From age of consent laws to the "Silver Ring Thing": the regulation of adolescent female sexuality.

We are presently in an era of intense concern about the sexual conduct of adolescents, with a particular focus on young women. This preoccupation can be traced back to the 1960s when policymakers began to draw a link between " early " childbearing and poverty. The initial emphasis on the consequences of sexual activity meant that the underlying moral issues went largely unnoticed. However, with the legalization of abortion and the rise of the Religious Right, attention soon shifted away from the consequences of sexual activity to the underlying conduct itself, thus unleashing a crusade to restore traditional " American " family values. The sexually active young woman is at the heart of this storm as she crosses the boundary of morally acceptable behavior based on a powerful combination of gender and age. She is thus the focus of intensifying legal efforts to restore the value of chastity and the authority of parents over their adolescent children. This is not the first period of intense public concern about youthful sexuality. In the 1830s moral reformers, inspired by millennial perfectionism, sought to rescue their fallen sisters from a life of sin and promote a single sexual standard. Toward the end of the century, a new generation of reformers, alarmed about the increasingly visible manifestations of sexual expression, renewed the call for sexual restraint. This time, however, they looked to the state to help them restore moral order. As a result, the state assumed an important role in the effort to monitor and control the troublesome conduct of young women. As concerns about morality continue to infuse the political arena, it is important that we understand the historical antecedents and the potential implications of the current drive to control the sexuality of young women, including their reproductive decision-making. Accordingly , this article is divided into two primary sections. Section One begins in the 1830s and takes us through the Progressive Era. Section Two begins in the 1960s and takes us to the present.