Women and the Welfare State since 1945: Historical Trends

1. Women and the Welfare State since 1945: Historical Trends (adapted from Karen Hagemann, UNC)

2. Three Main Questions • Which role did the family play for the re-construction of West European post-war societies? • Why did the model of the male-bread-winner family become so influential in European post-war societies, politics and culture? • How did the situation of women and gender relations change after World War II in West Europe?

3. Contents Introduction • The Historical Background • Women and Men in Post-war Western Europe • The Role of the Family in Post-war Reconstruction • Paradoxes of the Post-War Gender Order

4. 1. The Historical Background • The Trauma of War and Post-War Disorder • With the end of the World War II in May 1945 the struggle was not over. The Trauma of the war and the Holocaust overshadowed Post-war Europe, which had to deal with an unseen number of casualties: • 11 mil. people of different nationalities were murderedin prisons, concentration and extermination camps. • 32 mil. soldiers from all countries involved died. • 35 mil. disabled veterans survived the war. • 18mil. soldiers were taken prisoner. • Countless civilians died, many more than soldiers. • This trauma affected all areas of postwar Europe for a long time, at least until the 1960s

5. 1. The Historical Background Far more civilians than soldiers died during World War II.

6. 1. The Historical Background War Destruction: Europe in Ruins At the end of Word War II, millions of Europeans were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and much of the European industrial infrastructure was destroyed. The Soviet Union had been most heavily affected, with 30% of its economy shattered. All European countries ended the war economically exhausted by the war effort.

7. 1. The Historical Background The Housing Crisis A combination of war destruction, especially air warfare that had targeted cities and civilians, and decreased homebuilding during the Depression and World War II created the worst housing shortage in modern European history after 1945. In Britain alone 3 mil. houses needed to be built. In Central and Eastern Europe the housing crisis was even worse. It took years to solve this problem.

8. 1. The Historical Background The Black Market Economy The Shortage of Fuel and Food in the First Postwar Year In addition to the dramatic housing crisis, people were troubled by the shortage of burning material and the continuation of the rationing of food in most postwar countries. Many goods were only available on the black market. A subsistence economy in the household was still needed and mainlythetaskofwomen. Berlin-Blockade from June 1948 - May 1949

9. 1. The Historical Background The Creation of the Welfare State • Reasons for an active government role in creating a Welfare State include: • Sacrifices of “ordinary people” for the nation – the nation owed them a debt that the government should repay • Huge devastation that only government intervention could rebuild • Desperation of poverty and the threat of Communism growing internally required government intervention to repair and deter • There was a unique moment of national unity

10. 1. The Historical Background What is the Welfare State? • Government Economic Assistance • Pensions • Sickness pay • Unemployment compensation • Maternity leave pay • Disability pay • Child allowances • Social assistance • Government Funded Goods and Services (provided free or subsidized) • Education • Health care • Day care • Elderly care • Housing

11. 1. The Historical Background • Welfare State Regime Types: • (1) Social Democratic = Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) • (2) Liberal = Anglo-American countries • (3) Christian Democratic = Continental countries (e.g. Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg)

12. 2. Why did the model of the male-bread-winner family become so influential in European post-war societies, politics and culture?

13. 2. Women and Men in Post-war Europe “Rubble Women” and the Demobilization of Female Labor After WWII female work was at first still needed. In particular in Germany, where so many soldiers ended in POWs camps after the war, female work played and important role in the reconstruction of the cities during the first postwar. They were called “Rubble Women”. But the more veterans came home, the less most European governments needed female labor. Part of their demobilization policy was to send women home to make place for returning soldiers. To support this policy, many child care facilities that had opened during WW II were closed after the war.

14. 2. Women and Men in Post-war Europe American Care Packages helped Feed European Families Because millions of Europeans were after World War II without food, 22 US charity organizations founded the private support organizations CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) in November 1945, to coordinate their help for Europe. The first CARE packages reached Europe in August 1946. Most of them were packed by female US-citizens who supported relatives in Europe. Nearly 10 million CARE packages reached between 1945 and 1960 the Western European statesand helped women feed their families. Top: Content of a care package, 1948. Bottom: Distribution of care packages in 1954.

15. 2. Women and Men in Post-war Europe Returning Men, Waiting Women and their “Forced Emancipation” The men, who came back from war, were changed. The experience of the horrors of war and POWs camps, as well as psychological and physical disabilities had left their mark. In addition, the soldiers of the Axis Powers had to come in term with the “shame” of defeat. Most women had changed too; the war years had lead to their “forced emancipation”: a new independence and strength that was necessary to survive during war and post-war times. This created tensions in the gender relations, many men had severe problems to appreciate their changed fiancés and wives. Bottom: Waiting women and homecoming soldiers, 1948.

16. 3. How did the situation of women and gender relations change after World War II in West Europe?

17. 3. The Role of the Family in Post-war Reconstruction The Re-Gendering of Postwar Societies There is much evidence that the process of the “re-gendering” of postwar- societies was pursued intensively by all West European governments after World War II from the right to the left, supported by other institutions like the churches and social organizations like the trade unions. They all saw in the family a safeguard of social and political stability. Election posters by the West German conservative Christian-Democratic Party (CDU) and the British Labor Party from the 1950s.

18. 3. The Role of the Family in Post-war Reconstruction The Legal Safeguarding of Male Dominance in the Family • Despite constitutional equality, Civil Laws (France and Germany) or Family Laws (Britain) secured the male dominance in the family from the 1960s to 1980s. • They guaranteed the role of the man as the head of the household and continued to discriminate against unmarried mothers and their children. Furthermore, in most countries women were only allowed to work outside the home when the husband agreed. • French women, for example, did not get control over their own property until 1965 and equal parental rights over their own children until 1970. • West German women had no equal parental rights until 1958 and did not get full civil equality to their husbands in the marital relationship until 1977. • In addition, Penal Codes did not allow women to exercise control over their own body. They still criminalized birth control and abortion. • Until the 1970s women’s primary role in a marriage was according to law that of a mother and housewife.

19. 3. The Role of the Family in Post-war Reconstruction The Economic Miracle of Postwar Europe and the Economic Recovery of Families Map of Cold-War Europe with countries that received Marshall Plan aid (green). The blue columns show the relative amount of total aid per nation. The Economic Miracle in many Western European countries in the 1950s and early 1960s was the result of a successful post-war reconstruction fostered by the AmericanMarshal Plan (1948-1952), which supported post-war Europe economically. This helped also with the economic recovery of families.

20. 3. The Role of the Family in Post-war Reconstruction The Increasing Influence of the Ideal of the Male Breadwinner Family in Every Day Life The economic boom allowed more families than ever before to live according to the model of the male breadwinner family. For the first time even many working class women could stay at home after they became mothers. For them the ideal of the “male breadwinner family” was an attractive idea, which allowed them to reduce their “double burden”.

21. 3. The Role of the Family in Post-war Reconstruction The Rise of the Consumer Society and the Ideal of Women as Housewives and Mothers • The Economic Miracle of the 1950s and 1960s made new larger consumer goods like electric household technology, cars, and TVs available for an increasing number of working class households. • The adsfor consumer goods and illustrations in magazines intensively propagated the ideal of women as modern housewives and mothers.

22. 3. The Role of the Family in Post-war Reconstruction The “Golden Age of Marriage” and the Post-war Baby Boom • The end of World War II and the Economic Miracle brought a slightincrease of marriage rates (especially in the first post-war years)and a baby boomin most Western European countries, which reached its height the late 1950s to mid 1960s. • Only in France, the birth rate declined soon after the war. • In the other countries this process started in the mid-1960s. • A dramatic decline of the infant mortality rate.

23. 4. Paradoxes of the Post-War Gender Order The Paradox of the Economic Miracle and Consumerism The economic miracle made women to consumers, created new desires and increased the demand for more female labor. As a result, more and more married women, and even mothers, started to take part-time paid work in the growing service sector, modern industries, and administrations since the mid/late 1950s Part-time work increasingly became the solution per se to combine a family and work for married women and especially mothers and was generally accepted. The model of the “male-breadwinner family” develop into its modernized version the “male-breadwinner/female part-time-earner-housewife” family

24. 4. Paradoxes of the Post-War Gender Order Finally Female Suffrage for most Women in Eastern and Western Europe • In the years following the Second World War women finally gained the right to vote in several more European countries: • France 1944 • Italy 1945 • Yugoslavia 1946 • Greece 1952 • The only countries that rejected this right to women were the authoritarian/fascist regimes Portugal(until its liberation in 1976) and Spain(until its liberation in 1978) and Switzerland(until 1971). A British and French poster for the General Election of July 1945 in Britain

25. 4. Paradoxes of the Post-War Gender Order Equal Political Rights – But no Political Equality • However, the female representation in European parliaments was low: • France 6.5 % in 1946 • West Germany 7 % in 1949 • Britain 5% in 1951 • These low percentages did not increase until the 1970s and 1980s. • The gendered division of labor in the parliaments was similar to the Interwar period: Women were responsible for all issues related to women, family and children, social welfare and education. Women during the Labor Day Demonstration in Berlin, 1 May 1946. Their banner demanded“Full Equality for Women”

26. The Future of the Welfare State • Problems include: • Fertility dropping therefore how to fund future pensions? • The effects of the Debt Crisis following the Great Recession and government austerity and cutting back of funding of the Welfare State • The problem of Immigration - who qualifies as a citizen to be allowed access to the Welfare State?

27. The Future of the Welfare State • Women and the future of the Welfare State: • Women are now supporting/defending an active Welfare State as they seek to reduce the effects of cutbacks • Increased _______________________________________________responses means an increased role for the “family” which in essence means more role for the women at home, therefore _________________ the hard-won ___________ of women _______________________________________ • Women are now the ________________________of the modern Welfare State – a huge ___________ from their view of it after ______________