Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-274). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This thesis utilizes an historical sociology approach to examine women’s organizations in Canada between 1930 and 1955. I consider their responses to changes in women’s lives among three key areas: birth control, sex education and motherhood in the context of macro level events in Canadian society. This research utilizes a moral regulation framework to consider the ways in which the discourses, images and programmes of women’s organizations such as the National Council of Women and the Women’s Institutes created a space for norm-based adaptations to women’s intimate lives during the mid-twentieth century in Canada.