Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:02:24.013Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Whose Responsibility? The Politics of Sex Education Policy in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2009

Jocelyn Boryczka
Jocelyn Boryczka
Affiliation:
Fairfield University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Whose responsibility is it—that of the individual, society, or both—to meet the needs of citizens and to what degree, how, when, and why? This article investigates this set of inquiries by examining the ongoing debate over sex education in the United States between advocates for the abstinence-only and the comprehensive approaches, conveyed here through their curricula. The debate reflects a broader ideological struggle over how a democratic political community distributes moral responsibility. Personal responsibility is illustrated by abstinence-only curricula, whereas social responsibility is made evident in the comprehensive approach. These approaches establish a dualistic framework for understanding morality that marginalizes politics, deflecting attention away from the moral assumptions behind the gendered distribution of resources in a political community. Collective responsibility, this article argues, provides an alternative moral groundwork and inclusive conceptual perspective that brings politics and the power dynamics of the distributive function within a community into focus. From a collective perspective, the answer to the question “whose responsibility?” then shifts from either the individual or society to both at the same time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 185 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Advocates for Youth. “What We Believe.” http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/about/vision/htm (Accessed June 29, 2008).Google Scholar
Advocates for Youth, and SIECUS. 2001. Toward a Sexually Healthy America: Roadblocks Imposed by the Federal Government's Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Education Program. Washington, DC. and New York.Google Scholar
Alan Guttmacher Institute, The. 2006. “Facts on Sex Education in the United States.” December. http://www.guttmacher.org (Accessed February 15, 2007).Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. [1968] 2003. “Collective Responsibility.” In Responsibility and Judgment, ed. Kohn, Jerome. New York: Schocken Books, 147–58.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Badgley, Anne M., et al. . 2004. Heritage Keepers: Abstinence Education Teacher Manual I. Charleston, SC: Heritage Community Services.Google Scholar
Benn, LeAnna, and Alfred, J.Derby, M.D. 1999. Maturing in Body and Character. Teen-Aid, Inc. Materials.Google Scholar
Boryczka, Jocelyn. 2009 “The Separate Spheres Paradox: Habitual Inattention and Democratic Citizenship.” In Feminist Interpretations of Alexis de Tocqueville, ed. Locke, Jill, and Hunt-Botting, Eileen. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Bush, George W. 2004. “State of the Union Address by the President.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/print/20040120-8.html (Accessed July 7, 2005).Google Scholar
Campos, David. 2002. Sex, Youth, and Sex Education: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Darroch, Jacqueline E., et al. 2001. Teenage Sexual and Reproductive Behavior in Developed Countries: Can More Progress Be Made? Occasional Report No. 3 (November). New York: The Alan Guttmacher Institute.Google Scholar
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1981. Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, Michelle. 1988. “Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire.” Harvard Educational Review 58 (February) 1: 29–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finer, Lawrence. 2007. “Trends in Premarital Sex in the United States, 1954–2003.” Public Health Reports 122 (January/February) 1: 73–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Focus on the Family. 1999. No Apologies: A Character-Building Abstinence-Based Program. Colorado Springs, CO: Focus on the Family Educational Resources.Google Scholar
Frainie, Kris. 2002. Why kNOw: Abstinence Education Programs. Curriculum for Sixth Grade Through High School Teacher's Manual. Chattanooga, TN: Why kNOw Abstinence Education Programs.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hunter-Geboy, Carol. 1995. Life Planning Education Manual: A Youth Development Program. Washington, DC: Advocates for Youth. http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/lpe/index.htm (Accessed February 25, 2007).Google Scholar
Jaggar, Alison. 1991. “Feminist Ethics: Projects, Problems, Prospects.” In Feminist Ethics, ed. Claudia, Card.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 78–106.Google Scholar
Jemmott, Loretta Sweet, et al. 1996. Be Proud! Be Responsible! A Safer Sex Curriculum. Harriman, NY: Select Media.Google Scholar
Kempner, Martha E. 2001. Toward a Sexually Healthy America: Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs That Try to Keep Our Youth “Scared Chaste”. New York: SIECUS.Google Scholar
Luker, Kristen. 2006. When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex—and Sex Education —Since the Sixties. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Martin, Shannan, Rector, Robert, and Pardue, Melissa G.. 2004. Comprehensive Sex Education vs. Authentic Abstinence: A Study of Competing Curricula. Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation.Google Scholar
McClain, Linda C. 2006. The Place of Families: Fostering Capacity, Equality, and Responsibility. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Millett, Kate. 2000. Sexual Politics. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Minow, Martha, and Shanley, Mary. 1996. “Relational Rights and Responsibilities: Revisioning the Family in Liberal Political Theory and Law.” Hypatia 11 (Winter) 1: 4–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Guidelines Task Force. 2004. Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten through 12th Grade. 3d ed.New York: SIECUS.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1971. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and The Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Planned Parenthood Federation of America. 2004–2005. Educational Resources. http://www.teenwire.com/education/ and http://www.plannedparenthood.org/educational-resources/teaching-materials (Accessed February 25, 2007).Google Scholar
Plumwood, Val. 1993. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rose, Susan. 2005. “Going Too Far? Sex, Sin and Social Policy.” Social Forces 84 (December): 1207–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States). 1982–2007. “Federal Spending for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs.” New York: SIECUS. http://www.siecus.org/policy/states/2005/federalGraph.html (Accessed January 30, 2007).Google Scholar
SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States). 2008. “The Federal Government & Abstinence-Only-Until Marriage Programs” Factsheet. http://www.siecus.org (Accessed May 24, 2008).Google Scholar
Singh, S., and Darroch, J.. 2000. “Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing Levels and Trends in Developed Countries.” Family Planning Perspectives 32: 14–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tronto, Joan. 1993. Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
1996. “Care as a Political Concept.” In Revisioning the Political: Feminist Reconstructions of Traditional Concepts in Western Political Theory, ed. Hirschmann, Nancy J. and Di Stefano, Christine. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Chapter 7.Google Scholar
True Love Waits. 1999–2000. Crossing Bridges with Purity. Nashville, TN: Lifeway Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Family and Youth Services Bureau. “Fact Sheet: Section 510 State Abstinence Education Program.” http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/content/abstinence/factsheet.htm. (Accessed January 23, 2007).Google Scholar
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform—Minority Staff, Special Investigations Division, Prepared for Representative Henry A. Waxman. 2004. The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs. http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov (Accessed January 25, 2007).Google Scholar
Ventura, Stephanie, et al. 2006. “Recent Trends in Teenage Pregnancy in the United States, 1990–2002.” Health E-States. December 13. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs (Accessed July 24, 2007).Google Scholar
Walker, Margaret Urban. 1998. Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar