In an international perspective, the introduction in 1942 of sex education in Swedish schools came very early. This article sets out to analyse the development of the Swedish discourse on sex education which had its origin in the women's movement and morality movement in the 1880s. From the 1920s, and particularly in connection with the construction of folkhemmet (“the people's home”), it increasingly became an issue for the Swedish public and state authorities. Sexuality and sexual hygiene were associated with collective ethics as well as with the individual’s responsibility for society. The notion of folkhälsa (“public health”) was used to discuss concepts of sexuality in the broader framework of eugenics and human genetics, with frequent reference to “moral pureness” and Erbgesundheit (“genealogical health”). Sex education eventually became an element of demographic policy
