Suggested Research Topics - The Politics of Sexuality and Reproduction in Mid-Twentieth-Century Michigan

Over the course of the twentieth century, a variety of issues relating to sexuality and reproduction have become the focus of political struggle. In the early twentieth century, women fought to legalize birth control. During the 1960s and 1970s women and men sought to raise the nation's consciousness on the issue of sexual preference and organized to demand lesbian and gay rights. The Supreme Court's decision upholding women's right to abortion in the 1973 case Roe v. Wade reflected the predominance of liberal values and changing societal views of women. The growing influence of the anti-abortion movement in the 1980s stands in sharp contrast to the movement to legalize abortion that grew out of the women's movement in the 1960s and 1970s: the effectiveness of the anti-abortion lobby in the late 1980s has been demonstrated not only through use of a politician's stand on abortion as a litmus test to determine fitness for office, but also with the success of the 1988 referendum in Michigan ending Medicaid funding of abortion.

In what ways can issues of sexuality and reproduction be considered political? How have women organized politically around these issues and how effective have the political efforts of such organizations been? How do the sharply diverging stands of the pro and anti-abortion groups relate to questions of power and autonomy for women? What do they tell us about changing female roles and societal responses to changing roles?

Examples of Primary Source Collections and Other Resources:

Selected Secondary Sources:


In an effort to encourage creative thinking about possible research topics for students unfamiliar with archives and their inevitable complexities, archivists and student employees of the Bentley Historical Library have authored "suggested research topics ." The purpose of these is not to define a topic but rather to stimulate thinking about a topic where the holdings of the Bentley Library are particularly strong.