I'm turning this in tomorrow, for better or worse, hopefully better. I'm still working on it, and will probably be up all night, I need to close it and make sure its cohessive and addresses the issues. I know it is very last minute but I welcome anyone interested in making comments to feel free, I love input and new perspectives. Help is always welcome and greatly appreciated!!!
Please note that none of my footnotes are going to copy over and I prefer not to in order to avoid issues with plagarism later, I have however referenced all my sources, to the best of my knowlegde, adequately.
...
European women's history is a complex subject that has many avenues` that lead to varying theories and conclusions regarding its significance and effects on the overall history of the region. The varying social circumstance and events that occurred throughout the vastly diverse and broad area that was Europe makes it difficult if not impossible to define women's history even within a specific period.
The development of the first wave of the feminist movement occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The initial movement in Europe proved to be difficult for the varying cultures and nations to accept. The women's movement divided into two groups, one that aimed for emancipation based on equality of the two sexes while the other intended on gaining rights and freedoms for women based on the difference between the sexes. In the difference movement, the women had emphasized the importance of their (traditionally accepted) feminine role in society and its contributions. Women campaigned for a broader faculty in society and they utilized and emphasized 'the significance of their traditional and necessary roles' as the foundation for this demand. In this respect, women sought access to public spheres such as participating in the national political process, gaining economic rights, and obtaining recognition as men's "necessary partners."
The difference argument for women's rise in society was presented across Europe with ample success, though not without difficulty. This argument proclaimed that women's participation in social and political decision-making was crucial because of the difference between men and women. Family and the home were considered the rightful place of women and therefore their specialization meant women were best qualified to participate in decision-making regarding issues that affected these aspects of society.
Women's position in society was tied to their reproductive capacities, which in turn dictated their "naturally" prescribed roles. Therefore, women were tied to the home as wives and mothers, catering to their husbands and children, and supposed to possess a "naturally" maternal disposition. The women of the difference movement supported these suppositions of women's "innate" abilities and they pressed that their natural capacities qualified them as experts regarding the home and family.
In the home, women were charged with maintaining a "good home" to keep their husbands comfortable and happy, essentially providing a positive and supportive environment for men at home. Additionally, as mothers, women were charged with nurturing and educating the children in proper social and moral lessons. Therefore, women were natural, if not trained experts of moral and ethical values who served to support and influence the family. The difference movement pressed that by virtue of the female expertise, women's participation was necessary in all social, political, and religious decision-making. The argument essentially proclaimed that women were men's "necessary partners" and should therefore be partners in decision-making as well. This position had a significant impact on the feminist movement as it transcended most cultural and or nationalistic boundaries.
The feminist movement had spread internationally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Europe experienced periods of rapid, and often times, violent transitions that affected all social domains including political, economic, and domestic. These social changes allowed and often inspired women to become more active both publicly and privately and in this way, women began to gain autonomy and political influence. The first wave of the women's movement thus unfolded in a period of wide spread social disruption and consequently, they joined men in their political discourse and formed their own distinct feminist circles.
The various conflicts that were unfolding throughout the Western World allowed the women's movement to maintain strength. The political domain was saturated with controversial issues that effectively distracted from the development of a steady opposition of a well-organized and established countermovement to feminism. Therefore, women were able, with relative ease and freedom, to penetrate the public spheres of society and gain autonomy in their private spheres.
At times, women successfully achieved recognition, economic rights, and political influence. Other times the abrupt disruptions in the national social political institutions and merging international conflicts thwarted their efforts to solidify their gains. For example, in Britain, World War I caused the suffragettes to curb their efforts and instead, they provided services to support the nations war efforts and filled vacant positions that resulted from the absent men who had left for service. Italy's involvement in the war, alternatively, propelled women to greater social and economic positions in the public sphere that raised women's general spirits regarding emancipation. In Germany, the colonizing efforts by the nation at times provided avenues for enhanced social-political participation of women.
The proponents for women's social progression because of their difference to men had different motives for turning to this argument. Some activist believed in its relevance and validity from the start of their movement while other women turned to this argument as a moderate alternative to their failed attempts to promote emancipation because of equality, finding that it was too radical for some to accept which instead created more animosity towards the women's movement.
The 19th Century: Women's Social-Political Culture
The 19th and early 20th centuries represent a period of mass political and economic reorganization for the European Nations and the United States. Certain events affected the political culture of these areas. The Enlightenment supported the development of science, reason, and egalitarian political thought; while Romanticism formed as countermovement that, with further analysis appears to have merged with the Enlightenment and influenced the development of Nationalism, which followed soon after. The Industrial Revolution greatly affected the economies of the nations and their relations with one another. Additionally, wars and various crises in the region divided Europe and created an uneasy atmosphere in the realm of international politics while strengthening nationalistic ideals.
The influence of previous social political movements coupled with the effects of the Industrial Revolution and its effect on international relations created a unique political culture. The spread of literature and the greater regard for education also helped to create a more politically active middle-class.
Following the Age of the Enlightenment theories regarding the relationship between the governed and the governing institutions emerged. There was a new focus on progress and science probably influenced by the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and new scientific developments such as Darwin's Evolution. The development of nationalist and ultra-nationalist ideals was brought about, in part, by the various conflicts that brewed throughout Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.
These issues, coupled with the nature of international relations and the global economy fostered a race for progress that spilled over into a colonization effort. The aforementioned issues affected the nature of evolving political theories and the distinct political cultures of varying European Nations; some of which had newly formed and/or reformed. The conditions of the colonization efforts were brought about through the need to develop and solidify the nation as a strong sovereign entity and the theories of race that were rationalized by the science of that era.
The development of nationalism, science, and philosophical and political social theories influenced, and likely, inspired a strong feminist movement throughout Europe and the United States. Motivated by a sense of political duty and national pride various political groups emerged and the women's movements were able to attach themselves to these campaigns. Some women emphasized the significance of their gender in the society and culture of the nation.
Germany and Italy had recently become united in the late nineteenth century and were in the process of creating their political culture as nation-states. Similarly, France had developed a strong sense of national pride following the French Revolution. The three nations were in the process of building, or in the case of France, re-building following their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, a national government.
The history of the region and recent international developments contributed to the culture of feminism in Europe and the United States. Egalitarian beliefs inspired women to join men in the political arena and nationalistic attitudes gave them a sense of righteousness in their pursuits, as it would also be for the greater good of the nation. At this point women throughout Europe and the United States involved in feminist or other political movements resolved to develop their arguments for equal or partnered participation in government. Women therefore began to establish the identity and roles of their gender in society.
German Women for Empire: Women's Stake in Colonialism
During the late nineteenth century, Germany, as well as the rest of Europe and the United States, was suffering from economic instability and decline. At the time, German men looking to improve their condition joined the colonization efforts. Similarly, women viewed colonialism as a new political arena that provided them the opportunity to improve their condition.
Women presented several arguments for their political activity and participation in the colonization effort. The arguments that best served these women were arguments that claimed their necessity was due to their specifically feminine nature. Women succeeded publicly when they agreed with men regarding their roles and made it understood that it was because of these specifically female roles that they were needed.
Nursing and motherhood were two of the main ventures that took German women to the colonies. As nurses, women could work outside the home, gain financial independence, without losing respectability and status in society. As wives and mothers, women provided support for men, preserved-or protected German culture, and transferred that culture by bringing the family to the colonies.
Initially, both men and women occupied nursing positions however; it eventually became a distinctly feminine career. In nature, nursing was nurturing and therefore, women's demeanor was thought the best suited for it. Doctors supported this theory and added that women were also much more compliant than male nurses. Nursing became an accepted public space for women and was especially important to unmarried women since it provided them with an income. It had support from men and developed into a political space where women became organized, recruited members, raised funds, and developed an agenda that at times spilled into men's political spaces.
The influence of nationalistic ideals and the new developments in science, such as Darwin's theories of evolution and eugenics, proved useful to the women's movement. The promotion of pronatalist ideology and race purity became an acceptable political platform for feminist activism.
Women publicly asserted that their roles were vital to German society and these contributions could only be made by German women. One such contribution was the preservation and protection of the German race. The women protested that men in the colonies longed for the company of women and should not turn to African women; only German women should fill this void.
German women could help men solidify the empire by infusing the new lands with true German culture through the establishment of the family. Therefore, only German women should satisfy men's want for the companionship of women and, in this way, prevent the contamination of the race. Wildenthal quoted the wife of a German doctor in Samoa who stated, "And what would be better suited for permeating a new land with our nationality [Volkstum] than rooting the German family?" Women exploited the growing racial concerns and then popular nationalist ideology to create a highly esteemed, and highly political, feminine culture.
Nationalism and the conditions of colonial society aided the women's movement based on difference. The relationship between the women's movement and nationalistic ideology was however, very complex and volatile even. Nationalism potentially supported the removal of women from the public spheres of society as well and could send women back to the home as political activity could interfere with these duties. It was the woman's national duty to carry out the traditionally prescribed, yet vital roles as wives and mothers; and politics would potentially distract from this.
Frieda von Bülow a highly outspoken and independent woman also became conflicted by the implications of women's freedom and its relation to radical nationalistic ideals. Wildenthal notes, "The plots of her colonial novels suggest that radical nationalism was not only a struggle shared by men and women, but also a struggle between them." Bülow use of fictional works to explain her political beliefs and often times they reflected some of her personal circumstances. Bülow's heroines are often highly independent and resolute characters however, some of them inevitably bend to the will of men and succumb to their duties as wives and mothers.
According to Bülow, a woman should be assertive and defy her husband if he is impeding upon her motherly duties. One of her fictional characters foolishly obeyed her husband "not to breast-feed her baby in order to preserve her looks, and then deserts the newborn to accompany him on a trip (the baby dies in her absence)." Probably a result of her personal struggles with indecision regarding women's freedoms and failures in her personal relationships, Bülow resolves that nationalism is the most important political goal and women must obediently serve the nation and at times by default the male heads of household. Therefore, women's political goals and freedoms are only justified when they serve the greater good of the nation by helping women carry out their duties as wives and mothers.
Women emphasized German patriotism and naturally connected the nation's roots to the family, and in this way, German women were able to gain political voice in the colonization efforts. However, Wildenthal noted,
"Colonialist women did not want to repudiate the roles of marriage and motherhood to which the debate over race mixing had drawn attention. However, they did want to build on those roles in order to claim a larger social and, for the more feminist of them, political role for women. But essentialism about women's reproductive capacity always structured procolonial women's activism..."
The effects of the German women's efforts remained, however, indirect since governments and institutions continually redirected women away from political sphere and back to the home.
The resonance of nationalism in the period before WWI was so strong in political activism that many women would push aside feminism to comply with their nationalistic ideologies.
How Fascism Ruled Women: Women's Duties To The Nation & State Feminism The women's movement in fascist Italy seems imaginary since in its rhetoric, what was called a women's movement was apparently a campaign to do away with feminism and women's activism. In fact, in this way, women were able to occupy public space and be a part of the attempts to identify and solidify their roles in society. This was made possible by cooperating with the Fascist party and the Church, that were in fact entities that intended to limit women's roles and have them submit to patriarchal rule.
There was a mutual understanding between the Fascist party and the organizations of the women's movement, that each was a powerful political force. The women's organizations may not have presented a serious threat to the Fascist regime; yet, "the Fascist party acknowledged that, in some form or another, the modern state had to satisfy women's desire for social engagement." It was to the benefit of the Fascist party to absorb some of the women's organization and thereby further their political support. The women's organizations were threatened by the regime and "with the hope that fascism would enable their own charitable enterprises to survive and perhaps prosper," thereby maintaining a space in the public sphere, "they redefined the purposes of their networks with respect to the state..."
The Fascist regime was focused on increasing the population while some women's groups were focused on aiding "unwed mothers and abandoned infants." The two goals could become interchangeable and, in this way, some of the women's organizations were able to, for a period, continue to exist. In this way, the Fascist regime and the varying women's organization accommodated each other.
The women were able to bond and unite for causes that were appropriate to their "sex." The motives for their political involvement were altered to suit the state and maintain the patriarchal hierarchy as highlighted in De Grazia's comment regarding Olga Modigliani,
"Now when she spoke of Italian women's accomplishments in the field of social work... she presented service as a self-abnegating duty rather than as an empowering act. Service was to be performed with the same selfless zeal that Italian mothers allegedly displayed as they carried out household and family tasks; it was practiced not for purposes of professional fulfillment nor to render social justice, but to demonstrate Italian women's capacity to fulfill their assigned functions within the fascist state"
Women now occupied significant and public roles in society that were acknowledged and valued by their "Chief," however, they needed to address their motives delicately in order to still maintain the state's approval. Therefore, Italian women recreated feminism and separated themselves from the "the emancipationist legacy of the early-twentieth-century Italian women's movement." The Fascist Italian women's movement united women's traditional roles, state goals, and proud patriotic "womanhood"; and in this way, women's social status was uplifted. The women were subordinated under the new Latin Feminism and yet they were empowered by making it a unifying force for women as a source of pride and camaraderie.
(the following is a work in progress)
Married Love: Women, Marriage, Sexuality, & Individuality
[Personal Note: In the initial reading of this text, I found it almost too cooperative and mistakenly overlooked important aspects of the text that referred directly to women's emancipation. Possibly because I judged the constant insistence that marriage is an ideal goal for both men and women as an aim outside of feminism and considered it, in this respect, too traditional.]
The feminist movement called for a change in gender
