Theorizing de-Christianization in women's reproductive lives in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Diana L. Gustafson ⁎, Jennifer A. Selby 1 Memorial University, St. John's, NL, Canada abstract article info Article history: 5 April 2016 29 August 2016 Available online xxxx Several scholars argue that there is a causal link between the sexual revolution, plunging fertility rates, delayed age of first marriage and the waning influence of Christianity between 1957 and 1975, and that the most dramatic shift occurred in Canada. However, when these findings are contrasted with intergenerational family narratives gathered from women living in a culturally distinct and religiously homogeneous Canadian province, a more complex story of de-Christianization in relation to women's reproductive lives emerges. We suggest that secular- ization in women's lives in Newfoundland and Labrador occurred later, and appeared to coincide with two significant de-institutionalizing events – the Mount Cashel scandal in the 1980s and the end of the denomina- tional school system in the 1990s. Moreover, even following women's reported departure from the Church, religiously-framed morality remains salient in women's descriptions of their reproductive lives, and mothers were central in imparting these mores. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: De-Christianization Secularization Sexual revolution Reproductive lives Denominational schools Mount Cashel Narrative Mother Intergenerational Introduction Two connected upheavals in the 1960s are said to have impacted the reproductive lives of women in the Western world: first, a religio- cultural turn that led to a decline in mainstream Christianity's social and institutional influence, and second, a demographic shift evidenced in plunging fertility rates and delayed age of first marriage. De-Christian- ization, or the waning public influence of the Christian church and its in- stitutions that began in the 1960s, is often thought to have altered the moral and social frameworks of reference within women's reproductive lives by advancing women's sexual autonomy and availing contracep- tion. We prefer the term de-Christianization (over the term seculariza- tion) as a way of acknowledging social processes that did not have as a goal, or result in, the religious neutrality of the public sphere. Several scholars including Callum Brown argue that secularization, shifts in demography, and women's greater autonomy in sex are “inti- mately and causatively interconnected” (2012, 1). Brown contends that the most dramatic shift in the Western world during the “long 60s” (from 1957 to 1975) – in waning religious beliefs, practices, and church attendance, and the increased age at which women first married – was in Canada. 2 However, when these findings are contrasted with in- tergenerational family narratives gathered from women living in a cul- turally distinct and religiously homogeneous Canadian province, a more complex story of de-Christianization in relation to women's reproduc- tive lives emerges. In this paper we argue that the intergenerational narratives of Christian women living in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) show the continued embodied saliency of religiously-framed morality in de- scriptions of their reproductive lives following their reported de- Christianization. We found that despite the discontinuity that occurs in the imparting of reproductive-related values by churches and public schools, that mothers remained central in imparting these mores in the post-de-Christianized period. We contrast data from 54 intergenera- tional interviews conducted in the province with scholarship that cast the “long ‘60s” as a period of dramatic upheaval for women in Western nation states (Abrams, 2013; Brown, 2012; Taylor, 2007). Not only does de-Christianization in women's lives in NL occur later than the 1960s, Women's Studies International Forum 59 (2016) 17–25 ⁎ Corresponding author at: HSC2834, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, NL A1B 3V6, Canada. E-mail addresses: diana.gustafson@med.mun.ca (D.L. Gustafson), jselby@mun.ca (J.A. Selby). 1 A5029, Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University, St. John's, NL, A1C 5S7. 2 The so-called ‘Quiet Revolution’ in the province of Quebec in the 1960s skews the overall Canadian data to some extent. This period is so-named due to the province's rela- tively non-violent rapid political, institutional and cultural shift away from the Catholic Church, which until then had held significant social and educational responsibilities (see Martel, 2004). By 1966 the provincial government created Ministries of Health and Educa- tion, expanded the province's infrastructure and allowed its unionization. D'Allaire (1986) notes how this de-Christianization impacted the attrition of women from religious life; previously up to 3% of the province's young women lived as nuns (see also Gauvreau, 2005). Gervais and Gauvreau (2003) also show how women in Quebec had far fewer chil- dren than women in the remainder in Canada during the post-WWII “baby boom.” http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2016.08.006 0277-5395/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif