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History of the Family 14 (2009) 88 – 106

Religion, masculinity and fertility decline☆

A comparative analysis of Protestant and Catholic culture
(Switzerland 1890–1930)
Anne-Françoise Praz ⁎
Etudes genre, Faculté des sciences économiques et socials, Université de Genève, Switzerland
Faculté des Lettres, Université de Fribourg, Switzerland

Abstract

This paper provides the sketch of a new mechanism explaining the delay of Catholic fertility, namely the changing norms of
masculinity and fatherhood, through a comparative study of the first fertility transition in Switzerland (1880–1930).
Comparative analysis of religious discourse attests to striking differences in norms of respectable masculinity. In the Protestant
canton, men were especially targeted and strongly incited to change their sexual behaviour and limit their offspring in order to
comply with a new model of the good husband and father. The religious teachings had an impact due to the social position of the
persons enouncing the norms, to the efficient diffusion reaching the majority of men, and to the effective sanctioning, as the
example of pastoral enquiries demonstrates. In the Catholic canton by contrast, men were not specifically addressed; the religious
discourse supported the husband's rights to frequent sexual intercourse and encouraged him to trust Providence to bring up many
children, thus sustaining high levels of fertility. The political repression of public discourse on sexuality defeated every attempt of
contesting the husband's marital rights and the Catholic doctrine of procreation. Sexual taboos were particularly severe for women
and their total ignorance of sexual matters weakened their bargaining power in fertility decisions.
In the last part of the paper, using quantitative methods, we tried to demonstrate that these norms and mechanisms did indeed
influence men's behaviour in the Protestant sample. For this purpose, we measured comparatively the results of some indicators
introduced to capture the impact of the norms of respectable masculinity, regarding men's responsibility in contraception and men's
ability to maintain dependent children. We hope thus to strengthen the position of a growing number of scholars who state that
historical demographers cannot avoid incorporating gender into their explanations of historical trends of fertility and who foster the
bridging of qualitative and quantitative methods.
© 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Fertility decline; Religion; Gender; Masculinity; Contraception

☆
This text is a revised version of a paper presented in April 2008 at Umeå University Sweden, during the international workshop “The Practice of
Birth Control and Historical Fertility Change”. The author wishes to thank the organizers and participants, in particular Dr Simon Szreter, for their
helpful remarks. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for constructive comments and to the copy-editors of The History of the Family for
improvements of language.
⁎ Etudes genre, Uni Mail 40, Bd du Pont-d'Arve 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 26 424 13 63, +41 79 440 37 31 (mobile); fax: +41 22 379
89 62.
E-mail addresses: anne.praz@unige.ch, anne-francoise.praz@unifr.ch.

1081-602X/$ - see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.hisfam.2009.01.001
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
The impact of religion on fertility has recently
aroused new attention by historians. Specifications of
the mechanisms through which religion has an effect, as
well as empirical studies based on micro-level data have
taken the debate further (Derosas & van Poppel, 2006).
Following this methodological stance, the purpose of
this paper is to examine the explanatory potential of a
new mediating factor through which religion could
affect the timing, pace and modalities of fertility decline
during the first fertility transition: the different norms of
masculinity, bearing in mind that the most difficult
challenge is that of testing the impact of these norms.
Trying to identify the elements of religious culture
that might influence fertility, recent theorizing (McQuil-
lan, 2004; Chatters & Taylor, 2005) points out, that
scholars should not only consider religious norms that
seek to regulate directly procreative behaviour, as
through the prohibition of contraception in Catholic
doctrine. Religious institutions also propagate broad
values that have indirect linkages to fertility outcome,
especially in promoting norms and practices that
reinforce the fulfilment of certain family roles: the
emphasis of the father's authority over wife and children,
the parental responsibility for children, the obligation of
assisting family members, in particular the elders.
We propose exploring the following hypothesis: during
the first fertility transition, Catholic and Protestant culture
entailed different models of respectable masculinity and
fatherhood that influenced men's procreative behaviour.
This hypothesis is motivated first by the convincing results
of our previous research on fertility, religion and education
in Switzerland (Praz, 2006a), which demonstrated the in-
terest of integrating gender as an explanatory variable for
differentials of fertility. Especially in relation to religion,
gender plays a strikingly important role. Looking for other
mechanisms combining gender and religion, the stimulat-
ing research of Kate Fisher (Fisher, 2000, 2006; Fisher &
Szreter, 2003) incited us to explore the topic of masculinity,
as she emphasizes the importance of men's roles during the
fertility transition. The oral testimonies she collected dem-
onstrate that male attitudes towards family size and con-
traception formed one of the central forces behind changing
procreative behaviour. We suggest that male domination in
marital sexuality is enhanced or limited by models of
respectable masculinity that prescribe and legitimise the
“adequate” behaviour of the good husband and father.
1. Questioning the links between masculinity,
fatherhood and fertility decline
The growing field of masculinity studies focuses on
men as gendered beings – instead of “universal humans” –
89
and on masculinity as a feature of a larger gender order.
Historical studies have explored masculinity as the result
of a changing set of cultural representations, social prac-
tices and economic structures, that allowed male dom-
inance over women to continue and required all men to
position themselves in relation to “a currently more hon-
oured way of being a man” (Connell & Messerschmidt,
2005, p. 832). In this proliferating research topic however,
fatherhood does not appear as a dominant component of
masculinity, despite the fact that most men have been
fathers throughout history. This is in sharp contrast to
the recurrent references to motherhood in historical
research on femininity. It appears that historians have
fallen prey to the very historical representations they
strive to deconstruct. Even more striking, the history of
masculinities has rarely been explored in relation to
fertility decline. We know little about the way by which
norms of masculinity and fatherhood affected male
behaviour in marital sexuality and influence fertility
outcome. We should also ask what it meant to men and
male identity to have the number of their progeny cut by
half within a century. And what significance did these
changing constructions of masculinity and fatherhood
have on children's lives and on the relative power
between the sexes? (Grisworld, 1999). We now expose
the research questions linking fertility decline and two
components of respectable masculinity: the breadwin-
ner and the good husband.
An important topic in the history of family and
masculinity is the rise of the male breadwinner model, in
which the husband is expected to be the sole
breadwinner, deploying his labour in order to secure
the funds necessary to support a dependent wife and
children (Creighton, 1996; Janssens, 1997). Fairly well
documented for Britain, the historical development of
this model needs further research, as practices of
breadwinning varied greatly over time and space.
Studies generally focus on the relation between the
male breadwinner ideal and the waged work of women,
but in the context of fertility decline, another aspect
demands to be clarified: when and under what historical
conditions did the contribution of children to family
income disappear, thus increasing the costs of children
and inciting fathers to limit the size of the family?
Inspired by British evidence, Wally Seccombe asserts
that male pride in being the family breadwinner seems to
have been much more seriously undermined by the paid
employment of their wives than by that of children
(Seccombe, 1995, p. 111). However, the universality of
such an ideal is questionable, and even more so the
vigour in which it was expressed and the extent to which
it was attainable, both shaped by local dominant culture
90 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
and economic conditions. Jane Humphries provides an
interesting insight linking fertility decline with eco-
nomic household organisation and patriarchal power
(Humphries, 2007). In 19th century Britain, fathers were
clearly the family's economic mainstay, but they were
also used to top-slicing their earnings for their personal
needs. Consequently, the burden of an additional child
weighed more heavily on the mother and the other
children. Faced by recurring insecurity of men's jobs
and by the male breadwinner's prerogatives, working-
class mothers had to rely on child workers, especially
the elder ones, to secure family needs, and were thus
ambivalent to fertility control. Humphries' research
confirms Folbre's general argument that patriarchal
control over women and children permitted to shift a
significant proportion of the cost of children onto the
mothers and enhanced parents' ability to extract
economic resources from their adolescents (Folbre,
1994; Janssens, 2007). In such a structure, when
fatherhood was associated more with authority over
children than with responsibility for them, men's
motivation for fertility control was low. We should
then ask when and why these components of fatherhood
shifted, and when children's work became incompatible
with respectable fatherhood. Furthermore, we ask what
was the role of religious values and institutions in this
process?
Models of fatherhood also entail a certain type of
marital relationship and marital sexuality. Research on
fertility decline has recently discarded the misleading
assumption of fertility control decided by a gender-
neutral unit called “couple” or “parents”, and has turned
its attention to the differing interests of husbands and
wives and their bargaining power in fertility decisions.
An important contribution by Seccombe suggests that
these differing motivations and constraints – women
being more motivated but contraceptive methods
requiring men's co-operation – resulted in a “simmering
tension, if not open conflict, between spouses on the
terms and conditions of intercourse” (Seccombe, 1995,
p. 193). These conflicts were only resolved when men
came to fear the prospect of another child strongly
enough to exercise self-discipline. Kate Fisher's oral
testimonies, dealing with a later period (1920–1940),
describe mainly motivated men who took responsibility
for contraception. It would be interesting to identify the
factors explaining such a change in motivation. Why
and when did men perceive an additional child as
threatening their well-being and their reputation? When
did men's sexual self-discipline become an ideal of
marital relations and of husbands' respectability? How
could religious culture have facilitated or hindered this
change? Szreter's study of English fertility decline
attests to the role of religious values in the emergence
of a culture of abstinence in marriage along with a
gendered culture of male self-control and independence
that spread through the middle class in the second half
of the 19th century (Szreter, 1996). In line with
Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity (Connell
& Messerschmidt, 2005), it remains however to explore
how the behaviour and norms of a particular social class
became constraining for other social groups.
2. Sample and methodology
In studying the influence of religion on fertility, the
first challenge consists of finding a research design that
allows us to isolate the impact of religion from that of
other factors affecting fertility. We have to make use of
individual data to disentangle interactions between
religious affiliations and other aspects of a person's
position in society. For the same reason, a comparative
approach is particularly appropriate.
We are working on a sample of four local communities
in French-speaking Switzerland, pertaining to two
different religious affiliations and political contexts. The
canton of Fribourg was Catholic, led throughout all the
period under study (1860–1930) by a conservative party
that collaborated closely with the Catholic Church. To
secure the conservative vote within a population mostly
dispersed in the countryside, it was crucial to use the
network of parishes, religious associations, priests and
nuns; the connection between the Catholic Church and the
cantonal authorities was not limited to ideology, but
pervaded local institutions, thus permitting a tight control
of the population. The canton of Vaud was Protestant and
led by a progressive party. This government resulted from
a radical-democratic revolution that marginalized the
liberal-conservative tendencies, mostly associated with
the Church intelligentsia and with the most rigorist wing
of the Protestant clergy. However, religious ideologies did
not vanish. Analysis of the political discourse shows that
the government adopted Protestant values, even if they
were politically instrumentalised, and the ministers of the
new “National Church” were paid as civil servants by the
cantonal state.
In order to isolate the impact of these political and
religious differences, we selected two pairs of villages,
each pair having the same economic development. In
the first pair of villages – one Protestant the other
Catholic – people lived mostly on dairy farming until
1900, at which date they experienced an industrialisation
process with the same industry, a chocolate factory. The
second pair of villages, two neighbouring communities
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106 91

Table 1
Age-specific marital fertility rates by religious affiliation (completed and achieved families)
Religious affiliation Age-specific marital fertility rate Total TMFR Average age of mother
and periods at marriage
15–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40–44 45–49 15–49
All periods
Catholics 0.528 0.403 0.286 0.190 0.065 0.005 0.202 7.38 25.19
Protestants 0.584 0.400 0.266 0.151 0.059 0.011 0.194 7.35 24.99
1860–1878
Catholics 0.563 0.475 0.432 0.298 0.126 0.010 0.264 9.52 26.93
Protestants 0.638 0.458 0.337 0.225 0.110 0.027 0.238 8.96 26.16
1879–1898
Catholics 0.689 0.571 0.354 0.255 0.097 0.013 0.271 9.90 24.96
Protestants 0.659 0.453 0.313 0.178 0.050 0.012 0.219 8.32 25.07
1899–1914
Catholics 0.538 0.402 0.277 0.183 0.056 0.004 0.201 7.30 24.78
Protestants 0.558 0.389 0.247 0.128 0.044 0.005 0.182 6.85 24.81
1915–1930
Catholics 0.450 0.301 0.197 0.112 0.028 0.001 0.144 5.44 24.74
Protestants 0.586 0.300 0.156 0.057 0.024 0.000 0.137 5.62 24.06
Source: Parochial and civil registers of Broc and Portalban-Delley (canton of Fribourg), Parochial and civil registers of Chavornay and Chevroux
(canton of Vaud).

situated on the shores of the same lake, maintained an
economic structure based on agriculture and fishing.
Despite these very similar economic conditions, the
fertility decline in Catholic villages clearly took place
later, as many statistical analysis conducted on our
database demonstrate.1
The evolution of age-specific marital fertility rates by
religious affiliations and periods (cf. Table 1) attests that
the lag in the process of decline is especially pronounced
in the period 1879–1898: Protestant fertility begins its
decline, while Catholic fertility is still increasing. From
1898 onwards, Catholic fertility initiates its decline
while it is accelerated in the Protestant villages.
To measure more accurately the impact of religion on
fertility, we turn to event history analysis. For the 1848
married and fecund women under observation, we
constituted a file of time sequences of their fertility
histories ('observations’ in the tables). The date of the
first birth is the starting point. Each woman's fertility
history is divided into time sequences, proceeding from
one birth to the next (stillbirths included). When the
1
The parochial and civil registers provide the basis of our family
reconstitution covering marriages celebrated between 1860 and 1930;
data collection has been extended after this date, in order to collect all
the data on children of marriages celebrated till 1930. To overcome
the selectivity and loss of data in family reconstitution studies, and to
supplement and check these sources of information, other sources
have been consulted (local population registers and censuses). Event
history analysis and its more flexible rules of data selection (migrant
families and other incomplete families can be used) permit us to
conserve 86% of the sample (5381 legitimate births for 1848 married
and fecund women under observation).
previous child dies before the next birth, the interval
between subsequent births is split into two time
sequences before and after this death; when the interval
between two births exceeds 2 years, it is also split into
two parts, before and after the 2 years limit (the former
period is assumed to expose the mother to a reduced risk
of conception due to lactation). The ending point is in
most cases the end of the mother's reproductive life
(forty-ninth birthday), otherwise the death of one spouse
(if it occurred before the end of the mother's
reproductive life) or the out-migration of the family.
The indicator of fertility behavior is the mean of the
intervals between events in women's fertility histories.
In the case of spacing behavior, all intervals tend to
lengthen; when married couples control their fertility by
stopping behavior, the final interval tends to lengthen,
thereby increasing the mean of all intervals calculated
for each mother. In both ways, the likelihood for another
birth to occur is reduced and this is indicated by values
inferior to 1. In contrast, mothers with higher fertility
and consequently shorter intervals have a higher like-
lihood of giving another birth, attested by values
superior to 1.2 Table 2 presents a Cox regression
model for the length of intervals between events in
women's fertility histories, for the same four periods
indicated above. The impact of the variable Catholic
religion on fertility is especially important in the second
2
For technical details on the event history approach to fertility:
George Alter (Alter, 1988, p. 175 and 1998, pp. 25–35), George Alter
and Myron P. Gutmann (Alter & Gutmann, 1993, pp. 160–163),
Georges Alter and Michel Oris (Alter & Oris, 1999, pp. 12–14).
92 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106

Table 2
Cox regression of the determinants of fertility by periods
1860–1878 1879–1898 1899–1914 1915–1930
Mean of Relative p N |z| Mean of Relative p N |z| Mean of Relative p N |z| Mean of Relativep N |z|
percentage risk percentage risk percentage risk percentage risk
distribution of distribution of distribution of distribution of
the covariates the covariates the covariates the covariates
Mother's age at child birth
(reference: 0.20 1.00 Ref. 0.21 1.00 Ref. 0.25 1.00 Ref. 0.27 1.00 Ref.
25–29 years)
15–19 years 0.01 1.16 0.54 0.02 1.18 0.36 0.02 1.18 0.42 0.03 1.08 0.69
20–24 years 0.11 1.09 0.37 0.10 1.05 0.63 0.13 1.26 0.00 0.16 1.14 0.15
30–34 years 0.25 0.80 0.01 0.24 0.72 0.00 0.26 0.81 0.01 0.28 0.73 0.00
35–39 years 0.19 0.76 0.01 0.19 0.55 0.00 0.16 0.58 0.00 0.16 0.56 0.00
40 years and 0.17 0.21 0.00 0.15 0.17 0.00 0.09 0.16 0.00 0.06 0.13 0.00
more
Age unknown 0.07 1.01 0.93 0.08 0.73 0.02 0.08 1.28 0.01 0.04 1.30 0.04
(reference: 0.66 1.00 ref. 0.63 1.00 ref. 0.49 1.00 ref. 0.42 1.00 ref.
Protestant)
Religion Catholic 0.34 1.25 0.00 0.37 1.29 0.00 0.51 1.21 0.00 0.58 1.17 0.03

Husband's occupation
(ref. farmer - 0.45 1.00 ref. 0.61 1.00 ref. 0.43 1.00 ref. 0.33 1.00 ref.
land owner)
Day-laborer, 0.13 0.92 0.38 0.16 0.89 0.21 0.16 0.90 0.20 0.12 0.95 0.63
unskilled
worker
Factory worker 0.01 1.56 0.19 0.01 0.77 0.31 0.17 0.76 0.00 0.30 0.72 0.00
Trade-craftsman, 0.17 1.17 0.08 0.19 0.76 0.00 0.20 0.85 0.04 0.20 0.76 0.00
civil servant
Qualified 0.01 1.02 0.95 0.01 0.87 0.58 0.03 0.71 0.05 0.05 0.77 0.11
occupation
Occupation 0.23 0.74 0.00 0.01 0.35 0.04 0.00 omitted⁎ 0.00 Omitted⁎
unknown
Birth place of the mother
(ref: the same 0.59 1.00 ref. 0.50 1.00 ref. 0.42 1.00 ref. 0.32 1.00 ref.
village)
The same 0.35 1.02 0.79 0.39 1.03 0.71 0.43 1.03 0.65 0.53 1.17 0.05
canton
Another canton 0.04 1.13 0.41 0.11 1.20 0.09 0.10 1.10 0.35 0.11 1.04 0.72
Abroad 0.02 1.69 0.01 0.01 0.86 0.73 0.05 0.94 0.61 0.04 0.78 0.25
Note: bold printed rates are significant at minimum 90%.
Sources: Parochial, civil and local population registers of Broc and Portalban-Delley (canton of Fribourg), of Chavornay and Chevroux (canton of Vaud).
N. of observations: 1804 Overall p-value: 0.00 Chi-squared: 153.89 Log-likelihood: − 6729.
N. of observations: 1848 Overall p-value: 0.00 Chi-squared: 224.21 Log-likelihood: − 6643.
N. of observations: 2520 Overall p-value: 0.00 Chi-squared: 223.52 Log-likelihood: − 9681.
N. of observations: 2249 Overall p-value: 0.00 Chi-squared: 176.28 Log-likelihood: − 7035.

period (1879–1898), confirming the results of the Age-
specific marital fertility rates: for Catholic mothers,
the likelihood of another birth is 29% higher than for
Protestant mothers.
Our results attest to different steps in the fertility
transition according to religious affiliation. But how can
we explain such an influence of religion? Specifying the
mechanisms through which religious norms and values
have an effect is the second challenge to be taken up by
future research. The usual explanation given for the
delay of Catholic fertility decline refers to the prohibi-
tion of contraceptives practices. Yet, in our sample – and
this is in line with studies in other Catholic countries –
the Catholic norms of marital sexuality were not
implemented and not even evoked during the period
corresponding to the most important delay of Catholic
fertility decline, namely the end of 19th and beginning
of 20th century. Thus, we had to turn to other
components of religious culture and other mechanisms
likely to mediate its influence.
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
In our previous research (Praz, 2006a), we focused
on state institutions that gained in importance in
regulating family life during this period; they could
enforce policies that constrained all families, and not
only those who felt an attachment to a religious
community. More interesting for our comparative
approach is the fact that Swiss federalist tradition was
very strong, giving the cantons a whole range of
competences in many domains. The religious and
political diversity of our sample permitted us to test
the following mechanism. The Protestant canton of
Vaud produced a more encouraging attitude regarding
education and more severe laws implementing regular
school attendance. Cantonal differences in discourses
and policies were mostly perceptible in the gender-
based access to education. Finally, institutional incen-
tives for parental investment in education, and the
ensuing costs of children, influenced the pace of fertility
decline. In Protestant families, the growing cost of boys'
and girls' education constituted an important incentive
to practice birth control. In contrast, Catholic parents
avoided considerable education costs, above all by
discriminating against their daughters. Such a mechan-
ism seems to be complicated, but in fact its details and
impact can be documented and measured, as norms can
be shown to entail institutional constraints that represent
effective costs for families. In examining the impact of
differing norms of respectable masculinity on fertility,
we will try to identify a similar mechanism that
transforms these norms into more effective constraints
by particular legislation or family policies.
Another plausible mechanism is the implementation
of norms and practices of respectable masculinity
through social and moral constraints supported by
religious institutions. However, as McQuillan perti-
nently pointed out (McQuillan, 2004), it is crucial to
show how these norms were diffused and enforced in the
communities being studied. We should document how
men were regularly and intensively exposed to the
enunciation of norms, to the circulation of models of
admired male conduct, with particular attention to those
promoted by Churches and narrated by diverse media of
religious inspiration. How did religious cultures specify
the rights and duties of husbands and fathers? Did these
models of respectable masculinity favour the adoption
of birth control and what means were judged legitimate?
Were these discourses heeded by the men with a chance
to command respect, given the modalities of its
diffusion and the social position of those enouncing
the norms? Were deviant husbands and fathers exposed
to moral punishment and social stigmatization, when for
example they had large families, when their children
93
were put to work, when their wives were active on the
labor market?
We will examine our hypothesis in three steps.
Through content analysis of religious discourse, we first
demonstrate to what extent Catholic and Protestant
culture articulated differently the norms of the good
husband and father. As sources, we do not use theolo-
gical writings, but concentrate on more widespread
discourses: press, brochures, pastoral letters and public
conferences. We have also limited our inquiry to the
period 1890–1930, when the process of fertility decline
was under way in both cantons and the topic of
contraception appeared in religious sources and litera-
ture. Secondly, we specify through which mechanisms
these models of respectable masculinity were imple-
mented and how they could modify men's behaviour in
procreation and family. Finally, the most difficult part,
we examine if these norms and mechanisms did indeed
have an impact on men's behaviour by conceiving of
some experimental design to test this hypothesis on
individual data. The challenge here consists of identify-
ing variables or combinations of variables which
constitute indicators of the impact of these models of
respectable masculinity on men's behavior.
3. Protestantism and respectable masculinity
Around 1900 in the Protestant canton of Vaud, the
theme of sexuality emerged in public debate: publica-
tions, brochures, articles and conferences abound on
issues of prostitution, venereal diseases, birth control,
neo-Malthusianism and eugenics. This proliferation
attests to the liberal policy of the cantonal government,
which authorised freedom of expression on these
subjects. Correspondence between authorities reveals
that they were far from sharing all of the opinions
expressed, and that they particularly disapproved of
neo-Malthusian ideas judged as socially and morally
dangerous. However, this did not result in the repression
of public debate: the Radical-democratic Party in power
feared that such an attitude would have been exploited
by Socialists who would accuse it of denying the very
democratic ideals which it claimed to champion. These
writings can be linked to two currents of thought and the
controversy between them almost entirely monopolized
the public space.
On the one hand, the atheist movement Libre-pensée,
criticized the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality, judged
unable to resolve social problems linked to sexuality,
and recommended sexual morality based on science
rather than religion. A local section was founded in
Lausanne at the end of the 19th century by the famous
94 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
psychiatrist Auguste Forel, author of La Question
sexuelle (1906), a book of considerable local and
international repercussions. Libre-pensée supported the
Swiss neo-Malthusian group, founded in Geneva in
1907, and edited its brochures. It was also close to the
Socialist party, which encountered growing electoral
success (a dozen deputies of 120 seats elected in the
cantonal parliament in 1897). Socialism and Libre-
pensée united in the same criticism of religion,
denouncing it as opposed to science, vowed to
obscurantism and accomplice to social injustice.
On the other hand, the Protestant Church owed itself
to react against this double criticism. The battle was led
in the field of sexuality, where the Church was accused
of hypocrisy, social inefficiency and scientific ignor-
ance. A second series of publications emerged from
Protestant personalities, moralists and ministers but also
from philanthropists, doctors and scientists. A new
weekly publication was launched in 1906, L'Essor
social, moral et religieux, which mainly dealt with
social and moral questions. The traditional Protestant
periodical, Le Semeur vaudois, of a more edifying
content, also began to treat these themes. A very active
movement in this new crusade was the Société vaudoise
pour le relèvement de la moralité (SVRM - society for
moral enhancement), founded in 1896 in Lausanne by
Protestant personalities who were involved in the
diffusion of moral discourse, and also felt compelled
to intervene on a political level, asking for legal reforms
of the cantonal Civil and Penal Codes.
The advocates of this discourse were very well
anchored in the religious institution and in local public
life. Furthermore, various indicators lead us to believe
that this discourse benefited from quite a widespread
diffusion. This circulation passed first via distribution in
written form: brochures were sold in local newspaper-
stalls or stores at a very low price (20–40 centimes –
compared to 1 kg bread 32 ct., 1 l milk 20 ct.); they
supplied the parish libraries which received many
visitors. The periodicals had several subscribers in the
villages under study: a 1926 pastoral enquiry signals 20
subscribers to L'Essor for one of the parishes in our
sample, that is to say 15% of households, with one
periodical circulating in several households. These
writings were likely to remove taboos, as they presented
sexuality and contraception as legitimate subjects for
serious publications, all the while allowing people to be
informed on a subject that they otherwise might not have
dared to evoke orally. Following John Caldwell, it was
the written rather than the spoken word that allowed the
onset of fertility decline (Caldwell, 1999). But the
written form was not the only one, as public conferences
too were held in villages; according to the protocols of
the parish councils, the theme of sexual morality figured
among the questions discussed by local associations
such as les Unions chrétiennes des jeunes gens and the
“ladies' meetings” organised by ministers' wives.
Another element deserves attention, namely the
unprecedented position occupied by women in this
public debate. Whilst traditional morality would have
forced them to remain discrete about sexuality, Vaud
women expressed their opinions, published articles and
brochures, organised mothers' meetings on sexual
education, were active members of mixed or feminine
associations, launched and signed petitions. A striking
example of women's participation in public debate can
be seen in 1897, when the cantonal parliament voted a
reform of the Penal Code concerning prostitution, aimed
to penalise street solicitation. A new article punishes
“women who publicly and regularly engage in dishonest
and immoral provocations”. A petition, launched in
Lausanne and signed by almost 6000 women, demanded
that the law should punish all persons, of whatever sex,
as “women and young girls have the right to be
guaranteed against dishonest men's provocations, like
men have the right not be disturbed by women's similar
behaviour” (a).3 Faced with parliamentary refusal, the
petition spread to the entire canton and more than
37.000 women over 16 signed it, that is to say half of the
cantonal feminine population in this age group! Only the
mobilisation of women through parochial structures can
explain such a result, and this attests to the efficiency of
this network.
These modalities of diffusion justify looking at the
contents of this new sexual morality. In our exploratory
research we have gathered articles of the Protestant
press as well as a corpus of about 20 brochures on sexual
morality published between 1897 and 1925.
A recurrent statement in all these texts is the
importance of giving up hypocritical embarrassment
and of speaking openly about sexuality. These elites
recommended information that was both scientific and
moral, expressed in clear and simple terms. In 1911 they
even organised a consultation of teachers which
concluded in the opportunity of sexual education at
school. The objective was to preserve the population, in
particular its young people, from the physical danger of
venereal diseases as well as from the moral danger of
free exercise of sexuality when not subjected to the
control of will power.
3
In the text, the letters in parentheses refers to the sources listed at
the end of the article.
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
Interestingly, this new sexual morality was especially
aimed at men, denouncing the unlimited sexual rights
they often accord themselves in premarital as well as in
marital life. This discourse firstly refutes the traditional
belief of the “necessary vice”, according to which male
sexuality is an irrepressible need and a condition for
good health. The authors thrashed these “doctors of little
scruple or indulgent in the flesh who advise their young
clients to see women to save their health”. They would
like to enlighten wives and mothers who “may have
been persuaded that the demands of nature are too strong
in men […] and have resigned themselves to the
inevitable.” (b). The SVRM organised a conference
tour in 1906 which addressed the theme of “male
chastity from a medical and moral point of view”. In
front of a large public at times numbering 200 people
according to L'Essor, a young student in medicine from
Lyon reaffirmed that male continence “is in no way
harmful, but on the contrary, beneficial to physical
health as well as to moral equilibrium” (c).
If chastity was recommended to the young man, to
fortify his willpower and to prevent “venereal peril”,
periodic continence and sexual moderation were also
advised to the married man. He must give up the “naïve
idea that the sexual function is to be exercised
continuously” and convince himself that “marital life
is intermittent by definition” (d). Physical fatigue,
sexual weariness and sterility threaten couples that
“unite too often”; but this moderation was considered
necessary above all in order to limit births, with respect
for wife's health. This insistence on the husband's
periodical continence as a method of birth control goes
hand in hand with the refusal of the contraceptive
methods advocated by the neo-Malthusians. L'Essor
acknowledged, in 1907, that “the issues of overpopula-
tion and birth control need to be discussed seriously”;
however, the subject should only be addressed to
midwives, doctors or at least married people, so as to
avoid the risk of encouraging libertinage. Protestant
elites did not entirely exclude the use of contraceptives,
but such measures should be prescribed to married men
within the secret of the medical cabinet and without
using widespread advertising.
The chief motive for recommending men's chastity
and periodic continence was however not based on
hygienic or moral arguments, but justified by gender
equality. The texts used formulations like “equality of
the sexes”, “respect of women”; they denied statements
about women's inferiority and denounced “the old
pagan egoism of men”. All the texts, either edited by
Libre-pensée or Protestant moralists, referred to the
criticism of double standard morality, as argued by
95
Josephine Butler and her international movement for the
abolition of regulated prostitution.4 Around 1900, in
Switzerland, Protestant women and men developed an
original reframing of this discourse, applying this critic
to marriage. The prostitute-client asymmetry (the former
alone being stigmatised and forced to humiliating
sanitary controls) was compared to the wife-husband's
asymmetry, as the consequences of sexuality for a
married woman “entail responsibilities and sufferings of
an entirely different nature than in the phenomenon of
the fecund activity of the man”. Sometimes this
discourse even denounced the institution of marriage,
which considers women as a “procreator above all” and
consecrates “normal and natural sexual domination of
men over women as the basis of social morality” (e) The
notion of “marital duty […] that granted a husband
property rights over his companion” (f) was especially
thrashed. Sexual moderation and periodical continence
were thus considered necessary in order to moralise
marriage: “A good husband would not claim `his rights’,
and would know how to choose his moments” (d). The
men and women asymmetry was also highlighted in
publications of Libre-pensée, as the physiology of
reproduction was presented in following terms: “The
role of the man is all of sensual pleasure whilst the role
of women solely assumes responsibilities and pains” (g).
This “injustice intended by nature” should incite men to
sexual moderation – or to the use of contraceptives.
We have listed the terms used in these texts to
designate women and wives, as well as those used for
men and husbands. This content analysis shows that
beyond their oppositions, atheist free-thinkers and
Protestant moralists share a common vision of gender
roles in sexuality. Men were associated with instinct,
force and sexual aggressiveness; and therefore strongly
incited to self-control. Women were described as
passive, fragile, devoid of sexual interest and most
often frigid, but capable of natural modesty and of an
elevated sense of morality. These stereotypes justify
why Protestant moralists tolerated the use of contra-
ceptives by husbands but rebelled against feminine
contraception judged injuring to the dignity of their
wives. “Will the modesty of a real woman, a young
married woman for example, accommodate procedures
such as these? asked L'Essor. Will she not feel that it
diminishes love, to lose her self-respect, her dignity as a
4
Josephine Butler founded the International Abolitionist Federation
in 1875 in Geneva, thanks to the support of local Protestant leaders.
Like many English in 19th century, she often travelled to health
resorts in the canton of Vaud (Montreux, Clarens, Leysin) and stayed
regularly on the Riviera where her sister Harriet, married to a Swiss,
owned a summer residence.
96 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
spouse and a mother, to lower herself to such practices?”
(h).5 Gender differences were attributed to nature;
however, this naturalisation of gender roles was taken
for granted for women, while men were committed to
overcome their male nature.
This Protestant discourse was, nevertheless, really
innovative in founding sexual morality on gender
equality. The model of the good husband who refrains
from sexual pleasure out of regard for the well-being of
his wife is also a new component of respectable
masculinity articulated by religious literature at the
turn of the century. Before, as a series of edifying short
stories published between 1880 and 1910 by the Société
des traités religieux de Lausanne attests, allusions to
sexuality, family size and equality between spouses
were absent. These short stories stigmatized above all
the fathers who deviate from the male bread-winner
model: alcoholics, idle men, bad workers, fathers eager
for profit by putting their children to work. After the turn
of the century, the emphasis on the father's obligation to
be aware of children's education instead of exploiting
them economically persisted in Protestant periodicals,
but was completed by a gender dimension. Christian
parents “would under no circumstances permit their
sons to believe themselves superior to their sisters or to
claim right at their expense” (h). The “the egoism of
fathers” which hinders their daughters' chances of
education by keeping them at home to work was
notably stigmatized (i).
4. Implementation of the model of the Protestant
good husband and father
How could this normative discourse, expressed by
influential personalities and widely diffused on a local
level, affect male behaviour? Let us examine the first
supposed mechanisms, namely the institutionalisation
through legislation and state policies.
The model of the male breadwinner was already
institutionalized by the severe cantonal school policies
implemented from 1880 that severely limited a father's
recourse to child labour for maintaining the family.
Between 1895 and 1899, due to the incentives of
Protestant milieus, the cantonal parliament discussed
and approved a reform of the Civil Code that reduced
the husband's control of family resources. The husband
5
This vision of female passivity in sexuality is rarely contested
during this period; only a few socialist feminists marginalised both by
so called bourgeois feminists and by socialist men, dared to claim
women’s rights to sexual information and access to contraception
(Praz, 2007a,b, p. 294).
no longer had the right to forbid his wife from exercising
a lucrative activity; she was entitled to dispose freely of
her earnings, apart from her contribution to household
expenses. All the French-speaking Protestant cantons
introduced such a reform at the turn of the century; by
contrast, the financial independence of the married
woman was never on the political agenda of Catholic
cantons.6 Analysis of the debates shows the willingness
of Protestant bourgeois deputies to stigmatise beha-
viours attributed to working-class fathers. Some heads
of family, they argued, did not fulfil “their natural duties
[…] due to their laziness, negligence, egoism or their
vices”; the financially dependent wife was therefore
unable to support herself and her children; “the family
head dilapidates his goods and his wife's goods to drink
in cabarets”; “he takes hold of his wife's properties and
sell them, even the sewing machine she bought, and
which allowed her children to have bread” (j). The
bourgeois male breadwinner model thus received an
institutional legitimisation. The man, who managed to
play this role without having to solicit his wife's
financial contribution, preserved all his rights on the
control and allocation of household resources, while the
deficient father was constrained to renounce a part of his
marital rights.
This legislative change is interesting, but we have not
been able to trace its impact at a local level and to
identify the costs implied for individual men. We were
luckier with the second mechanisms, namely the
imposition of the norms of masculinity by moral and
social constraints. Here, the results of a pastoral enquiry
carried out in 1926 on the changes in family life provide
interesting insights. The sample includes the reports of
our two Protestant villages, as well as the villages of the
same administrative district (totalling 36), and the
general district report which resumes the elements
judged as the most representative.
This enquiry proves to be valuable for our comparative
analysis, as similar ones are on hand on the Catholic side:
the Quaesitae, a questionnaire parish priests filled out
every 7 years for the bishop and which also deals with
family life. However, the conditions under which these
enquiries were written were very different. On the
Catholic side, we are dealing with secret reports. As
6
These changes in Protestant cantons were reappraised with the
elaboration of a centralized Swiss Civil Code (SCC), which came into
power just before the war. In an ongoing investigation, we examine
this national debate, so as to verify whether or not the religious
affiliation of deputies influenced their positions on the rights of
married women; we will also examine to what extent the SCC
application law, which confers a wide autonomy to the cantons,
allowed this reform to be maintained in Protestant cantons.
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
they have more freedom to evoke some details, the priests
furnish interesting insights on family practices, on their
conformity to religious norms, on the failure or success of
pastoral actions. On the Protestant side, the report was
drawn up by the minister and the parish council,
composed by leading male parishioners,7 and the
resulting text is a consensus, sometimes integrating
divergent opinions. Before being sent to religious
authorities, the report was read aloud to all the assembled
parishioners (male and female). This public reading
constitutes a paradigmatic instance of a mechanism of
moral and social pressure. The minister, backed by the
consensus of the local elite, publicly recalled family
norms and stigmatised deviances. In spite of the discrete
formulation of the text, everyone could easily identify a
family or a father concerned by some of the allusions.
What family norms and masculine models were thus
encouraged? Among the 15 reports mentioning marital
relationships, 7 notice a change towards greater equality, 2
attributing it to an improved financial autonomy of wives.
All the reports – except one – welcome this change: “In our
day the wife has become ever more the husband's equal
partner and collaborator. Together they direct, together they
are responsible for the household. No one would dare claim
that this change is not an happy one” (k). A consensual
assessment emerges: “Today's family life is far away from
patriarchy, as it once existed.” Some reports deplore
spousal disputes, which in 7 out of 8 cases are attributed to
the husbands, depicted as disrespectful, brutal, drunken or
too often absent. An increase of children's autonomy is
also noticed, however controversially commented. Child
labour to the detriment of school and religious education is
unanimously condemned. The male breadwinner model is
above all understood as the men's ability to avoid child
labour. Mother's factory work is judged harmful to family
life, but recognized as often necessary.
Fertility decline is noticed in 9 parishes and the
comments testify to the tolerance of the parish councils
towards birth control, even if they sometimes deplore
“the use of immoral means”. Only one report laments
this “national suicide” in a pronatalist tone, however
recognising that raising children “today requires cour-
age and for some mothers even heroism”. In the 8
remaining reports, comprehension of the ever growing
burden of children was strongly expressed, as well as in
7 8
Protestant women in the canton of Vaud already obtained the right
to vote in parish assemblies in 1909. The question of the eligibility of
women for parish councils had been discussed since the beginning of
the century but rejected by a parish consultation in the beginning of
the 1920s. The principal argument was not the incapacity of women to
assume such a role, but the risk that men no longer felt committed in
parish responsibilities.
97
the general district report: fertility decline is “not only
the result of the parents' egoism, but of the elevated
notion they have of their educative responsibilities in
our complex world.” Several reports notice that “large
families no longer have the public's sympathy” and two
of them stigmatise these families as generally being
“poor people” and “not well-off”, even stating that births
“often abound in families where there is more lack of
concern and slovenliness”. Consequently, all parishi-
oners were publicly reminded that birth control was a
sign of responsibility. Knowing the Protestant discourse
on gender roles in sexuality, there is no doubt that this
injunction was aimed at the father.
At the turn of the 20th century in the canton of Vaud,
the Protestant milieu participated in the elaboration of
new moral and institutional constraints inciting fathers to
limit their offspring, in order to conform to a new model
of the respectable man combining the attentive husband
and the breadwinner and allowing his children to study
instead of working. To do it, men could use contra-
ceptives diffused by neo-Malthusians; however, Protes-
tant moralists succeeded, during the First World War, in
passing a law that restricted their advertising and sale.
They then turned to periodical continence, as promoted
by moralists, or withdrawal, a technique already wide-
spread in premarital sexuality (Praz, 2007a).
5. Catholicism and marital sexuality: a woman's
affair?
During the same period in Fribourg, religious sources
offer a striking contrast which at first glance discourages
comparative analysis. We searched in vain for Catholic
publications on sexual issues. Brochures for fiancés
utter no word on sexuality; they advocate “honest
courtship” following the bishop's rules,8 and recom-
mend abstaining from “obscene words, discourses and
songs and all movements of guilty familiarity” (l). We
noticed the same discretion concerning the prohibition
of contraceptive practices: before 1920 they are never
clearly stated in official Church publications. La
Semaine catholique, the diocese's official periodical,
deals with family issues but not with marital sexuality
before the 1920s. This strategy of silence contrasts with
the openness of Protestant milieus.9
These rules prescribe that engaged couples always see each other
in the presence of their parents or some other trustworthy person.
9
This finding is in line with other research in Catholic French-
speaking countries around 1900, attesting that the Catholic Church
preferred not to recall the faithful to the paths of sexual morality, in
order to avoid conflicts that might have initiated or accelerated the
secularization process (Sevegrand, 1995; Servais, 2001).
98 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
The attitude of the Catholic hierarchy was reinforced
by the policy of the cantonal authorities which exercised
severe repression: any discourse on sexuality (neo-
Malthusian publications, scientific or medical writings)
was assimilated to pornography and fell under the blow
of police measures.10 Conferences were not allowed,
policemen were ordered to inspect book-shops and
newspaper-stalls regularly to seize all publications on
sexual issues. Even faced with the propagation of
venereal diseases during World War I, the cantonal
sanitary authorities refused to organise informative
conferences, to distribute preventative brochures or to
constitute a cantonal section of the Société suisse pour
les maladies vénériennes (de Weck, 2000). Conse-
quently, the Church's discourse on sexuality was the
only one allowed. We demonstrated elsewhere (Praz,
2006a), that for the Catholic-conservative government
of Fribourg, this political repression of the public debate
on birth control and sexual issues was primarily
motivated by political and electoral goals. The autho-
rities felt it appropriate to fight any open discourse on
sexuality, as these debates could weaken the credibility
and influence of the Catholic Church, their best ally.
Two steps are discernable in the diffusion of Catholic
norms. Religious hierarchy first tried to counter Mal-
thusianism by avoiding expressing itself publicly. As
documented by correspondence between bishops and
priests, the text of a directive on marital sexuality for
engaged couples had been discussed since 1895, and the
final version adopted in 1912. Some priests were of the
opinion that “in our time of sensuality and onanism, the
fiancés must be clearly and strongly warned” (m).
Others feared that such a text might scandalize. Priests
had to choose their words very carefully: “caress”,
judged overly evocative, was replaced by “testimonies
of friendships”; “marital sexuality” and “sexual inter-
course”, by “use of matrimony”. Priest must also clarify
that they deal with this “disgusting” issue only because
of their “concern of soul's salvation”. In 1912, the text
was distributed to all priests of the diocese who were
then ordered to read it to fiancés in a face to face
meeting. Under no circumstance was this text to fall into
the public domain; the bishop categorically refused any
suggestion of a print for distribution and the document
bears the mention “unauthorized reproduction”. This
mode of diffusion entails several advantages: the
10
Dr. Forel’s La Question sexuelle was banned from sale in
Fribourg. Even writings apparently inoffensive were concerned such
as the popular medical publication entitled La Femme, médecin du
foyer, seized and banned from sale in 1922 because of some
engravings presenting sexual organs and a few pages in which the
spacing of births was advised so as to avoid overtiredness of the wife.
reminding of Catholic norms touched all engaged
couples; the message emanated from the bishop, but it
was delivered by the parish priest, thus conferring to it a
character of authority and proximity;11 finally, this
confidentiality permitted to avoid any questions,
remarks and contestations that public diffusion might
have incited.
Faced with the diffusion of neo-Malthusian ideas and
practices, the Catholic hierarchy modified its strategy. In
1914, a pastoral letter publicly mentioned for the first
time the prohibition of contraceptive practices. The text
began carefully with a eulogy of large families, before
condemning “illicit precautions” and “unnatural man-
oeuvres hindering the achievement of the purpose of
marriage”. From 1922 on, in La Semaine catholique and
in pastoral letters, these condemnations were much more
explicit. This publication was not diffused much beyond
the ecclesiastic circle, but pastoral letters were read
aloud during Sunday mass. From 1911 on the Catholic
elites could use a more attractive media: La Revue des
Familles, an illustrated monthly, edited by personalities
close to the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which dealt with
diverse subjects, focusing on religious issues and family
morality; it regularly published the bishop's writings or
theologians' articles. Its publication ceased in 1923,
however the archives testify to the hierarchy's attempt to
establish a new Catholic periodical (L'Echo illustré in
1928). We lack statistical data documenting the
diffusion of these periodicals, but pastoral enquiries
reveal that priests promoted them to their parishioners
and incited them to terminate subscriptions to Protestant
or “neutral” periodicals.
What norms of the good husband and father were
promoted in these selected series (directives for engaged
couples, pastoral letters and illustrated press)? Did the
models of Catholic male respectability favour men's
adoption of birth control? These questions encounter a
first obstacle: Catholic texts did not specify the duties of
men in marriage and sexuality. Two discursive strategies
are noticeable: the use of sexually neutral terms (fiancés,
spouses, parents) and the absence of injunctions aimed
at men while those aimed at women, wives and mothers
are frequent. Contrasting with Protestant texts, this
rhetoric spares men's susceptibilities whilst the respon-
sibility of conjugal and family morality is up to women.
Correspondence dealing with the directives for
engaged couples provide a first example. This text
recalled two main rules of Catholic doctrine, which
11
Some priests welcomed a text which safeguarded them from
“many critiques; as it is not their doctrine but the word of the bishop
that they read to their parishioners”.
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
promoted a fatalist conception of family size and
favoured coital frequency. Following the first rule,
procreation is the primary purpose of marriage and any
contraceptive practice is a mortal sin, worthy of “terrible
punishments”. Second, the “marital duty” – namely the
obligation of the spouses not to deny sexual gratification
to their partner – is “rigorously obligatory”. The refusal
to “cooperate” is a “grave sin of injustice”, as serious as
contraception, because it risks leading the other spouse
into adultery, masturbation or impure thought. These
rules were enounced in a sexually neutral formulation,
inducing the idea of equivalence between husband and
wife. However, an implicit norm is embedded: the wife
must accept many births and has no right to refuse
herself to her husband. The document mentioned few
exceptions allowing “the spouse” to escape this duty (if
the demanding partner is drunk, affected by a contagious
disease, or if the act entails a serious danger to the health
or life of a spouse), but in any case “the spouse” cannot
grant him or herself the right of refusal without first
consulting a confessor.
This imperative of marital duty contrasts with
Protestant discourse which denounced this idea as
justifying male domination and which claimed “a
woman's free right of refusing or giving herself” (e).
Catholic priests demonstrated similar preoccupations in
the correspondence studied, but attempts to stigmatise
male sexual prerogatives were pushed aside during the
elaboration of the text. For example, one priest
suggested giving this directive separately in order to
render each fiancé attentive to the need of safeguarding
the partner's dignity in sexuality, a “warning that would
not be useless to some rude men who imagine that a
woman is but the docile instrument of their brutal
passions”. Other examples of rejected formulations are
revealing: the idea that “common consent” needs to be
the rule in the conjugal act; an exception to marital duty
in the case of “immoderate desire” of a spouse or when
“the one left all the burden of household to the other”
(m). According to the Catholic hierarchy, the tempta-
tions that threaten the frustrated spouse (implicitly the
man) constituted a sufficient risk so as to justify abusive
sexual solicitation.12 This directive to fiancés did not
introduce any impediment to a husband's sexual rights,
did not recommend him periodical continence and did
not specify his duties. In contrast, it enounced those of
12
A similar logic is still present at the end of the 1930s when the
bishop disapproved of the Ogino method as this practice “exposes he
who finds the period of abstinence too difficult to find his fortune
elsewhere.” Bulletin du clergé, Nr 18 et 22, 15 janvier 1937 et Paques
1940.
99
wives and mothers: the preservation of the child to be
born, the interdiction of attempts on a newborns' life
with the risk of excommunication, and the obligation to
nourish the infant oneself unless there was a serious
impossibility.
Pastoral letters demonstrate the same asymmetry. In
letters dealing with marriage and family (6 between
1896 and 1935), we find the same sexually neutral
rhetoric and the same insistence of wives' duties,
“vigilant guardians of domestic virtues”; husbands and
fathers were simply invited to exercise their authority
without brutality nor tyranny. In the 1920s, the bishop
insists ever more on the moral responsibility of young
girls and women, castigating those who neglect their
household to enjoy themselves and who scandalize by
their clothing; he deplores the economic conditions
inciting women to “access careers which are incompa-
tible with the providential mission of the mother and
spouse”. Denouncing the “pipe dream of complete
equality with men”, the prelate reaffirmed the conjugal
hierarchy based on a natural difference intended by
God. Relationships between spouses, though based on
reciprocal love, are organised according to the
principle of “the husband's authority” and “the wife's
submission”. In the pastoral letters and bishop's
speeches dealing with other subjects (complete inven-
tory in the archives for the period 1920–1935) we
observe the same asymmetry. In front of male
assemblies he reminded the audience of their civic
duties and social responsibilities, but never of their
fatherly or husbandly duties or of sexual morality.
When he addressed young girls or women, he glorified
their roles as spouses and mothers and warned them of
the traps of sensuality, the love of pleasure and
scandalous fashions which would render them guilty of
helping the progression of immorality.
The Revue des familles confirms the asymmetry of
injunctions addressed to the two sexes in matters of
family and sexual morality. This periodical participated
in the diffusion of the Church's official discourse by
publishing pastoral letters and articles reminding the
public of “the sacred duty of fertility”. The influence of
French pro-family discourse was perceptible in the tone
adopted in many articles, glorifying large families and
denouncing the declining birth rate. Women (and rarely
men) were judged responsible for this “plague”: they
claim emancipation and search for diplomas instead of
preparing themselves for marriage, they work to the
detriment of their family, and they prefer the temptations
of frivolities to maternal duties. Edifying stories
opposed vigorous peasant mothers of large families to
city dwellers with no children, pervaded by “sterility
100 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
and sadness” (n). Several articles anxiously present the
change of female roles during the First World War:
doesn't the arrival of women in masculine professions
foretell a crisis of civilisation if women “in this time of
woe lose the sense of their natural duty” (n)?
Catholic discourse obviously reinforced the hus-
bands' position. Gender inequality in sexuality was
reinforced by state policies that supported Catholic
doctrine by repressing alternative ideologies. Further-
more, the wives' position was weakened even more by
the absence of women in public debate on sexual issues,
monopolised by the male ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Cantonal authorities reinforced this marginalisation of
women. For example, a unique neo-Malthusian con-
ference was allowed in Fribourg in 1905, as the socialist
movement strived against cantonal prohibitions, but on
strict conditions: the conference had to be held in a
private circle and women were denied access. The
archives of the cantonal parliament do not relate any
petition undertaken by women on any subject. Contrary
to their counterparts in the canton of Vaud, women in
Fribourg did not organise themselves independently
from male control: they were executants in philanthro-
pic associations run by men, and feminine parish groups
were moralising spaces under the priests' control.
Outside these controlled spaces, Catholic hierarchy
proved itself hostile to any feminine participation in
public life, considered highly detrimental to family life.
Catholics fathers were thus not incited to sexual
moderation out of regard for their spouses. Were they
out of regard for their children, so as to avoid large
families which they may not have been able to support?
Pastoral letters reassured them by affirming the virtues
of large families and by inviting parents to “trust in
Providence” for providing the necessary means to bring
up “all the children that God might well give them”.
“God will never abandon those who serve him” is the
bishop's reminder, that is to say those who respect
Catholic sexual morality. Pastoral letters opposed this
trust in Providence to “the egoism of calculations”
attributed to the waning of faith. From the middle of the
1920s on the discrepancy of this discourse in regard
with the reality of many families lead the bishop to shift
the argumentation to the political field: Catholic citizens
have the moral obligation of claiming and instituting
political measures supporting large families. The
welfare state could then substitute Providence, relieving
fathers' charges and permitting them to fulfil the
breadwinner's role without infringing the Catholic
sexual morality. The Catholic hierarchy was very active
in the political debate of the 30s in demanding “family
salary”, family allocations and tax relieves. Only in this
context of political mobilisation would the Catholic
Church in Fribourg address fathers, organising for them
conferences and founding an “association des pères de
famille”. However, an institutionalisation of the male
breadwinner model through family policies supporting
families with many children remained theoretical for
decades in the canton.
This primacy of sexual morality over the male
breadwinner duty was strikingly demonstrated in an
internal debate reported in the Bulletin du clergé.13 The
question is whether or not a priest should advise against
or even forbid marriage to a man whose income and
capacities reveal his inability to feed and raise children.
The dilemma is clearly presented: “Because we need to
consider a man's right to marriage, are we to forget that
children too have rights?” The text developed a
discussion on the father's responsibilities for children,
however coming up against a final argument: if the
Church is more severe in matters of marriage would
there not be the risk of “inconveniences […] even more
perilous than those we wish to avoid?” The crucial
question was: “How to avoid misconduct?” Therefore
the man's right to marital sex – so as to avoid sin outside
marital sexuality – was given priority over the child's
right to adequate support.
Can we identify the impact of these Catholic norms
on family and marital relationships? We have gone
through the pastoral enquiries, the Quaesitae, for the
period 1921–1929.14 Catholic priests did not comment
on spousal relationships, unless there was a matter of
conjugal infidelity. Only in one report did the priest
deplore the harshness of some fathers or husbands; the
flaws of mothers are, by contrast, often highlighted,
such as the “lack of piety” and tolerance for their
daughters' “scandalous” clothes. The most common
blame addressed to both parents and sometimes
specifically to fathers was the lack of authority.
Obviously, the “patriarchal family” remained the
model advocated by Catholic priests.
Several reports reveal that the government's repres-
sive policy did not stop the circulation of “dishonest
13
Bulletin du clergé, Nr 19, 1937. We have not examined this source
systematically as it did not constitute a vector of diffusion to the
faithful.
14
We consulted about fifty parochial reports; half of them however
give very few insights. As the collection of reports in the archives
incurred some losses, we decided to limit the sample to our villages
and to the parishes of the same district and we examined the Quae-
sitae of all Catholic cantonal parishes, excluding the urban ones. For
the same reason, we could not limit ourselves to the reports of the year
1926 – the same as the Protestant enquiry mentioned above – but
widened the period (1921–1929).
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
brochures”, “publications that advocate abominable
neo-Malthusian practices”, or “very dangerous phar-
macy catalogues”; the “widespread socialist theories
on the voluntary and guilty limitation of births” was also
mentioned. In spite of Catholic prohibition of contra-
ceptives, “too great a number of husbands and wives
place a limit on God's creative work” using “onanism”.
Among the 22 priests who noticed this practice only 3
expressed some understanding invoking the poverty
of families and “fathers overburdened with material
concerns”. Most of them condemned this “deplorable
mentality” attributed to “the immoderate taste for
comfort” and “the increasing fear of sacrifice”. They
also mentioned measures taken to recall the parishioners
to the paths of sexual morality: serious warnings
to parents, sermons given by external preachers,
although the parish priest evoked the issue in church
“in allusive terms but clear enough for parents”. No
priest reported to have directly discussed the matter with
the father of the family, however warnings addressed to
mothers and discussions with them are mentioned.
Some priests deplored the fact that married women often
confessed themselves in neighbouring villages and that
therefore “we cannot tell them anything about the sixth
commandment”. Such a comment was never made
about men.
With regard to the Protestant setting where a new
model of respectable masculinity incited fathers to
reduce the family size, the situation in the Catholic
canton was strikingly different. Neither the attentive
husband, nor the male breadwinner was promoted or
implemented by discourse, pastoral care or state
policies. Religious discourse was not aimed at men
and priests obviously exercised little influence upon
them; several admitted in the reports that young men
fled them as soon as they left school. It was therefore
principally to women that the injunctions of Catholic
morality were recalled. This further weakened their
position in marital – implicit or explicit – bargaining
over sexuality and family size.
6. Testing the impact of norms of masculinity with
quantitative methods: an exploratory attempt
Did these norms and mechanisms indeed affect the
behaviour of individuals in the communities studied? To
answer this question is a tricky business as gender norms
pervade all the fabric of society and it is not easy to
disentangle their different strands. Moreover, norms and
institutional constraints are necessarily interdependent
and their indicator variables are strongly correlated; it is
therefore difficult to distinguish the effect of gender
101
norms from interrelated factors. It is paramount for our
approach that we use individual data and not aggregates,
where individual variation would make place to
fictitious or even reified averages or “ideal types”.
In the following, we try to show the impact of norms
of respectable masculinity on the reproductive beha-
viour of Protestant and Catholic fathers. We constructed
a test using the method of event history analysis of
fertility presented in the second section of this article.
The research design consists in dividing our sample into
two sub-categories determined by religion, and in
applying to both sub-samples the same combination of
independent variables. Among the usual variables used
in fertility analysis (mother's age,15 husband's occupa-
tion as indicator of socio-economic category, death of
the previous child),16 we integrate some variables
designed to capture the impact of gender norms.
A first set of variables stands for the bargaining
power of the wives. We assume that they were generally
more motivated than their husbands to limit their
offspring, because they had to assume the risks of
childbearing and most of the burden of childrearing. Our
hypothesis is that a variable which shows an increase in
the bargaining power of the wives has a significant
effect on fertility, but only in the Catholic sample, for the
following reason: Catholic norms did not incite men to
control their fertility, thus the motivations of wives and
husbands were likely to diverge; only women in a good
bargaining position could convince their husbands to
practice birth control. In the Protestant setting by
contrast, as men under the influence of norms of
15
Beside the necessary control of the biological factors influencing
fertility, the variable mother’s age permits to detect the adoption of
stopping behaviour. The likelihood of another birth is naturally
reduced when the mother become older, but the phenomenon is more
pronounced when married couples control their fertility and
concentrate births in the first years of marriage. For this reason, we
decided to include it in the model, preferring it to other variables
likely to capture the biological factors, as marriage duration or
number of children ever born. Anyway, we had to choose between
these variables as it is not possible to use them together in the same
model, because of co-linearity problems. Moreover, the variable
marriage duration is less pertinent for our sample and period, as the
mortality risk during reproductive life is low and as women’s age at
marriage (average and standard deviation) is the same in both sub-
samples (cf. Table 1).
16
The dummy variable previous child dead is set to one during the
first 2 years of a birth interval if the preceding child died in infancy; if
the preceding child survived to its first birthday or if the time since the
last birth is greater than two years, this covariates is set to zero. An
infant death should be associated with higher fertility, as the
contraceptive effect of breastfeeding is reduced (Alter & Oris,
1999); the death of the previous child could also induce a replacement
effect, parents being inclined to replace the lost child.
102 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
respectable masculinity already tended to practice
birth control, the increased bargaining power of their
wives was not necessary to convince them of the need
for smaller families.
The first variable we used to capture the increased
bargaining power of women is their participation in the
factory labour market, and this for two reasons. As
women's wages were important for the family budget,
wives could argue that an additional child would force
them to leave the factory. Besides, Diana Gittins
suggested that contraceptive knowledge was acquired
and exchanged within factory walls (Gittins, 1982); our
female witnesses in the Catholic village confirmed that
contacts with other women in the factory were the only
way to gather some information about contraception.
Based on workers' lists found in the archives of the
chocolate factories and women's occupational entries at
marriage in the civil registers, a number of mothers
could be identified as factory workers.
Our research design controls as much as possible the
economic factors likely to explain fertility differences.
We may assume that Catholic and Protestant female
factory workers had similar interests in birth control,
given the heavy burden of many children on top of paid
work. Moreover, Catholic and Protestant mothers
experienced the same working conditions in our
industrialised villages: the two factories belonged to
the same company and offered similar wages and social
benefits; no day nursery existed in either one of the
villages. Fertility of female factory workers also
depended on the economic situation of the family, and
we control this factor with the variable husband's
occupation. Most of the female factory workers were
married to factory workers, and testimonies in both
villages attest to the fact that a male worker's salary was
not sufficient to maintain a family; some wives of day
labourers, unskilled workers, trade-craftsmen or civil
servants also worked on the factory. In controlling all
these economic constraints, we can isolate these effects
from the impact of cultural norms.
The second variable introduced in an attempt to
measure women's bargaining power is the birth place of
the mother. One could argue that the bargaining power
of native was higher compared to migrant women, as the
former had a bigger social and family network;
according to Kate Fisher (Fisher, 2006), women did
not dare to enter a discussion about contraception with
their husband, but often asked a parent or a neighbour to
tackle the problem with him. But this hypothesis is more
pertinent in a Protestant context, whereas in the Catholic
villages kinship would be less helpful if they adhered to
the dominant natalist morality. Whether the control by
the clergy in the Catholic villages was stronger for the
native or the migrant mothers remains questionable.
A second way to capture the influence of gender
norms on men's behaviour concerns sexual practices
before marriage. In the Protestant villages, following the
traditional custom of engagement, premarital sexuality
was largely tolerated, but the groom had the obligation,
well enforced by family and community, to marry his
bride in case of pregnancy. The high level of premarital
conception attests to this tolerance, but it was regressing
towards the end of the nineteenth century and during the
period under study: for the industrialised village of
Chavornay, the percentage of extramarital pregnancies
among the first births (legitimate and illegitimate)
decreased from 52 to 37% between 1860 and 1930.
There is no reason to attribute this decrease to more
continence before marriage.17 We may assume a better
familiarity of young couples with contraception,
probably withdrawal, as information on sexuality and
contraception became more available. The emphasis on
male responsibility in sexual matters must have incited
the grooms to practice birth control in order to achieve
more autonomy for deciding about the date of marriage.
In the Catholic villages, by contrast, in spite of the
severe prohibition of premarital sexuality by pastoral
care and the social stigmatisation of pregnant brides, the
same percentage of premarital pregnancies was increas-
ing (from 18 to 29% in the industrialised village of
Broc). Priests were loosing influence, but the contra-
ceptive techniques were not sufficiently widespread to
lower the risk of pregnancy.
A dummy variable called bridal pregnancy is set to
one when the first child was conceived before marriage.
In introducing this variable, we look for a relation
between premarital and marital sexuality. Were the
couples, which already succeeded in controlling their
fertility before marriage, better able to control it within
marriage? Our hypothesis is that such a relation should
hold in the Protestant sample, as the Protestant moral
discourse made it clear that male responsibility and
discipline comprised premarital as well as marital birth
control. To be sure, differences in bridal pregnancy also
reflect differential fecundity to some extent; however,
we have no reason to suppose that this differential
fecundity was distributed along religious lines; more-
over non fecund women are excluded from the sample.
Table 3 presents the results of a Cox-regression of the
determinants of fertility for Catholic and Protestant
17
This change is not explained by an increase of illegitimate births
(decreasing from 14 to 4% of the first births during the same period)
or by a shortening of the engagement period (mostly 5–6 months).
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106 103

Table 3
Cox regression of the determinants of fertility by religion (1899–1930)
Catholics Protestants
Mean of percentage Relative risk p N |z| Mean of percentage Relative risk p N |z|
distribution of the covariates distribution of the covariates
Mother's age at child birth
reference: 25–29 years 0.25 1.00 ref. 0.29 1.00 ref.
15–19 years 0.02 0.95 0.80 0.02 0.94 0.80
20–24 years 0.15 1.11 0.22 0.15 1.20 0.06
30–34 years 0.27 0.78 0.00 0.28 0.73 0.00
35–40 years 0.17 0.56 0.00 0.14 0.56 0.00
40 years and more 0.08 0.12 0.00 0.06 0.19 0.00
Age unknown 0.06 1.14 0.22 0.06 1.43 0.00
Mother's occupation
reference: non factory worker 0.74 1.00 ref. 0.82 1.00 ref.
Factory worker 0.26 0.85 0.04 0.18 1.06 0.65
Husband's occupation
Reference: farmer, land owner 0.31 1.00 ref. 0.45 1.00 ref.
Day labourer, unskilled worker 0.16 0.89 0.19 0.11 1.02 0.82
Factory worker 0.30 0.71 0.00 0.17 0.81 0.03
Trade-craftsman, civil servant 0.18 0.77 0.00 0.23 0.91 0.29
Highly qualified occupation 0.04 0.73 0.05 0.04 0.76 0.13
Occupation unknown 0.00 Omitted 0.00 omitted
Birth place of the mother
Reference: the same village 0.28 1.00 ref. 0.47 1.00 ref.
The same canton 0.60 1.00 0.95 0.35 1.14 0.09
Another canton 0.05 0.89 0.36 0.16 1.10 0.32
Abroad 0.06 0.97 0.83 0.02 0.90 0.62
Bridal pregnancy 0.08 1.18 0.12 0.08 1.32 0.01
Reference: no bridal pregnancy 0.92 1.00 ref. 0.92 1.00 ref.
Previous child dead 0.04 1.90 0.00 0.03 2.19 0.00
Note: bold printed rates are significant at minimum 90%.
Sources: Parochial, civil and local population registers of Broc and Portalban-Delley (canton of Fribourg), of Chavornay and Chevroux (canton of Vaud).
N. of observations: 2705 Overall p-value: 0.00 Chi-squared: 286.32 Log-likelihood: − 9635.
N. of observations: 2017 Overall p-value: 0.00 Chi-squared: 201.75 Log-likelihood: − 6820.

married women. Which variables, introduced to capture
the impact of the norms of masculinity, do influence
significantly the likelihood of another birth? Do these
variables obtain the same results in Catholic and
Protestant sample?
The variable factory worker has no significant effect
on the fertility of Protestant mothers. This result
confirms our hypothesis of converging motivations of
Protestant spouses. Protestant working mothers had no
need to use their increased bargaining power to
convince their husband to practice birth control, and
their fertility differs therefore not significantly from that
of non-working mothers. For Catholic working mothers
by contrast, a significant effect emerges: their likelihood
of another birth is 15% lower, compared to non-working
mothers, the reference category (value 1). As differences
in spouses' motivations remained high in the Catholic
sample, mothers who had a leverage to better impose
their interest in family size were able to reduce their
fertility.
The variable husband's occupation too obtains
different results in both sub-samples. On the Catholic
side, its effect is important, as three occupational groups
are marked by a fertility behavior significantly lower
than the farmers', the reference category. The economic
constraints counteracted the Catholic discourse encoura-
ging high fertility. This is especially the case for the
factory workers. Prohibition of child labour in the
factories and compulsory schooling reduced drastically
the direct economic function of children; given the low
income and hard living conditions of this category, an
additional child threatened the family budget. On the
Protestant side, even under the same economic condi-
tions, the impact of the variable husband's occupation is
less pronounced: only the factory workers are marked
off by a significantly lower fertility behavior. This
indicates that the economic constraints, except for
the category experiencing the most drastic change,
were less important than other constraints that applied
indistinctly to all socio-economic categories, namely
104 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
any generalized cultural or institutional constraint. But it
is a case in point that this kind of demonstration is too
rough to test the impact of a specific cultural factor, like
men's responsibility for procreation.
The results of the variable birth place of the mother
do not confirm our hypothesis: in the Protestant sample,
only one of the categories is significant in the direction
expected. This variable is not very interesting as an
indicator for the bargaining power, as it stands for a
bundle of influences that do not point in the same
direction.18
For the variable bridal pregnancy, we used the
mothers who did not experience a bridal pregnancy as
the reference category. In the Protestant sample there is a
strong positive and almost maximally significant
relation between bridal pregnancy and fertility: when
their first child was conceived before marriage, the
likelihood of another birth is 32% higher for these
mothers, than for those who did not experience a bridal
pregnancy. As a reminder, event history analysis of
fertility applies to the whole reproductive life of married
women and is particularly aimed at detecting the
adoption of stopping behavior. In the Catholic sample
the effect is weaker and only of low significance.19 How
are these results to be read? We know that in the
Protestant villages premarital intercourse was socially
accepted and very widespread. A responsible Protestant
man took care before and after marriage; a less
responsible groom became a less responsible husband,
exposing his wife to a higher fertility. The relation is
clearly weaker in the Catholic sample, as Catholic men
just had to avoid scandal before marriage; there was no
norm that incited them to limit fertility within marriage.
Finally, we turn to the variable mother's age at child
birth that generally indicates the extent of stopping
behaviour. Did Protestant couples use more spacing
behavior, as the religious discourse suggested to married
men, than stopping behavior? This seems not to be the
case, if we compare these results with the ones obtained
by the same model applied in the previous period 1860-
1898 (Praz, 2006a, p. 157); from the first to the second
period, the diffusion of stopping behavior is attested by
the decrease of the values obtained by older mothers.
18
The data give only rough indications whether or not kinships leave
nearby.
19
In the same analysis, applied for the period 1860–1898 (Praz,
2006b, p. 157), the variable bridal pregnancy is not significant at all
(p N |z| = 0.5) in the Catholic sample. As this variable obtains
positive results that increased in significance in the period 1899–
1930, we can assume that the diffusion of contraceptive techniques set
in and that a growing albeit still small number of husbands were
motivated to use them within marriage.
However, to give a more reliable answer to this question
we should apply to our sample the test developed by Jan
van Bavel (Van Bavel, 2004).
7. Conclusion
This study of the first fertility transition in Switzer-
land provides the sketch of a new mechanism explaining
the delay of Catholic fertility, namely the different
norms of masculinity and fatherhood.
Comparative analysis of religious discourse attests to
striking differences in norms of respectable masculinity.
In the Protestant canton, men were especially targeted
and strongly incited to limit their offspring in order to
comply with a new model of the good husband and
father. The religious teachings had an impact due to the
social position of the persons enouncing the norms, to
the efficient diffusion reaching the majority of men, and
to the effective sanctioning, as the example of pastoral
enquiries demonstrates. In the Catholic canton by
contrast, men were not addressed specifically; the
religious discourse supported the husband's rights to
frequent sexual intercourse and encouraged him to trust
Providence to bring up many children, thus sustaining
high levels of fertility. The political repression of public
debate on sexuality defeated every attempt of contesting
the husband's marital rights and the Catholic doctrine of
procreation. Sexual taboos were particularly severe for
women and their total ignorance of sexual matters
weakened their bargaining power in fertility decisions.
The more so, as the pastoral care stressing “marital duty”
and stigmatizing the mortal sin of contraception
neglected men and concentrated on women.
Using event history analysis of fertility, we tried to
test the impact of these different norms of masculinity
on men's reproductive behaviour. We measured com-
paratively the effects of some variables introduced to
capture the impact of this cultural factor, while
controlling for biological and economic constraints.
Two results are encouraging. Firstly, an increased
bargaining power of the wives has no impact on fertility
in the Protestant sample, contrary to the Catholic one;
this can be explained by the fact that Protestant men,
influenced by cultural norms of respectable masculinity,
were already convinced of the need for smaller families.
Secondly, men's responsibility in premarital sexuality,
indicated by the absence of premarital conception, is
strongly correlated with lower fertility during marriage,
but in the Protestant sample only. According to
Protestant morality, a more responsible groom became
a more responsible husband, practising birth control;
Catholic men only had to avoid scandal before marriage
 A.-F. Praz / History of the Family 14 (2009) 88–106
and were not committed to limit fertility within
marriage. The finding that even under very similar
economic conditions the effect of the variable hus-
band's occupation is much weaker in the Protestant
villages must not be read as a test for the impact of a
specific cultural factor, namely the norms of respectable
masculinity. It only points to a strong cultural or
institutional factor at work, and it is precisely the
empirical discrimination between the effects of these
diverse cultural and institutional factors that is espe-
cially difficult to establish.
We hope thus to strengthen the position of a growing
number of scholars (Mackinnon, 1995; Fisher, 2000;
Janssens, 2007) who state that historical demographers
cannot avoid incorporating gender into their explana-
tions of historical trends of fertility. However, the
challenge in integrating gender norms or any other
norms into explanatory models is to go beyond the mere
content analysis of normative discourses, in order to
specify through what mechanisms these norms operate
and, last but not least, to examine if the corresponding
individual behaviours effectively change. This last step
is particularly crucial to make explanations convincing,
however tricky the task. The difficulty not only lies in
the time-consuming work of creating databases, but in
conceiving research designs and indicators susceptible
to capture the impact of norms. As we can only construct
such indicators if we are familiar with the social and
cultural features of the historical environment we study,
and as this kind of familiarity requires investigation of
qualitative data, the bridging of interpretative methods
and quantitative approaches is a challenge historical
demographers have to take up.
8. Sources
In the text, the letters in parentheses refer to the
following sources:
(a) Ce que demandent les femmes du canton de Vaud.
Quelques mots d'explication sur les pétitions des
femmes de Lausanne et du canton, Lausanne 1897.
(b) Virilité, brochure published by the Committee of the
Unions chrétiennes de Jeunes Gens, Genève 1915, p.5.
(c) Paul Goy, De la pureté rationnelle. Essai d'étude
sur la question sexuelle au point de vue physiologi-
que, hygiénique et moral, Lyon and Lausanne, 1906.
Brochure of the conference text sold in newsstands.
(d) Dr. Raoul Hoffmann, Une fois mariés… Réflex-
ions d'un médecin, Lausanne, 1921, pp. 41 and 45.
(e) Auguste de Morsier, Le Droit des femmes et la
morale intersexuelle, Genève 1903, pp. 71 et 67.
105
(f) Emma Pieczynska, Revue de morale sociale,
1901.
(g) Valentin Grandjean, Aux Jeunes Hommes – aux
Jeunes Filles. Ce qu'ils doivent apprendre sur la vie
sexuelle, Lausanne, 1911.
(h) L'Essor, 1907.
(i) Le Semeur vaudois, 1923.
(j) Bulletin des séances du Grand Conseil vaudois,
1895 and 1896.
(k) Enquête sur la vie de famille, 1926, Archives
cantonales vaudoises, K XIV 523.
(l) Abbé E. Descloux, Préparation au Mariage.
Conseils à la jeunesse, Fribourg, 1907.
(m) For all quotations: Instruction matrimoniale
donnée par S.G. Monseigneur l'évêque de Fribourg,
Lausanne et Genève pour être lue aux futurs époux
avant la célébration de leur mariage, Fribourg 1912.
Archives de l'Evêché de Fribourg, File D54.
(n) Revue des familles, 17 January 1914.
(n) Ibid, 3 June 1916.
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