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Scholar presents Catherine Bement Davis’s study that reframed views of women’s sexuality
Summary
At a Missoula Public Library event, historian Anya Jabor summarized the life and work of Catherine Bement Davis, highlighting Davis’s 1929 study Factors in the Sex Life of 2,200 Women, her earlier role in prison reform, and how her research challenged prevailing assumptions about women’s sexual behavior.
Anya Jabor, a professor of history at the University of Montana, described the career and research of Catherine Bement Davis during a public event at the Missoula Public Library. Jabor said Davis moved from prison reform work to large-scale scientific study that, Jabor said, “redefined normal sexual behavior” in the early 20th century.
Jabor outlined Davis’s trajectory from teacher to the first superintendent of the Bedford Hills reformatory for women and later head of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, a Rockefeller-funded organization. At Bedford, Jabor quoted Davis’s condition for taking the job: “I will only accept it if I can run it as an educational…
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