The prevailing view of nonreproductive sex as sinful was modified by Protestant reformers of the 16th century. Both Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (15091564) recognized the value of sex in marriage (Berman & Berman, 2001). According to Calvin, marital sex was permissible if it stemmed "from a desire for children, or to avoid fornication, or to lighten and ease the cares and sadnesses of household affairs, or to endear each other" (Taylor, 1971, p. 62). The Puritans, often maligned for having rigid views about sex, also shared an appreciation of sexual expression within marriage (D’Emilio & Freedman, 1988; Wiesner-Hanks, 2000).
The 18th-century Enlightenment was partly an outgrowth of the new scientific rationalism: Ideas reflected facts that could be objectively observed, rather than subjective beliefs and superstition. Women were to enjoy increased respect, at least for a short time. Some women, such as Mary Wollstonecraft of England, were acknowledged for their intelligence, wit, and vivacity. Wollstonecraft’s book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) attacked the limited gender roles for females, such as the prevailing practice of giving young girls dolls rather than schoolbooks. Wollstonecraft also asserted that sexual satisfaction was as important to women as to men and that premarital and extramarital sex was not sinful.