Premarital Sexual Permissiveness and Illegitimacy in the Nordic Countries

The Nordic countries differ from other Western societies in their long histories of premarital sexual permissiveness. Yet, in spite of this general permissiveness, there are enormous variations in the frequency of illegitimacy and in the tolerance of it, both among the five Nordic countries and with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comparative Studies in Society and History
Main Author: Tomasson, Richard F.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1976
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500008227
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0010417500008227
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Summary:The Nordic countries differ from other Western societies in their long histories of premarital sexual permissiveness. Yet, in spite of this general permissiveness, there are enormous variations in the frequency of illegitimacy and in the tolerance of it, both among the five Nordic countries and within each of them. Iceland is an exception; here the rate of illegitimacy is high throughout the country, and so is tolerance of it. Sweden appears to be moving in this direction, but the historical situation is more complex.