The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine. Coming August 12, 2025 Published by Beacon Press.
The first comprehensive trade history of sex ed in American schools--and an impassioned call to reform sex ed into a powerful tool for reproductive justice and social equality
The U.S. has some of the highest rates of STIs and teen pregnancies in the industrialized world. A comprehensive sex education curriculum--which teaches facts on contraception, prophylactics, consent, and STIs--has been available since the 90s. Yet the majority of states require that sex education stress abstinence, and 22 states do not require sex ed in public schools at all.
In The Fight for Sex Ed, writer, advocate, and historian Margaret Myers shows us how we got here. While the earliest calls for sex ed came from a coalition of religious leaders and doctors at the turn of the century who sought to control the prevalence of STIs, the advent of antibiotics and modern condoms meant that abstinence was no longer good public health policy. The religious right, however, continued to frame it as such, using its impressive machinery to replace scientific facts with conservative Christian values.
Because sex ed is not mandated at the federal level, these battles have played out locally throughout the decades: through rigged school boards, administrative oustings, court cases, unjust firings, scare tactics, and threats. Myers also shows how the religious right has worked to narrow the discourse around sex ed, often dictating the terms of debate almost entirely.
What we teach young people has serious ramifications for reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, and public health. Sex education lies at the intersection of these hugely important cultural forces, yet it has been largely invisible. This book illuminates its potential--and its power.
Early Praise: "“Margaret Myers uses careful research and crystal-clear prose to trace the endless loop of politics and denial that sex education in the United States has been stuck in for generations. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about breaking that loop and making sure every person gets the necessary information they need to grow into a whole, healthy human being.” — Chelsea Conaboy, author of Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood
Why is sex education so controversial in America, and what has that meant for young people through the ages? Margaret Myers deftly shows how sex ed has been a bellwether reflecting cultural shifts, utopian dreams, public-health crusades, moral panics, and political power-grabs. Rigorously researched and written with style, The Fight for Sex Ed is a definitive history that treads lightly while delivering a sucker punch. — Stephanie Gorton, author of The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America
Watch me discuss my sex education book collection, my work, and the state of sex ed today, in partnership with the great Biblio.
What’s your background?
I have an MFA in nonfiction writing from Goucher College, an MTS from Harvard Divinity School, and a BA from Skidmore College. In other lives, I’ve been a nanny, a bookseller, a substitute high school teacher, and a preschool teacher. Life sure is a rich tapestry, huh?
Would you like to chat about XYZ sex ed/reproductive justice news?
Probably! Email me at margaret G myers @ gmail . com to find out. I’d love to talk.
What have you written?
