Sex Surveyed, 1949-94: From Mass-Observation's Little Kinsey to the National Survey and the Hite Reports (Feminist Perspectives on the Past and Present) Book

This text provides a feminist overview of the development of both the mainstream and the feminist variant of the survey as a means of investigating sexual attitude and behaviour. It examines the origins and development of the sex survey and focuses on the sex survey as a research means for a number of reasons: firstly, sex surveys have been an important means of influencing popular opinion about sexual "norms" and conventions. Secondly, this approach is of great importance in ideas about "science" and generalisability and validity. Thirdly, changes and developments in the form and status of the survey from the 1930s through the post-war period are considerably under-researched, especially from a feminist point of view. The book is divided into three sections. Section One examines the creation of Mass-Observation and the methodological ideology which lead to the world's first random national sample survey "Little Kinsey". Section Two provides a feminist overview of the work of Mass-Observation and its relationship to mainstream social science. Section Three provides an in-depth discussion of the structure and argument of "Little Kinsey", and the common-sense ideas or "sexual theory" that it advances. This latter section concludes with a discussion of "sexual change" as an important theme in the work of both Mass-Observation and the Shere Hite reports.Read More