Love and Freedom - Professional Women and the Reshaping of Personal Life (Paperback, New)

At the turn of the 20th century educated women frequently had to choose between love and freedom, but they confidently expected that their daughters and grand-daughters would not. Can the educated women of the 1990s have both autonomy and commitment - the pursuit of a career and a fulfilling personal life? In this book, Alison Mackinnon traces the history of womens challenges to changes in education, employment, reproductive science and law. She shows the connection between the lives of the first generation of women university graduates and the sudden decline in the national birthrate. So dramatic was this shift that it sparked a Royal Commission into its cause. Alison Mackinnons research shows that the declining birthrate was not simply the result of educated, young women refusing to bear the burdens of motherhood, but was symptomatic of a larger questioning of the role of women in procreation, the role of women in marriage and the institution of marriage itself. Access to education was the first step in the changing balance of power between men and women.