Economic or Gender Concerns During the Interwar Period - Essay Example

Economic or Gender Concerns During the Interwar Period The interwar period was the period within the range of end of World WarI which ended in the year 1918 and the beginning of World War II which started in the year 1939. During this period of interwar, different societies addressed economic and gender concerns in different ways, whereby they would choose how to address these issues in accordance with their particular views on it. In order for some society to address the attitudes and perceptions that the majority of socialist’s men held of women during the interwar, socialist’s feminists pointed out that while most men endorsed pro-feminist principles, they nevertheless tended to see women in sexist term. For example, according to Alexandra Kollontai “once relations between the sexes cease to perform the economic and social function of the former family, they are no longer the concern of the workers collective. It is not the relationship between the sexes but the result –the child – that concerns the collective. The workers state recognizes its responsibilities to provide for maternity i.e. guarantee the well-being of the woman and the child, but it does not recognize the couple as a legal unit separate from the workers collective.” In some societies, there has been a more positive analysis of women’s economic status during the interwar period. Specifically that of young working class girls as a result of young women’s increasing economic significance as household breadwinners. It is estimated that young women constituted 45% of the female workforce. Continuity can be traced to their employment in the late 19th century and the early 1930s as well. Some societies made an objective of addressing their economy during the interwar period whereby they emphasized on leisure to help improve their economy status. They would change employment patterns and working hours so that they can facilitate the growth of leisure time. According to Joseph Starlin, “in our country, in the U.S.S.R the workers have long forgotten unemployment. Some three years ago we had about one and a half million unemployed. It is already two years now since unemployment has been completely abolished. Look at the capitalist countries; what horrors are taking place there as a result of unemployment!” According to Mustapha Kemal “Youth undoubtedly considers the republic a gift presented by your genius and decisiveness to Turkishness more valuable than life itself In its defense, no sacrifice is too great It will be jealously guarded against nothing to existence from the darkness into the light, at the call to follow the path of deliverance we are and shall eternally be, with laws written with our blood and our lives, the guardians of freedom and the future” In eugenicssociety, in the year 1921, there was an attempt to criminalize lesbianism. For the matrimonial causes, Act of 1923 made adultery the sole ground of divorce for either of the spouse.Additionally, further grounds were added in the year 1937 comprising of a wife’s right to divorce her husband for a case of rape. In this society of Eugenics, a person named Marie Stopes came up with a birth control clinic though contraception was controversial and its availability was highly confined to the middle and upper-class women. Throughout this period of interwar, abortion was never legalised although in the year 1929 there was passed a legislation that legalised abortion only if the mother’s life was in danger. The author Hassan al-Banna wrote that “this civilization is irreligion, and it has taken such a hold on the people in Europe that those who are in it appear to be half mad. They lack real physical strength or courage. They keep up their energy by intoxication. They can hardly be happy in solitude. Women, who should be the queens of households, wander in the streets, or they slave away in factories. For the sake of a pittance, half a million women in England are laboring under trying circumstances in factories or similar institutions.” As per Nazi society ideology, it advocated excluding women from political involvement and confining them to the spheres of children, kitchen and church. Although many women in this national society highly supported this regime they later came up with their hierarchies. Hitler’s opinion on the case regarding women in Nazi Germany was that as other eras of German history faced the growth and liberation of the female mind, the national socialist goal was mostly singular whereby they were wished for them to produce a child. Theorists and politicians in Nazi blamed Germany’s economy failures to political causes like the influence of Marxism on the workforce. In order to safeguard the German people and currency from volatile market forces, the Nazis took a step of promising social policies like a national labour service , guaranteed pensions , state-provided health care , and an agrarian settlement project. Nazi society made a choice of gaining the support of workers whereby the declared May Day, which is a day celebrated by organised labour where they would be paid a holiday. They would also hold celebrations on first may with an aim of honouring German workers. Hitler of German also addressed the issue of the economy during that period of interwar, whereby he had believed that private ownership was of great significant as it encouraged creative competition and technical innovation. The private property rights were in a condition that was upon the economic mode of use. If this private property right happened not to improve Nazi economic goal, free competition and self-regulating markets would diminish ((M.A. and Ph.D.)). WORKS CITED M.A., John J. Ray and Ph.D.). Hitler was a Socialist. 2013. retrieved from http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/id9.html Read More