Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States, 1880s-1950s

140 Pages·1994·23.159 MB·English

by  Gisela Bock

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‘An important collection ofessays ... valuable insights are
given not only into relatively well(cid:16)researched areas, but
into less Well(cid:16)known ones . In providing a much(cid:16)
—(cid:16)'T'—'C'—
needed addition to the limited resources available in
comparative studies in women’s and gender studies, this
thought(cid:16)provoking volume is to be warmlywelcomed.’
History
This important collection is the (cid:191)rst to analyse the influence
ofw0men’s movements on the emergence ofEurope’s welfare
state from the 1880s to the 1950s and the limits ofthat influ(cid:16)
ence. It compares the women’s movements and social policies
concerningwomen in the dictatorships ofItaly, Germany and
Spain with the democracies in Britain, France and Scan(cid:16)
dinavia and throws new light on feminism, especially in the
inter(cid:16)war period, making a signi(cid:191)cant contribution to
women’s studies.
Gisela Bock is Professor ofWomen’s and Gender History at
the University of Bielefeld, Germany, and external Professor
of European History at the European University Institute,
Florence.
Pat Thane is Reader in Social History at the University of
London and teaches in the Department ofSocial Science and
Administration at Goldsmith’s College, UniversityofLondon.
In autumn 1994 she becomes Professor of Contemporary
History at the University ofSussex.
Coverillustration: TheGardenerbyEileenCooper,withthekindpermissionofthe
BenjaminRhodesGallery,London
ContemporaryEuropeanHistory/Women’sStudies/Sociology
11 NewFetterLane
London EC4P4EE ISBN _ _ _
29 West35th Street
NewYorkNY 10001
PrintedinGreatBritain 9 780(cid:16)‘;\l_D; m—G oi“k:m»wiwN(cid:16)mlpm»o\i—~O
Maternity and Gender Policies
This important collection is the first to analyse the influence of women's
movements on the emergence of Europe’s welfare states and the limits of that
influence. It reveals how these organizations influenced and promoted new
welfare policies, particularly in relation to the needs of women and children. It
not only examines these developments in the different countries, but explores
state attitudes towards gender before and after the rise of the dictatorships in
Germany, Italy and Spain, in comparison to democracies in Britain, France,
Sweden andNorway.
These studies go further than revealing how European women sought to obtain
more rights. By exploring how they sought to make effective use of them, they
show that thiswidespread struggle formothers‘ welfare was not a diversionfrom
feministgoals, but intrinsictothe transformation to thegender(cid:16)based distribution
of resources and power in society. In emphasizing the role of women's history
within a political, rather than a social context, the research throws new light on
feminism, especially in the inter(cid:16)warperiod, andmakes asignificantcontribution
to contemporary w0men’s studies.
‘(cid:16)_
Maternity and Gender Policies
Women and the Rise of the European
Welfare States, 1880s(cid:16)1950_s
Edited by Gisela Bock and Pat Thane
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London and New York
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Firstpublished 1991 For Klara the mother and Mary Elizabeth the 31'andmm er
Firstpublishedinpaperback1994
byRoutledge
11NewFetterLane,LondonEC4P4EE
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
adivisionofRoutledge, ChapmanandHall,Inc.
29West35thStreet,NewYork,NY10001
Editorialmaterial © GiselaBockandPatThane 1991
Individualcontributors ©individualcontributors 1991
Typesetin 10/12ptGaramondby
SelectmoveLtd,London
Printedin GreatBritainby
T]Press(Padstow)Ltd,Padstow, Cornwall
All rights reserved. No partofthis bookmaybereprinted
orreproducedorutilizedinanyformorbyany
electronic, mechanical,orothermeans, nowknownor
hereafterinvented, includingphotocopyingand
recording, orinanyinformation storageorretrieval
system,withoutpermission inwritingfromthepublishers.
BriiishLibraryCaiaioguinginPubh'cau'onData
Maternityandgenderpolicies: womenandtheriseoftheEuropeanwelfarestates,
15305(cid:16)19505.
1. Europe. Welfareservices.Roleofwomen’smovements, history
I.Title II. Bock, Gisela(cid:16)III.Thane,Pat361.61094.
libraryofCongressCareiogirig inPribiicationData
Maternityandgenderpolicies: womenandtheriseoftheEuropeanwelfarestates,
1BBOs(cid:16)1950s1'edited byGisela BockandPatThane.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical referencesandindex.
1. Familypolicy(cid:16)Europe(cid:16)History. 2. Motherhood(cid:16)Govemmentp0|icy(cid:16)Europe(cid:16)
History. 3. Feminism(cid:16)Europe(cid:16)History. 4. Welfarestate(cid:16)I(cid:16)Iistory.
I. Bock, Gisela. ll. Thane, Pat
ISBN0415 l]=iT"H9
Contents
List oftables and figures ix
Contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction 1
Voluntarymotherhood 1900(cid:16)1930: theories andpolitics of
a Norwegian feministin an internationalperspective
Ida Blom 21
Familywelfare, which policy? Norway’s road to child
allowances
Anne(cid:16)Lise Seip andHilde Ibsen 40
The invisible child? The struggle for a Social Democratic
familypolicy in Sweden, 1900(cid:16)1960s
Arm(cid:16)Sofie O/slander 60
Modelsofequalityforwomen: thecaseofstatesupportfor
children in twentieth(cid:16)century Britain
jane Lewis 73
VisionsofgenderinthemakingoftheBritishwelfarestate:
the case ofwomen in the British Labour Party and social
policy, 1906(cid:16)1945
Pat Thane 93
French feminism and maternity: theories and policies,
1890(cid:16)1918
Anne Com: 119
Bodypolitics:women,workandthepoliticsofmotherhood
in France, 1920(cid:16)1950
Karen Ojfen 138
Pronatalism and motherhood in Franco’s Spain
Mmfy Nash 160
9 lV10IIi'l6I‘,l‘I00d as apolitical strategy: the role ofthe Italian
dw_omen sm_o\vementi'nthecreati'onofthe CassaNazio. nale Tables and Figures
1Matermta
Annarita Buttafuoco
10 R6&l6fiI1.'ll';g matern'ity andpatern(cid:16)ity: gender, pronatah.sm
an _ socia policies in fascistItaly
C/mm: Saraceno
11 Housework and motherhood: debates andpolicies in the
women smovementinImperialGerman a dth ’
Republic y n eWelmar
Irene Stoe/ar
Anfinfltalislfls maternity andpaternity in National 0.1 Women as percentage ofthe economically active
Socialist racism
population according to official statistics in France,
Gisela Bock
Britain and Germany, 1881(cid:16)1961 16
Index 0.2 Employed women as percentage ofall women of
employment age in France, Britain and Germany,
18805(cid:16)19608 16
0.3 Births per thousandpopulation in seven European
countries, 1880(cid:16)1950 17
1.1 Live births per thousand marriedwomen aged
15/20 years—45/50 years, Norway 1891(cid:16)1930 22
1.2 Live births per thousand married women 20(cid:16)49 years of age,
Kristiania/0510 1890(cid:16)1930 22
7.1 Crude birth(cid:16)rates forFrance, Germany,
England and Wales, 1850(cid:16)1930 139
7.2 Economically active women as apercentage
ofthe total economically active population
in France, 1856(cid:16)1961 142
8.1 Syntheticindex offertility, Spain 1922(cid:16)65 164
|F"'T"" ,(cid:16)
Contributors
Ida Blom is professor at the University of Bergen (Norway), Department
of History. Her research focuses on women and reproduction, life(cid:16)cycle
studies and women and politics. Herbooks includeSyridelicrsiiridfornuft?
Barrzebegrensning i Norge c. I890 (cid:16)— c. 19.30 (1980, Sin or common sense?
Family limitation in Norway, 1890s(cid:16)—(cid:16)1930s) and ‘Den haarde Dyst’: Fodsfer
cg fedselsbjefp gjenorn I50 ail‘ (1988, ‘The hard fight’: births and birthhelp
through 150 years). She has published numerous articles in Norwegian and
internatiorialjournalsonvariousaspectsofwomen’shistory. Sheispresident
of the International Federation for Research in Women’s History.
Gisela Bock is professor of social, women’s and gender history at the
University of Bielefeld (Federal Republic of Germany), and external
professor at the European University Institute (Florence), where she was
professor of European history from 1985 to 1989 and directed the project
thatledtothisvolume. I(cid:16)lerpublicationsinclude ThomasCampanelfa(1974),
Zwangssrerilisation irn Nationalsoziafisrnirs.(cid:16) Studien zar Rassenpofitiie and
Fraueripolirik (1986), IICorpodciledorine:inimaginierealnisroricbe (1988),
Storia, storia delfe dorms e storia di genera (1988), “¢l"omen’s history and
gender history’, in Gender and History (1989).
Annarita Buttafuoco teaches contemporary history at the Universita di
Siena in Arezzo (Italy). In 1975 she founded Dwf. donna woman femme,
the first Italian journal on women’s studies, and was its editor up to 1985.
Her publications on the history of prostitution, of poor women and of
the women’s movements in Italy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
include the books Le mariuccine (1985) and Cronache femminili. Temi
e momenti della stampa emancipazionista in Italia dall(cid:191)inita ai fascismo
(1988). She is currently writing on women in the French Revolution and
in the Italian Jacobine Republics. '
Anne Cova is a Ph.D. candidate at the European University Institute
(Florence) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).
She is doing research on the subject ‘Women’s rights and the protection
of maternity in France, 1890s—1939’, and has published several articles on
(cid:16) 1(cid:16)r (cid:16)—(cid:16) I(cid:16)'—IIIII(cid:16)I(cid:16)up
the French women’s move '
welfare. ment and the history of chi'ld and matern(cid:16)ity
emigration’,inH. RunblomandH. Norman (eds),FromSweden toAmerica
HildeIbsenhasbeenresearchfello h (cid:16) . (1976), ‘IllegitimacyandmarriageinthreeSwedishparishesinthenineteenth
has wri.tten hm th _ h watt eUnivversityofO_ slos'ince 1990.She century’, in P. Laslett et al. (eds), Bastardy and its Comparative History
05:0gj(cid:191)nnnmkriseessgtggfgrlznPal‘;£t?'9:);i(f.ii;1Slg1lghe capitajyqiattigvesenet i
(1980), ‘Suicide in Sweden’, inDeath: thePublicandPrivateSpheres (1986).
. . d .8
crisisand reform , d bl’ 1 l ourFade mO51?’b(cid:191)rween She conducts the Women’s History Seminar at Uppsala University an 1
fightingcancer: iidiiiile5finsif:;iri:iKh::f§lE?;;;li(cid:191)rwigii(cid:192)(cid:192)organizationfor currently working on the official view of the father—child relationship in
Present] h ' ' (cid:16) (cid:16) I n(cid:192)w E ge(cid:192)gainst cancer). the Swedish law on parental leave of 1973.
century.1" 5 E IS workin8 on industrial welfare i‘n Norway i(cid:16)n the twenti.eth
C11i'ara Saraceno is professor of family sociology at the University of
Jane Lewis is reader in social adm' ' ' Turin, Faculty of Political Science. Her main publications include Eta e
. , _ . . . ,. . , I
Economics. Sh ' h h Inn(cid:16)itjlimon at the London School of il corso della vita (1986), Pluralita e mutamento. Rzflessionz sullzdentita a
in England, I;?t;_t?;53uE1;i;43»f glgigzigtyis oi1lI(E‘f;J£'I"fJ(£;t;£;(1980), Women
femmin' z'le (1987), Sociologia dellafamiglia (1988), ‘Lafamiglia operaiasotto
publishing two books in 1991 !_F£m;'yg' 3, O ~are 8)’ and will be il fascismo’, in Annali della Fondazione Gz'angi'acomo Feltrinelli (1979/80),
wi(cid:16)th Davi.d Clark and D 'd M= Hm an SocialAction Sj'lnce 1360 and. ‘La struttura di genere della cittadinanza’, in Democrazia e diritto (1989).
The Work ofM(cid:192)(cid:191)lhge Gi‘;'_;anc;.:rg;gb~ GodHathjoined T085(cid:16);],e,._. Anne(cid:16)Lise Seip has been professor of modern history at the University of
’5’3ilnli“§Z£§s:;f::;?:.:f.:r.i.:=r:a;i:i.i*;i°:i.i.ai."vi""s" if Oslo since 1985. She started in the field ofpolitical history and the history
ofideas, and is nowworking on the history ofsocialpolicy and the welfare
§.‘§iYZZZE§Zi‘?.ilTZZZ52,»§f.l“i~Z.Z2?‘1EI;§§li’l‘§6§‘}‘;’;3“‘;""° 3is?
" ' '»(cid:16) (cid:16) .(cid:16) (cid:16) I IO state. She has publi'shed numerous arti'cles as well as books, among them
Vitenskap og virkelighet (1974, Science and reality), and Sosialhjelpstaten
blir til. Norsk sosialpolitik 1740(cid:16)1920 (1984, The rise of the welfare state:
F;';I:l;9(cid:16)13;7?,1i)nto German 1979)._ illlujery movimi'enr(ri O7lf?:€i'1iJari3'(cid:191)a.f1?ii(]j?¢i[?:liiIo
Norwegian social policy).
(1983), es(eniil;}jdejlu.iijilZiici.(cid:191)i:Iiiitliiriaydinieiiaja(cid:192)ion(cid:191)bii aaigjfiif 1875*!93$ Irene Stoehr Berlin, is an independent scholar in sociology and history.
Her main publications are Emanzipation zum Staat? Derallgemeine Deut(cid:16)
Lag mum?“ an Ia CHEW“ Civil (1939) Les dones an hjisiiiii:
EanndglinsuhmaenrdouIstalaiartnic.les on women's and soj c,(cid:16)ial hi(cid:16)story in Spani_sjh, C(atalani,i scbeFrauenverein/DeutscherStaatsbiirgerinnen(cid:16)Verband, 1893(cid:16)1933(1990),
‘Organisierte Miitterlichkeit: Zur Politik der deutschen Frauenbewegung
h .
Karen Offen (Ph.D. S f " (cid:16) (cid:16) . . um 1900’, in Karin Hausen, Frauen suchen ihre Geschichte (1983). S e is
scholar, affiliated to,thi':aIinjisfijtuEienfibti'rsRtb’ieii' :lihm0‘il.lilan and mffependem co(cid:16)founder of the 1'ournal Frauen und Schule.' Zeztschnftfur Lehrermnen
Stanford Univ(cid:191)rsity (USA) She h _ c on omen an Gender, und Gelehrte, Mutter und Tiichter. Her research interests include women’s
“H(cid:16) arm. ” Women‘ADocum(cid:16)ent“ asqco(cid:16)edited two documentary collecti'ons: history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly the women’s
' Women’:Liv ' N‘ movement, female conservatism, the history of sexuality.
Century Erlgfa(cid:192)d, Fm d '12‘ ccountof esin rneteenth(cid:16)
Fanadmiilsy.ParnedseFnrtelyedcoomm.‘pTleheteinggi'b3airbeeoino[k/Siittjiliimseiijixfs8,519590913953?2Wvoolm5..m1j93th3e) Pat Thane is reader in social history, Universityof London, and teaches at
Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. Her publications include: The
~ he woman ' '
femu. m. mandthehismrio P ations focus on the comparati've hi'story of Orig' in' s ofBri'tis'h Soc'ialPoli'cy (1978),' TheFoundatio' ns ofthe Welfare State
(1982); and, most recently, ‘The women of the British Labour Party and
8"(cid:16)iPl‘1yofwomenandtheFrenchR 1 ' (cid:16)
secretary(cid:16)treasurer ofthe International Federation for we‘utmnjSheIs
feminism, 1906(cid:16)45’ i'n H.L. Sm'ith (ed.), British Feminism in the Twentieth
Researchin Women’s
History and will sew 1991(cid:16) ‘
Centuiy(1990)'‘Governmentandsoc'ietyi'nEnglandanClwales, 1750(cid:16)1914’,
Women Historians (UFS:,S)_ 3 President of the Western Associnrign of
ch.1. vol. 3, in,F.M.L. Thompson (ed.), The Cambridge Social History 0f
Ann(cid:16)Sofie Olil d ' ' . _ Britdin, 1750(cid:16)1950; ‘The debate on the declining birth(cid:16)rate: the menace
of an age'ing populati'on i'n Bri'tai'n, 1920s—1950s’, Conti'nui'ty and Change
l?‘I\‘;ederl)s Depa(cid:191)jmzilitliifai(cid:191)ljiifbijrPlr(cid:16)jiijisiijij(cid:16)j(cid:16)gaghdjznléurggzrsltlélPf _UPP5f1l(cid:192)
c u e More Cilfld 3 '(cid:16) ' _ P11 lcations in(cid:16) 1990, vol. 5, no. 2.
I.” the F9305 (Iggotfrntg;g(cid:191)igggigizligyglsperrsrlfiaiedishPopulationPals‘?
U I"em31'k)i Swedish reaction against
r(cid:16)rv (cid:16) e
Acknowledgements . (cid:16) ' countries when the
B1'““° W“a“’°’l assisted with research" ohnfvfar10<111$Wiebke Kolbe helped
project was at an earl)’ stétfgehanf(cid:192)l .lF§:ai1:.’;sp)foheaganslations (from Italian,
at the final stage$(cid:16) some 0 t C lrduced by Iain Fraser, the multilingual
German andhFrEncl'1) evavjfsnlgigrsity Institutc, and Allan Grieco. William
translator at I 6 “’°P . . . ~ ki d nou h to sits is
' 1 h story, was n e 8
N. Dodd, a scholar in BfI'32112l;ta1ltiZ1$?;mlributions. CorneliaUsbomehelped
time totranslatingoneO ' Luc Thanehasassistedcheerfully
withalast(cid:16)minutetranslation¢?IT1eT8en_°Y' Y (cid:16) “in
. lations s11pp0 8
(cid:16) (cid:16) final revisions of the trans >
(cid:16)readin and re tYPmg
in ie g f h d‘ as did Volker Hunecke for the other editor. We
10‘/11131)’ one 0 t e e Ito’(cid:16)S’ ' d h dmother of the
Wearegrateful to many peoplewho have made this bookpossible. We want
dedicate the book to the mother of one editor an t 6 gr?“ f h.deS
tothank all ofthem, and particularly those whohave beendirectly involved.
ki u in a different sense, the old formula which S0 0 ten 1
TheEuropean UniversityInstituteinFlorence,wheretheproject‘Maternity, Other, ta Hg . pi. h .b tions of Scholars: wives to scholafshipi
rather than blghltghts t e Com“ u lewd‘,
visionsofgenderandtheriseofthe westernwelfarestates’waslocated in the
‘Without them th1S bookwould not have been comp
History Department, sponsored and generously financed the project over
three years; it provided the beautiful Villa Schifanoia for our conference
in spring 1988 and subsidized this publication. Most importantly the spirit
of that centre for intellectual exchange on matters of central importance
to European history and culture has informed both the project and this
volume.
Unfortunately it was not possible toinclude the contributions ofall those
who participated in the project. Bonnie G. Smith enriched the project with
her transnational research on lower—class women’s autobiographies and on
middle(cid:16)class women's studies of female poverty from the late nineteenth
century (‘On writing women’s work’, Working Paper I(cid:16)IEC no. 91/7 of
the European University Institute, Florence 1991). For various reasons
we confined the framework to Europe, but we benefited from Elisabetta
Veaaosi’s work within theprojecton maternitypolicies in the United States
from 1900(cid:16)1935; her work has been published in Storia Nordarnericana
(I988). At our conference, AngelaTaegerpresented her research on changes
in French family policy from nineteenth(cid:16)century child abandonment to
twentieth(cid:16)century maternity policy, which has been published in Frarieia
(1989); and Stefania Bartoloni made a valuable contribution on fascist
maternity policies. Elisabeth Elgan and Jan Gréindahl dealt with specific
aspects of the Swedish case; their contributions have been published in
Mother, Father and Child: Swedish Social Policy in the Early Twentieth
Ceritary, editors Marie C. Nelson and John Rogers, Uppsala 1990. Karin
Hausen presented lectures at the European University Institute on widows
andthemeaningofunemploymentinsurancetowomeninWeimarGermany,
and Francoise Thebaud on the history ofmotherhood and child allowances
in France. Frank Prochaska shared with us his knowledge of the religious
motivesofwomenphilanthropistsandofthemothers’meetingsmovementin
Britain; this workhas been published in HistoricalResearch (October 1987)
andHistoify {October 1939).