Gender Flashcards
(98 cards)
1
Q
In what year did a survey of West German men show a majority felt politics should be left to men?
A
1975
2
Q
By when were practically all women of working age engaged in full-time wage labour, and did the proportion of women at almost every level of the educational system reach that of men in Hungary?
A
The middle of the 1970s
3
Q
How did post-war Hungary attempt to lessen the domestic and reproductive responsibilities of women? (4)
A
Free nursery and child care centres, paid leave time for mothers of sick children, subsidised meals and laundry services, generous maternity leave policies
4
Q
What is evidence that by the 1980s a veritable cult of motherhood had emerged in Poland?
A
Solidarity and the communist state vied to represent mothers as fountains of Polish strength and objects of Polish protection
5
Q
In the 1980s what percentage of men comprised the Polish communist party?
A
75%
6
Q
In the 1980s what percentage of men comprised the East German communist party?
A
65%
7
Q
What was the percentage of women members, including candidates and voting members, in the Czech Party central committee in the 1980s?
A
17%
8
Q
By when, had women become the majority of students across Eastern Socialist Bloc?
A
The early 1980s but earlier in EG and Czechoslovakia
9
Q
According to Eastern European and Soviet surveys of the 1970s (when c. 50% of workforce female) what percentage of household work was performed by women?
A
80-90%
10
Q
By 1989, what was the contrast in kindergarten spots in EG, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania?
A
80% in East Germany, 16% in Czechoslovakia and single digit coverage in Hungary Poland and Romania
11
Q
By the 1980s, how much did Eastern European states spend on social programs and subsidies?
A
More than 20% of GDP
12
Q
Why did the GDR party leadership come round to legalisation in 1971 of abortion?
A
Because it was eager to prove it was abetter friend of women than West Germany
13
Q
In the 1970s what influenced the blossoming of an emancipated heterosexuality in East Germany?
A
German cultural traditions, WG TV and the Party’s blessing
14
Q
In 1970s EG what happened with regards to relaxed sexual mores and sexual enlightenment?
A
Women’s sexual fulfilment was celebrated, and nudism entered the mainstream of leisure pastimes
15
Q
How many million condoms were produced annually by the German pharmaceutical industry during the Weimar era?
A
80 million+
16
Q
What is Ute Frevert’s argument about the Nazi period and women? (6)`
A
- Nazi Period not simply a period of “regression” for women
- Some areas deemed as ‘progress’ by historians destroyed by Nazis e.g. voting rights/access to the upper echelons of the civil service/family planning but other areas new opportunities
- Nazis clearly didn’t have women’s emancipation as their core aims, seeking to make them ‘malleable and accommodating’, but that doesn’t mean that several by-products of these aims actually benefited women
- The outcome of policy could have different/often diametrically opposed effects to those intended
- While previous tendency to cast women as helpless victims/prey to a ‘omnipotent, totalitarian polity which excluded them’, actually seems likely that the reality for most women was bearable if not appealing
- Points to the relative rarity of deliberate acts of political resistance on women’s part
17
Q
What is the aim of Herzog’s sexuality in Europe (2011)? (3)
A
- Aim: to reflect on sexuality in Europe, not as part of a framework of progress, but rather by accounting for the complicated/diverse attitudes towards it
- Reconstruct ways people imagined sex, and the assumptions/emotions it invoked
- Explores how Europeans battled over the ethics of sex
18
Q
What is important context for regimes’ demographic campaigns?
A
General decrease in fertility across Europe in first decades of 20th C
19
Q
What must we remember to account for when reflecting upon how a regime treated women? (8)
A
variation w age/class/marital status/geographical location/religion/violence/culture/identity
20
Q
What was there often a disjunct between?
A
the model/ideal traits of a women and the more real/particular groups of women that the regime was legislating for in reality
21
Q
What was the purpose of the introduction of legislation/financial incentives?
A
The introduction of legislation/financial incentives etc., hoping to make ‘ideals’ the reality
22
Q
What did the introduction of legislation/financial incentives etc., hoping to make ‘ideals’ the reality often do?
A
always addressed/provided/catered for specific groups of women
23
Q
What does the difference in laws and practical realities regarding specific things actually tell us?
A
Consider relationship between state and ordinary people - who is pushing who?
24
Q
What is important to consider with regards to abortion laws? (3)
A
Was it a matter of liberal versus authoritarian states?
A matter of religious esp. Catholic, states vs secular states?
Why would some welfare states be more accepting of abortions than other?
25
Why is it important to note that the societies in question didn't develop independently from each other, but in cooperation and competition?
Gender policies were clearly meant to distinguish different societies from their forerunners or other contemporary societies
26
Why is it important not to only think about questions of choices and agency? (4)
- More so a question of the role of the state and interference with the private realm
- Democratic welfare states can be rather intrusive e.g. when it comes to disciplining parents
- Authoritarian regimes do not need much justification to interfere w the private as the interests of individuals are subsumed under the interests of the “nation”/Volksemeinschaft
- Reactions to this and limited by this
27
Why is it important to consider temporality? (3)
- Not simply a narrative of gradual progress
- would be an oversimplification of 20th c European sexual politics
- There were backlashes and problems with reaching/defining a sexually liberal society
28
Impact of WWI on a personal level i.e. in relationships? (4)
- many couples separated for a long time if not forever
- Increasingly blurred gender role boundaries/reorganisation of social roles
- Women increasingly taken on men’s roles/responsibilities at home in their absence
- Men who returned often psychologically, if not also physically, harmed
29
Greater loosening of sexual customs across period - increased interest/ventures in non-traditional sexual arrangements amongst both hetero/homosexuals? (6) evidence
- Increased availability/methods of contraception
- Push for greater homosexual rights
- Greater acceptance of premarital sex and importance of sex within marriage
- Greater advice for partnered sex
- Relaxation of Church teachings on sex, esp. from 1930s-60s
- Greater appreciation for female sexual determination, advanced by women’s movements of 1970s-90s
30
Greater visibility of homosexuality across period (3)
Open homosexual subcultures flourished in most major European cities
Growing visibility/literary publications around homosexuality
Steps taken towards defining what exactly homosexuality was
31
Why is it important to consider both short-term and long-term changes? (2)
- Gender concepts do not only inform institutions in a given society and are reflected in its structure, they are also inscribed in people’s biographies e.g. via education and different possibilities on the job market
- These differences in qualification are still present decades later as they can only partially be undone by later policies
32
What generally was there variation between spatially?
- Generally but not uniformly the case that southern Europe more conservative/northern Europe more liberal
- Also differences bw nations/regions/urban centres and rural areas
33
What did fascist regimes constitute a backlash against?
idea that individuals could have sexual rights
34
General tendencies - immediate aftermath of WWII? (3)
- Attempts to deflect attention from the memory of genocide of European Jewry resulted in extensive moral discussion/focus on sexual conduct/immorality during WW2 instead
- Emphasis on women’s sexual relationships with occupiers distracted from the far broader phenomenon of male political collaboration & general embarrassment/humiliation at military defeat
- As part of the swing toward sexual conservatism, the Church promoted it as part of the anti-Nazi program, associating Nazis w sexual libertinism/promiscuity
35
How were women in post-Liberation France treated for having sexual relationships with Germans?
E.g. in post-Liberation France, roughly 20,000 women, accused of ‘horizontal collaboration’ with Germans were humiliated by having their hair shorn in front of jeering crowds
36
Who's work was attention paid to as part of the interwar period’s anti-capitalist, sex-radical tradition’s rediscovery in the 1960s/70s?
Austrian Freudian Marxist Wilhelm Reich’s 1920s/30s work
37
Central argument of Reich's The Sexual Revolution, The Function of the Orgasm, The Mass Psychology of Fascism?
Central argument: ‘cruel character traits’ evident among those ‘in a condition of chronic sexual dissatisfaction’, while ‘genitally satisfied people’ displayed ‘gentleness and goodness’ (Reich, 1927)
38
How did young radicals in WG use Reich’s work to try to understand their parents’ generation’s participation in the persecution/murder of the European Jewry?
Hoped that by following Reich’s guidance to treat their own young children’s sexuality as normal/healthy rather than dangerous/deserving of repression, they could prevent the formation of fascistic personalities in the future
39
What is the significance of widespread anxiety about the decline of male predominance and declining birth rates? (8)
- Interpreted as a weakening of a nation’s strength
- Explains fascist regimes general tendency to:
- Criminalise contraception/intensify suppression of abortion
- Women’s inability to control their own reproductive life-choices made them dependent/vulnerable
- Encouraged higher birthrate
- Oppose male homosexuality
- Conflicted with the form/image of masculinity regimes promoted
- Presumably homosexuality seen as hindering birthrate
40
What is the significance of the prominence of Catholicism? (3)
The most widely practised religion in Europe for 1st half C20
The most uniformly structured across Europe
CATHOLIC SOCIETIES HAD CONSERVATIVE GENDER CULTURES
41
How did the Catholic vs Anglican/Protestant Church respond differently to the Russian Revolution w regards to gender and sexuality (both defensive nonetheless)? (4)
Catholic:
- Forceful repudiation of contraception/abortion/any interference with procreation
- Promoted sex within marriage as the best/most guaranteed path to sexual happiness
- 1931 Pope Pius XI: sexual intercourse within marriage had additional (from procreation) purposes of ‘mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence’
Anglican/Protestant Churches:
- acquiescence to contraception, hostility to abortion (accepted reluctantly but without protest)
42
What is evidence of Weimar Germany being more liberal/progressive with regards to sexuality and reproductive rights? (5)
- 80 million+ condoms produced annually by German pharmaceutical industry
- 100s of sex counselling centres (independent and govt sponsored) across country
- Many demanded decriminalisation of abortion
- Great range of bars/clubs in Berlin; tourist guidebook for lesbians described 14 clubs; above and below ground lesbian and homosexual mags
- Weimar Germany women get the vote
43
How did Weimar Germany's policies with regards to women and mothers impact gender norms? (3)
- Law for Maternity Benfits and Maternity Welfare (1919/20) extended the wartime maternity benefits to women with incomes of less than 2,500 marks per year
- Targeted financial difficulties that forced women/nursing mothers to work late into pregnancy/go back to work soon after birth
- Excluded many needy women as only those covered by theirs/their husband’s insurance elligible
44
Homosexuality in Nazi Germany (5)
- Sexually repressive phenomena/forced sterilization/involuntary mass murder/torture of homosexual men
- WWI vets/active Third Reich soldiers countered hegemonic masculinity focus on heterosexuality until 1934/5 when less self-confident claimed deviancy result of deprivation/trauma of WWI - murder of head of SA Rohm
- Homophobic policy from 1935 onwards seemingly pushed by Himmler as most vigorously pursued by/within SS and criticised male but not female homosexuality
- Regime anxious about being perceived as queer because of same-sex institutions which fostered/invoked popular speculation about homoeroticism and so overcompensating/proving straightness
- Also homosexuals failed to reproduce/procreate
45
How was Nazi Germany an experiment in reproductive engineering?
those deemed undesirable prohibited from reproducing via forced sterilization/involuntary abortion/mass murder/sexually repressive phenomena
46
Evidence of how Nazi Germany's reproductive engineering impacted undesirable groups? (4)
- Sterilization of Proletarian women - promiscuity taken as a sign of mental deficiency - and disabled
- Forced abortions for those believed to have hereditarily diseased offspring/Jewish/Sinti/Roma
- Prosecution of Jewish-gentile sex in the ‘race defilement’ trials
- Grotesque reproductive experiments/sexual sadism in concentration camps
47
Evidence of how Nazi Germany's reproductive engineering affected those deemed desirable? (5)
- Sexuality invented as ‘Aryan’ for desirable groups and reproduction encouraged/enforced via financial incentives/propagandistic enticements and restrictions on contraception/abortion
- Abortion originally relatively liberal in NG for desirable women
- 1936: creation of the Reich Office for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality
- 1941: sale of all contraceptives (except condoms) banned
- 1943: providing an abortion to an Aryan woman became a capital offence/could now include death penalty
48
What is the significance of Catholicism in Nazi Germany?
Most vocal oponents to eugenicist measures were Catholics but Catholic Church not as powerful in Germany so eugenics more able to take hold
49
West Germany abortion example of law vs practice? (4)
- Abortion illegal - requirements so strict women sought them elsewhere esp. Netherlands
- 1971 Stern magazine controversy - frontcover headline “We’ve had abortions!” and ft 30 women, 374 women publicly confessed had had pregnancies terminated illegally - challenged article 218 and asserted their right to abortion
- 1976 abortion law revised so penalties for abortions not enforced on doctors and patients when several conditions met
- Abortion now in unified Germany still technically illegal under section 218 of German criminal code but not prosecuted
50
West Germany the pill - example/evidence of who is pushing who? (4)
- 1964 the pill restricted only 2000 women had tried
- activists furious that some doctors wouldn’t prescribe to unmarried women
- by 1968 1.4 million using it
- by 1975-7 ⅓ all fertile women using it, 80% of women U20
51
East Germany abortion - example of who is pushing who? (3)
- 1965 increased access to abortion - relaxed resistive abortion law of 1950 and permitted if socially indicated - only partial reform, led to floods of petitions from women denied abortions regarding their personal circumstances
- 1972 institution of abortion on demand - response to all the petitions receiving - also expanded incentives like maternity leave for women who did have children
52
Developments of French women's enfranchisement and political rights
Third republic:
- Women not granted vote but continuing demands from women post-WWI
Senate continuously refused to analyse law proposal
The political left - generally supportive of women’s emancipation but repeatedly oppose right to vote bc believes would support conservative positions
Vichy France:
- 1944 Women get the vote
Granted by de Gaulle’s government in exile - 15 for, 16 vs
At this point had been for c. 10 years only Western country that didn’t allow women’s suffrage at municipal elections
Didn’t extend to “Indigenous Muslim” women in Fr Algeria - don’t get vote until 1958
53
Significance of 1949 Article 3 in West Germany?
54
Significance of 1949 Article 3 in West Germany?
1949 Article 3 of Basic Law legally binding formulation of concept of equal rights for men and women - intended to apply to all areas of life rather just civil equality like Weimar Constitution
In reality didn’t happen
55
Nazi Germany sexual violence (5)
Sexual violence in concentration camps vs men and women
Sexual humiliation/torture of prisoners by guards a source of entertainment/source of competition
In Poland a mother forced to watch while trained dogs violated her daughter
Flossenburg man accused of homosexuality had his testicles pushed into scalding/cold water then raped w a broom stick
Himmler est brothels at 10 concentration camps where female prisoners served as sexual slaves and men imprisoned for homosexuality sometimes tested to see if could “perform” heterosexually
56
Evidence to explain and support Duchen's argument that war solidified idea of women as property (France)?
- Women punished for horizontal collaboration w Nazis - poor treatment of children
- Gender tied to nation - women viewed as producing in a way men aren’t - defying this by collaborating sexually - interplay of gender and national ideological factors
Played into de Gaullist myth everyone had resisted because able to punish these women
57
Evidence of generational shift in attitudes towards sex in West Germany? (4)
- Popularity of movies about sex education/encouraging healthy sexual relationships
- WG journalist Oswalt Kolle produced a series of extremely successful movies where naked couples awkwardly discussed their sexual problems with expert voice-overs providing reassurance/solutions/encouraging communication for healthy marriages
- famous during 1960s/70s
- films audience of 140m worldwide
58
How did Nazi Germany focus on improving sex within marriage for Aryan and desirable groups? (3)
- Sexuality invented as ‘Aryan’ for desirable groups and reproduction encouraged/enforced via financial incentives/propagandistic enticements and restrictions on contraception/abortion
- June 1933 Law for the Reduction of Unemployment - interest free loans, 1/4 cancelled each time child born, for young married couples on condition wife gave up work and not return until loan repaid
- Doctors gave lots of attention to improving marital sexual satisfaction - more detailed discussion on best techniques for enhancing female orgasm under Nazism than later on in 1950s (Herzog)
59
Nazi Germany premarital sex - who is pushing who, and generational differences?
Teens away from home in the Hitler Youth/Federation of German Girls/Reich Labour Service often encouraged to pair off for sexual encounters - often to parents’ horror
60
Premarital sex/sex outside of Marriage Postwar France (sexual revolution implications)
- 1968 student revolts Popular slogans: “the more I make love, the more I make revolution”; demands for “orgasm without limits”
- Nanterre revolts started over male frustrations that they couldn’t access female dorm rooms
- Most of these protests male dominated - 70s 2nd wave feminists often motivated by experiences of marginalisation during 1968
61
French pornography - tension - legislation vs reality
Porn not decriminalised officially until 1994
But in 1969 one commentator said that ‘the pornographic press, foreign and French alike, is virtually sold openly at every newspaper kiosk’
62
Homosexuality in WG vs EG
- May 1969 WG decriminalised consensual adult homosexuality for those 21+ and heterosexual adultery
- 1968 EG decriminalisation of homosexual relationships but still encountered difficult circumstances - unable to organise clubs to fight prejudice/institutions to facilitate relationships/events to raise public awareness of the problems homosexuals faced bc of state socialist regimes controlling
63
Homosexuality French Third Republic vs Vichy France
- Interwar period, Paris home to a growing community of lesbians
- Carved out professional/personal independence from men in their lives
- Sept 1942 provisions - fears about national decline/invasion from powerful Germany encouraged pronatalist policies
- Criminalised homosexual acts bw an adult over 21 and an adult under 21 - had been legal in Fr since Rev
- Response to longstanding requests from Parisien police/French naval authorities - concerned by many young sailors making easy money prostituting themselves in port cities/Paris
64
Fascist Italy homosexuality - repression and punishment aggressively by regime, previously committed from law-codes like in France and Spain: how? (3)
(1) The Rocco Code of 1930-1:
- The commission formulating it had initially planned to include an article criminalising homosexual acts between men
- But ultimately decided not to bc fears observers might think homosexuality is on the rise in Italy
(2) 1926-43: the Italian police imprisoned several thousand men for homosexuality in penal colonies/local jails
- Not formal criminalisation
- Policemen kept a close watch on spaces homosexuals gathered and made decisions driven largely by their own prejudices
(3) Clear to those within/outside of Italy that homosexuals are being persecuted
- 1933 a Fre politician made a comment endorsing both Hitler/Mussolini’s ‘radical cleansing’ of the ‘inverts’
65
Denmark homosexuality (5) - male vs female
- 1933 Denmark moved to decriminalise homosexuality - govt bill of 1912 decriminalising same-sex acts and beastiality comes into full effect
- Delay/less attention/recognition given to female homosexuality than male homosexuality
- 1st novel alluding to male homosexual love 1910 vs 1941 first lesiban novel
- Delay in democratic regimes too suggests greater preoccupation with male homosexuality under authoritarian regimes was not just down to obsession with masculine ideals, but probably also simply misogyny
- Women less worthy of respect and thus their homosexual relations taken less seriously/less of a concern (less persecution but possibly more existential crises…)
66
Contraception in France (Interwar) Third Republic
- 1920: criminalised sale of contraception/”propaganda” for it and made abortion an imprisonable offence (6 months minimum)
- Post-WWI - worries about further depopulation
67
Contraception and abortion in Vichy France (2)
- Sept 1942 provisions - fears about national decline/invasion from powerful Germany encouraged pronatalist policies
- Abortion becomes a crime vs the state - could be tried before the Tribunal d’État and incur death penalty
68
Contraception in postwar France (6)
- The pill initially only available by prescription to “regulate menstruation”
- French Movement for Family Planning est 1956 by 1966 200 centres across Fr promoting contraception incl pill
- Openly flouting 1920 law vs promoting contraception
- Clear contradiction bw practice/legislation prompted de Gaullist deputy Lucien Neuwirth to propose contraception decriminalisation
- 1967 contraception decriminalised in France
Politicans hoped would reduce no of illegal abortions
- Uptake slow- only 6% of Fr women had used pill in 1970 up to 25% in 1976
69
Abortion in postwar France (5)
- Abortion legalised in 1974 and more permanently in 1979
- Women are important in putting pressure for this change
- April 1971: 100s signed public declaration known as the ‘Manifesto of the 343’ confessing to having had an illegal abortion and demanding its legalisation - filmmakers, writers, actresses, singers, philosophers e.g. SDB and Catherine Deneuve
- Abortion single biggest mobilising issue for the Movement for the Liberation of Women
- French-Tunisian lawyer Gisèle Halimi - ‘Bobigny trial’ - helped shift piblic consciousness toward sympathy to idea of decriminalisation - defence of mother of school girl raped by classmate whose abortion denounced to authorities by rapist
70
Criminalisation of contraception and abortion in Fascist Italy (4)
- 1926: sale of contraceptives criminalised
- The Penal Code of 1931 had a section called ‘Crimes against the wholeness and health of the race’
- Articles 545/551/555: detailed heavy jail penalties for procuring/performing abortions
(2-5years)
- Article 553: forbade the advertisement/sale/distribution of contraceptives
71
Impact on women in Fascist Italy of contraceptive and abortion policies
Increased female vulnerability/dependence on men & women lost ability to control their reproductive life choices
72
How, counterintuitively, was the effort to encourage procreation and regulate/record/report births/whether abortions were happening was in some ways modernising in Fascist Italy? (2)
- Mussolini’s gov sought upgrade midwives’ skills/services
- Also encouraged midwives to report ‘miscarriages’ & police used regional/local variations in birthrates to try to ascertain whether high rate of abortions in any area
73
How do we know women in Fascist Italy still had abortions despite them being illegal? (2)
- There was concern about women performing unsafe abortion on themselves/from others
- 1936: a report discussed an inquiry that showed that of 50 women who had had abortions, only 10 not permanent damage to reproductive organs
74
Post-Mussolini contraception - example of hangover from previous age and coercive using gender stereotypes vs (3)
- 1964: pill on sale in Italy, but only for treating menstrual disorders
- By 1969: Italian Ministry of Health estimated that 10% of Italian women were using oral contraceptives
- Anxiety from some men about contraception increasing the likelihood of their wives engaging in an extra-marital affair meant that some pill marketing drew upon idea that contraception would render wives less scared of pregnancy during sex with their husbands, thus more sexually satisfied by them and less likely to seek an extra-marital affair
75
Post- Mussolini - example of tension bw law and practice - who is pushing who (contraceptives) (4)
- 1971: promotion of contraceptives by doctors became legal
- good example of practical usage clearly not in-keeping with outdated laws
- law risked becoming a farce unless changed
- 1976: the Ministry of Health in Italy finally authorised pharmacies to carry contraceptives
76
Post-Mussolini example of countries developing in competition/cooperation - contraceptives
Those pushing decriminalisation of contraception used the example of/comparison with progressive UK/Netherlands, arguing Italy ‘embarrassingly backward’ in this matter
77
Post-Mussolini abortion - who is pushing who/tension bw law and practice (2)
- 1978: abortion decriminalised
| - Self-denunciation campaigns important role
78
Nordic countries - seemingly progressive but for alternative reasons w regards to abortion legalisation - in reality why?
By 1940s had essentially legalised abortion but connected with eugenics not for sake of female sexual-determination
79
Evidence to support Nordic countries legalising abortion connected with eugenics not for female sexual-determination (Sweden) (4)
- Sweden 1934 law legalised “voluntary” sterilization of mental patients
- Technically “voluntary” but sterilisations frequently not chosen
- Support from both Social Democratic govt/Lutheran Church
- 1934-75: 62k people sterilised - more than any other European state apart from Nazi Germany
80
Evidence to support Nordic countries legalising abortion connected with eugenics not for female sexual-determination (Denmark) (6)
- Denmark 1st sterilisation law 1929 included world’s 1st castration law
- Over next 40 years - c. 1k men castrated
- Only opposition from popular conservative clergyman within parliament who argued eugenic science not developed fully enough yet to be sure correct decisions being made
- Targeted mentally handicapped
- 1929-34 90% of those sterilised had been deemed mentally handicapped
- from 1934 mentally handicapped people could be sterilised without their consent
81
Switzerland sterilisation/eugenics - means abortions not progressive evidence (3)
- Switzerland sterilizations often ocurred in conjunction with abortions
- Ethical resistance from Catholic conservatives about putting eugenic notions into law meant medical experts took things into their own hands
- Medics/psychiatrists would refuse to permit an abortion/grant a marriage licence unless a woman first consented to ‘voluntary’ sterilisation
82
What counted as signs of "mental deficiency" in nordic countries and Switzerland?
Signs of ‘mental deficiency’ could encompass a range of people/traits, including alcoholism/social conspicuousness
83
Hitler's Germany - traditional gender roles - but also backfired - supporting Frevert's arguments (5)
- Importance of family unit 1934 Nuremberg speech “smaller world” “big world” dependent on
- Natural occupation of women kinder, kirche und kuche - 1934 Nuremberg discomfort at women pressing “into the world of the man”
- Women in positions of responsibility sacked until faced a shortage of workers in 1937
- Nazis forced to change clause in marriage loans scheme to allow women w loans to take up a paid job
- by 1939 more women in employment than 1933 - byproduct of other aims
84
WG traditional Gender roles - coercive state (3)
- Until 1977 housework legally defined as wife/mother’s job and marital status considered a feature of bourgeois lifestyle/something to which aspire
- Equal Rights Law 1958 didn’t relinquish father’s prerogative in disputes over upbringing of children or his legal status as representative of family
- Federal Constitutional Court intervened in 1959 and declared privileges unconstitutional but concept of “housewife’s mariage” unaffected by changes/idea of “natural functional division” bw sexes still unchallenged
85
EG on paper helping women?
Promoted paid labour for married/unmarried women
86
EG Divorce and single parenthood - contradictory
- Divorce and single parenthood lost their social stigma
- increase in divorce from 15% (1956) to 40% in 1982 but women’s low wages/male unwillingness to share in domestic duties kept traditional gender roles in place at home
87
EG Babyjahr law - reinforcing gender conventions unwittingly?
The Babyjahr guaranteed year of maternity leave tended to solidify assumptions about women’s sole responsibility for childcare
88
Vichy France - Sept 1942 provisions - reasserting traditional gender conventions - evidence of countries developing in competition/cooperation with each other
- Sept 1942 provisions - fears about national decline/invasion from powerful Germany encouraged pronatalist policies
- Confirmed man’s position as head of family, w power to make most important decisions regarding family’s future
- remained in force until July 1965 reforms
89
Post-Vichy France - reassertion and continuation of traditional gender roles in immediate pw period
- Husband not formally deposed as head of family until 1970
- Women legally classed as minors well into 1960s - need paternal/husband’s consent to open a bank account/work outside the home
- Women payed much less than men and encouraged into being housewives as more favourable
- Advertising directed at women - women consumer citizens making choices for household - household appliances need upkeep - higher standards for what home should be like - more work for women
- Men expected to be breadwinner - earn enough to sustain family and buy all new consumer goods
90
How did Mussolini and Fascist Italy use masculinity? (4)
- Masculinity cast as having been undermined by WWI/injustices of capitalist economies/women’s increased sexual/emotional/economic independence
- Mussolini promised to restore strong brand of masculinity - encouraged them to be dynamic/athletic/bellicose
- Drew upon//fostered anxieties that men had been emasculated by women’s increased freedoms
- Claimed it would provide remedies for male insecurity/restore masculine privilege
91
Contemporary evidence that suggests Italian people bought into Mussolini's rhetoric about needing to restore masculinity post-WWI?
1924: a contemporary writing in the journal Il Selvaggio
| ‘It is a question…of giving back to all classes of Italian society a sense of force, virility and wilfulness’
92
What incentives to get married did the fascist Italian regime provide as part of their demographic campaign? (2)
- a tax on unmarried men between 25-65 (both a lump sum/percentage of income)
- March 1937: marriage loans introduced, available to couples under 26, repayment was postponed if wife pregnant within 6months/cancelled after 4th child
93
Fascist state Italy, great emphasis placed on high fertility/promotion of big families evidence? (4)
- 1920s onwards: a demographic campaign pioneered in Italy
- 26 May 1927 - Mussolini’s Ascension Day speech:
- Set a target pop of at least 60 mil by 1950
- V explicit message to men that repeated impregnation of their wives was the best way a man could stave off modernity
94
How did the Italian Fascist state promote the ideal of motherhood/womanhood as being incompatible with the working world?
- Mussolini warned that women’s work distracted from procreation, recommending instead that families lose the additional income
95
How is it clear that economic reality still drove many women to work outside the home despite Mussolini and co presenting it as incompatible?
Journalist Umberto Notari: ‘man must decide. If he wants the woman to be fertile, in the Biblical sense and according to the commands of the Race and the Nation, he alone must assume, by himself, all the responsibilities of their common sustenance’
96
Why does Ballestrero argue the Fascist Italian state laid down conditions that made women undesirable as workers in particular sectors/enterprises (evidence to support this argument)?
2 laws passed in 1934:
- Extended compulsory maternity leave
- Fixed the right to have the job kept open from the 6th month of pregnancy to 6weeks after birth
- Guaranteed 2 feeding periods a day until child 1 year old
97
Why were women in Fascist Italy celebrated for being round/robust physically?
- Fed into the regime’s promotion as women first and foremost as mothers
- The Opera Nazionale Maternità e Infanzia (State Body for Care of Mothers and Children) warned against a preoccupation with the day’s fashion/thinness
98
Who/what did the celebration of women as mothers/housewives and discouragement from entering the public sphere/working outside of the home appeal to in Italy?
- This appealed to traditional Italian family values and spoke to pre-existing notions of men being a pater familias
- Offence was taken at new, modern, office-working women
- These ideals/prescription of this image = not necessarily at odds w women’s perspectives
- Often rural women themselves perceived fertility/large families as a sign of strength & proud to have more children than the ‘decadent’/’skinny’/’sterile’ professional women in urban areas who generally made a greater effort to restrict no. offspring
