Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

Teaching of Sex Hygiene

It is perhaps in the proper teaching of sex hygiene in the schools, to working men and women, to college and other groups of young men and women, and to foreigners, that women expect to accomplish most for the elevation of moral standards and for the elimination of venereal diseases.

In Minnesota the single standard of morals has been widely supported by the club women and sex hygiene has been urged for the schools.

The Women’s Municipal League of Boston took the high position that “realizing the physical misery which is resulting from ignorance in regard to matters of sex, and the spiritual degradation following the wrong conception of the high purpose of the sex function, to which must be added the loss of efficiency in human ability, the Committee on Social Hygiene of the League has set itself the task of awakening the community to the dangers of a further continuance of this policy of silence and of arousing the public conscience to do its duty; providing sex education both for parents and for those whose parents cannot or will not furnish it for them.” The League was, of course, very careful to choose the members of this committee from those women whom it believed to be qualified to lead in this work. From a recent report we learn:

Because the time left us this season is so limited, we are making our work experimental rather than exhaustive, with the idea of using the results as a guide to the nature of the work to be undertaken next year. We have, therefore, aimed to present the subject through lecturers, to the following groups, selected as types: to a group of mothers desirous of teaching their children in sex matters, and eager to know how to go about it; to a group of teachers, who are continually meeting sex problems among their pupils; to a group of girls already in industry; to a group of boys organized in a club; to a mixed group of men and women representing the present state of public opinion, whose support is most necessary; and to representatives from a committee from neighboring towns who wish to take advantage of our machinery to start similar work at home.

The committee confronted its first difficulty in securing a lecturer, for the work is new and there are few trained speakers available. Dr. Frances M. Greene of Cambridge, the president of the society which initiated this work in California, who has made an intensive study of the question in Europe, was engaged to give a course of five lectures in the League rooms.... Announcements were sent out to 725 people, most of whom were mothers of young children; 77 persons attended the first lecture, and this number has increased with each succeeding meeting. A charge of $1.00 was made for the course. The receipts for the lectures were over $170.00, a sum sufficient to pay the expenses of the lecturer, postage and stationery. The serious interest shown by those in attendance has deepened the conviction of the committee, that the public wishes enlightenment in regard to instructing the young in these fundamental matters, and that the present generation of parents having been brought up in ignorance wishes to give its children a better point of view than it ever had itself.

The committee has arranged to have Miss Laura B. Garrett[^[16]] of New York City speak on “Some Methods of Teaching Sex Hygiene” at Huntington Hall, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.... In addition to League members 500 teachers are to be invited to attend this lecture.

On April 14th the plans of the Committee on Social Hygiene were presented, at 41 Brimmer Street, through the courtesy of Miss Ware, to a group of one hundred or more, including representative persons from Boston, Brookline, Worcester, Lawrence, Lowell, Springfield and Providence. Dr. Frances M. Greene, Dr. Abner Post, Dr. William P. Lucas and Dr. Hugh Cabot made short addresses. Mrs. William Lowell Putnam presided.

With the results before us of the work carried on this spring, the committee will form its plans for next year. The present purpose is to hold in October a mass meeting, with speakers representing various shades of opinion and various methods of handling the subject. Best methods of approach to the smaller groups of girls from department stores and factories, boys’ clubs, mothers’ clubs, parents’ associations, etc., will be further considered and the type of speaker best adapted to be most successful with each individual group will be sought out and sent to these various portions of the community as may be desired.

The Committee on Social Hygiene is fully cognizant of the delicate nature of the task before it, and of the necessity of moving slowly, taking each step in accordance with a well-considered plan, rather than of attempting to cover too much ground at the risk of making mistakes. Nevertheless, it is fully convinced that the time has come for speaking frankly in regard to sex matters and dealing honestly with a problem which concerns every one of us. In coöperation with the Public Health Education Committee of the American Medical Association, we have arranged four lectures on different aspects of sex education, to be given at the League. The speakers will be: Dr. Edith Spaulding, of Sherburne Reformatory; Dr. Rachel Yarros, of Chicago; Dr. Edith Hale Swift, of Boston; Dr. Kate Campbell Mead, of Middletown, Connecticut.