Up until the 1960s, the out-of-wedlock birthrate in most segments of society was small, despite there being no reliable contraceptives widely available. One overwhelming reason for the low incidence of premarital pregnancy was social opprobrium. For a young, unmarried woman to be known not to be a virgin was considered shameful. For her to become pregnant was scandalous. The prospect of being humiliated was a powerful inducement, for women, to delay sexual intercourse until marriage.
The advent of the birth control pill changed all that, and as history shows, the incidence of out-of-wedlock motherhood, which was supposed to have been dramatically reduced, instead dramatically increased. Why?
The birth control pill helped to reduce the stigma of losing one's virginity before marriage. This, in turn, indirectly reduced the stigma of premarital pregnancy. This, in turn, reduced the perceived need for the birth control pill. Once the initial phase of these events had occurred, the floodgates were opened, and what quickly followed was what is called the Sexual Revolution.
Robert Arvay, The Truth About Morality.
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