however, in the guiding principles they proposed for action to regulate sexual behaviour. In this essay, we would like to demonstrate that sex education, as it was proposed and introduced, was based on a set of proposals or choices reflecting an overall representation of the demographic stakes involved and a framework for their interpretation. Fuelled by fear of the “venereal peril ” as well as degeneration and depopulation, sex education consisted of a set of prescriptions and recommendations to help young men gauge the consequences of sexual intercourse for themselves, their families and society. It sought to instil a sense of responsibility by preparing them for a family model that would ensure reproduction of the population in the desired quantity and quality. The representation of these demographic concerns and the framework for interpreting them determined the guidelines for sex education: they set limits on what was desirable and undesirable in the area of sex education as well as its objectives. Other concerns have already been brought out, not only in the case of France but more broadly in Europe and the United States or Canada: morality, in particular, imposed or ruled out some of the prescriptions1. By focusing our attention on these underlying concerns, we wil