Matters of Sex

Anya Jabour is Regents Professor of History at The University of Montana-Missoula and author of Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women's Activism in Modern America.

"This important biography of reformer Katharine Bement Davis is long overdue. Jabour deftly narrates Davis's notable life and work, restoring Davis to her rightful place in history as one of the most important sex researchers of the twentieth century." - Wendy L. Rouse, author of Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women's Suffrage Movement "Introducing the relatively unknown subject of her biography, Jabour writes that "obscure, does not mean unimportant." Deeply researched, well written, and with lively detail, this nuanced study makes a strong case for Davis's importance. An indefatigable, feminist activist, Davis contributed to many social movements of her day. Most especially, her widely read research on women and sexuality, published in the 1920s, challenged traditional norms about women's sexuality, and assumptions about the pathology of same sex relations. In our own times, with battles raging over gender, sexuality, and reproductive rights, learning about Davis's courageous, pioneering work can be inspiring." - Miriam Cohen, author of Votes for Women: Vassar and the Politics of Women's Suffrage "What is 'normal' sexuality, and how could one even begin to find out? Revelatory and compulsively readable, Matters of Sex restores Katharine Bement Davis to her rightful place as the foremother of sexuality studies, and as a blazing intellect undeterred by taboo at a time when censorship had a heavy hand on American culture. Jabour's richly detailed, exhilarating narrative takes on American puritanism and patriarchy as keenly as her subject did. A triumph of feminist biography." - Stephanie Gorton, author of The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America