Abstract
If the fields of history and anthropology offered examples of strong and independent mothers, then feminists could hope that the maternal dilemma was not a permanent aspect of the female condition, but might be someday be resolved. The first step toward raising the status of mothers was to change the laws that kept them in subjection. At the turn of the twentieth century the legal status of wives and mothers was debated not only in legislatures, courtrooms, and feminist publications, but also in literary works which presented two pictures of the feminist mother-heroine, the triumphant and the tragic. In the widely read Dutch novel, Hilda van Suylenburg, published in 1898, the eponymous heroine completed her legal studies, opened a feminist law practice, married her soul mate, and happily gave birth to their daughter, Jeanne. “Oh, Maarten,” she exclaimed to her husband in the novel’s closing scene, “it is no wonder that women are crazy about these little cherubs … maybe the emancipation of woman means the awakening of women to real spiritual motherhood.” To which he dutifully replied, “Emancipation is a blessing, because it has helped to make my Hilda what she is.”’ No such happy ending was in store for Herminia Grant, the heroine of the notorious novel The Woman who Did (1895), by the British author Grant Allen. Though she wished to become a mother, Herminia refused to marry her lover, Alan. “My conscience won’t let me,” she insisted.
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Notes
C. Gekoop de Jong van Beek en Donk, Hilda van Suylenburg (Amsterdam: Scheitema and Holkema, 1898), 454–455. For many more examples of the motherhood issue in literature
see Jean Elisabeth Pedersen, Legislating the French Family: Feminism, Theater, and Republican Politics, 1870–1920 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003).
Grant Allen, The Woman Who Did (London and Boston, MA: John Lane and Roberts Bros., 1895), 41–42.
For example, Denise Riley, Am I that Name? Feminism and the Category of “Women” in History (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1988)
Joan Wallach Scott, Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man (Cambridge: Harvard, 1996).
See the argument of Gisela Bock, Frauen in der europäischen Geschichte vom Mittelalter his zur Gegenwart (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2000), 190–200.
Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, “The Custody and Guardianship of Children,” The Englishwoman’s Review 134 (November 15, 1881): 491–503 (quotation 493).
Nelly Roussel, “Die Lage der Mutter in den verschiedenen Ländern: Frankreich,” in Adele Schreiber, ed., Mutterschaft: Ein Sammelwerk für die Probleme des Weibes als Mutter (Munich: Albert Langen Verlag, 1911), 487–493.
See e.g., Elinor A. Accampo, Rachel G. Fuchs, and Mary Lynn Stewart, Gender and the Politics of Social Reform in France, 1870–1914 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).
See Gisela Bock and Pat Thane, eds., Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States, 1880s–1950s (London and New York: Routledge, 1991)
Seth Koven and Sonya Michel, eds., Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (New York and London: Routledge, 1993).
Odette Laguerre and Ida Sée, La Protection de l’enfance (Lyon: Société d’éducation et d’action féministes, 1906), 28–30.
For a discussion of this trend in the American context, see Viviana A. Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children (New York: Basic Books, 1985).
Edward Ross Dickinson, The Politics of German Child Welfare from the Empire to the Federal Republic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), 35–113
George K. Behlmer, Child Abuse and Moral Reform in England, 1870–1908 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1982), 193–224
Sylvia Schafer, Children in Moral Danger and the Problem of Government in Third Republic France (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), 25–140
Estella H. Hartshalt-Zeehandelaar, “Die Lage der Mutter in den verschiedenen Ländern: Holland,” in Schreiber, ed., Mutterschaft, 528–536; Mineke Bosch, “History and Historiography of First-Wave Feminism in the Netherlands, 1860–1922,” in Sylvia Paletschek and Bianka Pietrow-Ennker, eds., Women’s Emancipation Movements in the Nineteenth Century: A European Perspective (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), 53–76.
Laguerre and Sée, La Protection de l’enfance, 28. Cf. Jacques Donzelot, The Policing of Families, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Pantheon Books, 1979), 45–95.
Frieda Duensing, Verletzung der Fürsorgepflicht gegenüber Minderjährige: Ein Versuch zu ihrer strafgesetzlichen Behandlung (Munich: Schweitzer Verlag, 1903); Dickinson, The Politics of German Child Welfare 48–80.
Lily Braun, Die Frauen und die Politik (Berlin: Expedition der Buchhandlung Vorwärts, 1903), 29, 19.
Louis Frank, L’Éducation domestique des jeunes filles: ou la formation des mères (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1904), xviii.
cf. Donzelot, The Policing of Families, 20–21; and Robert van Kieken, “Social Theory and Child Welfare: Beyond Social Control,” Theory and Society (May 15, 1986): 401–429.
Nelly Roussel, “Pour les mères,” Almanach Féministe (1907).
Jeanne Oddo-Deflou, ed., Congrès national des droits civils et du suffrage des femmes (Paris: Mme. Vincent, 1908), 124–125.
Yvonne Kniebiehler, Les Pères aussi ont une histoire (Paris: Hachette, 1987), 176.
Ellen Ross, Love and Toil: Motherhood in Outcast London, 1870–1918 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 148–165.
On the founding of these movements, see Karen M. Offen, European Feminisms 1700–1950: A Political History (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000), 213–250
Ann Taylor Allen, Feminism and Motherhood in Germany, 1800–1914 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991).
Offen, European Feminisms, 213–250: Ulla Jansz, Denken over sekse in de eerste feministische golf (Amsterdam: Sara/Van Gennep, 1990), 87–89
Emilie Benz, “Zur Geschichte der Frauenbewegnung in der Schweiz,” in Die Frauenbewegung in der Schweiz: Sechs Vorträge veranstaltet durch die Pestalozzi-Gesellschaft (Zürich: Th. Schröter, 1902), 1–33.
Emilie Kempin, Die Stellung der Frau nach dem zur Zeit in Deutschlandgültigen Gestzes-Bestimmungen sowie nach dem Entwurf eines BGB für das deutsch Reich (Leipzig: M. Schafer, 1892).
Mary Lyndon Shanley, Feminism, Marriage and the Law in Victorian England, 1850–1895 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton, University Press, 1989), 141–155.
Ute Gerhard, Unerhört! Die Geschichte der deutschen Frauenbewegung (Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1990), 33.
Marie Stritt, Das bügerliche Gesetzbuch und die Frauenfrage: Vortraggehalten auf der Generalversammlung des BDF in Hamburg im October, 1898 (Frankenberg: L. Reisel, 1898).
See also Anna Schulz, “Frauenforderungen an die Gesetzgebung,” in Schreiber, ed., Mutterschaft, 672–867; Dieter Schwab, “Gleichberechtigung und Familienrecht im 20. Jahrhundert,” in Ute Gerhard, ed., Frauen in der Geschichte des Rechts von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1997), 790–827.
Olga von Beschwitz, Begleitschrift zu der Petition des BDF an den Reichstag betreffend das Familienrecht (Frankenberg: L. Reisel, 1899), 9.
Louis Frank, Essai sur la condition politique de la femme: Étude de sociologie et de léglislation (Paris: Arthur Rousseau, 1892), ix.
Marie Popelin, “L’Autorité parentale,” La Femme Chrétienne, July 5, 1898.
Valeria Benetti-Brunelli, La Donna nella legislazione italiana (Rome: Forzani e C. tipografi del Senato, 1908), 32.
Aldolfo Posada, Feminismo (Madrid: Fernando Fé, 1899), 162; on the significance of this book see Nash, “The Rise of the Women’s Movement.”
Mme Bérot-Berger, Congrès National (n.c., n.p., 1908), 126.
Marianne Weber, Ehefrau und Mutter in der Rechtsentwicklung: eine Einführung (Tübingen: Mohr, 1907), 457.
Bérot-Berger, Congrès National 128; Ghenia Avril de Saint-Croix, ed., Dixième congrès international des femmes: Oeuvres et institutions féminines, droits des femmes (Paris: V. Giard et E. Brière, 1914), 537; Beschwitz, Begleitschrift 9.
Jacques Bertillon, De la Dépopulation de la France et des remèdes a y apporter (Nancy: Berger-Levrault, 1896); cf. Donzelot, The Policing of Families 177.
Louise Ey, “Die Lage der Mutter in den verschiedenen Ländern: Portugal,” in Schreiber, ed., Mutterschaft, 561; João Gomes Esteves, A Liga Republicana das Mulheres Portuguesas: Uma organizafc’co politica e feminists (1909–1919) (Lisbon: Comisäo para a Igualdade e para os Direitos das Mulheres, 1991), 89–92.
Jill M. Bystydzienski, Women in Electoral Politics: Lessons from Norway (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995), 20.
Kari Melby, Anu Pylkkänen, Bente Rosenbeck, and Christina Carlsson Wetterberg, “The Project ,‘ The Nordic marriage model in a comparative perspective’ and its main results,” in Kari Melby, Anu Pylkkänen, Bente Rosenbeck, and Christina Carlsson Wetterberg, eds., The Nordic Model of Marriage and the Welfare State, Copenhagen (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2001), 13–34; Ulla Manns, “Den gifta frigörelse: Reflektioner kring röstratt och myndighet i svensk kvinnorörelse,” in Melby et al., eds., The Nordic Model, 131–146 (translated for me by Marja-Leena Hanninen).
Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine, “Grundsätze und Forderungen der Frauenbewegung” [ 1907 ], rpt. in Die bürgerliche Frauenbewegung in Deutschland, 1894–1933 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Rupprecht, 1981), 287.
Ellen Key, Über Liebe und Ehe, trans. Francis Maro (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1907), 398.
Nelly Roussel, untitled editorial, Les Annales de l’Arriège, July 19, 1895, BMD, Fonds Nelly Roussel, clippings file.
Mona Caird, The Morality ofMarriage and Other Essays on the Status and Destiny of Women (London: G. Redway, 1897), 31, 152.
Arthur Keller and Christoph J. Klumker, eds., Säuglingsfürsorge und Kinderschutz in den europäischen Staaten: Ein Handbuch Vol. 1 (Berlin: Verlag Julius Springer, 1912), 61, 752; Schreiber, “Uneheliche Mütter,” 259
Françoise Thébaud, Quand nos grand-mères donnaient la vie: La maternité en France dans l’entre-deux-guerres (Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 1986), 222.
Gustave Rivet, La Recherche de la paternité, Avec une préface par Alexandre Dumas fils (Paris: Maurice Dreyfous, 1890), xxxl.
La Mutualité Maternelle de Paris: Compte Rendu (Paris: Siège Social, 1925). This and other sources can be found in the Dossier Mutualités Maternelles, BMD. See also Alisa Klaus, Every Child a Lion: The Origins of Maternal and Infant Health Policy in the United States and France, 1890–1920 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993), 10–43
Anne Cova, Maternité et droits des femmes en France: XIX-XXe siècles (Paris: Anthropos, 1997), 29–71
Rachel G. Fuchs, “Legislation, Poverty, and Child Abandonment in Nineteenth-Century Paris,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18 (Summer 1987): 55–80.
Amalasuntha, Sexueele verhoudingen in onze moderne maatschappij (Rotterdam, n.p., 1895), in IIAV, Onderlinge Vrouwenbescherming.
Archival sources on the Bund für Mutterschutz can be found in BAK, Nachlass Adele Schreiber; SPC, Helene Stöcker Papers; STAR, Medizinalkollegium II, nr. 22: Bund für Mutterschutz; and BAL, rep. 77: RdI, Bund für Mutterschutz. See also Jansz, Denken over sekse 89; Richard J. Evans, The Feminist Movement in Germany, 1894–1933 (London: Sage Publications, 1976), 129; Christina Carlsson Wetterberg, “ ,‘ Equal or Different: That’s Not the Question’: Women’s Political Strategies in Historical Perspective,” trans.
Jennifer Gustafson, in Drude von der Fehr, Bente Rosenbeck, and Anna G. Jonasdottir, eds., Is there a Nordic Feminism? Nordic Feminist Thought on Culture and Society (London and Philadelphia: UCL Press, 1998), 21–43.
Joseph King, M.P., Filius Nullius (London: St. Catherine’s Press, 1913)
Ivy Pinchbeck and Margaret Hewitt, Children in English Society, From the Eighteenth Century to the Children Act 1948, Vol. 2 (London: Routledge, 1973), 582–610.
Ruth Brandon, The New Women and the Old Men: Love, Sex and the Woman Question (New York: Norton, 1990), 124–125
Lucy Bland, Banishing the Beast: Sexuality and the Early Feminists (New York: The New Press, 1995), 156–164.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, quoted in Elaine Showalter, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle (New York: Viking, 1990), 52.
Léonie Rouzade, Petit Catéchisme de Morale Laique et Socialiste (Meudon: en vente chez l’auteur, 1904); Roussel, “Pour les Mères,” and many other articles contained in BMD, Fonds Roussel.
Chambre des Députés, no. 2524, Session de 1897, Rapport au nom de la commission relative à la recherche de la paternité; No. 2011, Session extraordinaire de 1900, Proposition de loi relative a la recherche de la paternité, No. 2078, Session extraordinaire de 1900, “Rapport Rene Viviani”: No. 796, Session de 1911, “Rapport Maurice Viollette.” These and other documents are held in BMD, dossier Recherche de la Paternité. For background on these men and their ideas, see Karen Offen, “Depopulation, Nationalism, and Feminism in Fin-de-Siècle France,” American Historical Review 89 (June 1984): 648–676. For an excellent historical account of this debate see
Rachel G. Fuchs, “Seduction, Paternity, and the Law in Fin de Siècle France,” Journal of Modern History 72 (November 2000): 944–989.
Nelly Roussel, “Ce qu’il faut lire,” L’Action, January 22, 1906
see also Jo Burr Margadant, ed., Performing Femininity in Nineteenth-Century France (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000), 218–261; Pedersen, Legislating the French Family 166–170.
See Paul Strauss, “La Recherche de la Paternité,” Le Droit des Femmes, November, 1912.
Denise de Weerdt, En de vrouwen? Vrouw, vrouesenbeweging en feminisme en België, 1830–1960 (Gent: Masreelfonds, 1980), 78.
Nellie van Kol, quoted in: Selma Sevenhuijsen, De Orde van het vaderschap: Politieke debatten over ongehuwd moederschap, afttamming, en huyelijk in Nederland 1870–1900 (Amsterdam: Stichting Beheer IISG, 1987), 149.
On Drucker and her career, see Fia Dieteren, “De geestilijke eenzaamheid van een radicaal-féministe: Wilhelmina Druckers ontwikkeling tussen 1885 en 1898,” in Jeske Reys, Tineke van Loosbruk, Ulla Jansz, Maria Henneman, Annemarie de Wildt and Mirjam Elias, eds., De eerste feministische golf (Nijmegen: SUN, 1985), 79–100.
Wilhelmine Drucker quoted in Selma Sevenhuijsen, De Orde van het Vaderschap, 132; Sevenhuijsen, “Mothers as Citizens: Feminism, Evolutionary Theory and the Reform of Dutch Family Law 1870–1910,” in Carol Smart, ed., Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 166–186.
Wilhelmine Drucker, “Vader- en Moederschap V,” Evolutie, February 6, 1895.
Franca Pieroni Bortolotti, Alle Origin del movemento femminie in Italia, 1849–1892 (Torino: Giulio Einaudi, 1963), 235.
Gertrud Woker, “Schweiz,” in Schreiber, ed., Mutterschaft, 536–544; Susanna Woodtli, Gleichberechtigung: Der Kampf um die politischen Rechte der Frau in der Schweiz (Frauenfeld: Huber, 1975), 111–121.
Cf. Ute Gerhard, Debating Women’s Equality: Toward a Feminist Theory of Law from a European Perspective, trans. Allison Brown and Belinda Cooper (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001), 95–121.
Helene Stocker, Zehn Jahre Mutterschutz (Berlin: Oesterheld, 1915), 10.
Stocker, “Unsere erste Generalversammlung,” Mutterschutz (1907): 76–80; see also Allen, Feminism and Motherhood 173–188.
Helene Lange, “Die Stellung der Frauenbewegung zu Ehe und Familie,” in Die Frauenbewegung in ihren modernen Problemen (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 1907), 64–77 (quotation 73–74).
Harriet Anderson, Utopian Feminism: Women’s Movements in fin-de-siècle Vienna (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 70–71.
Wetterberg, “Equal or different,” 21–43. On Ellen Key’s international impact see Tuna Kinnunen, “Eine grosse Mutter und ihre Töchter: Ellen Key und die deutsche Frauenbewegung,” in Meike Sophia Baader, Juliane Jacobi, and Sabine Andresen, eds., Ellen Keys Reformpädagogische Vision: “Das Jahrhundert des Kindes” und seine Wirkung (Weinheim: Beltz Verlag, 2000), 64–80
and Tuna Kinnunen, “ ,‘ Eine der Unseren’ und ,‘ Königin im neuen Reiche der Frau’: Die Rezeption Ellen Keys in der Frauenbewegung des deutschen Kaiserreichs,” Ph.D. diss., Tampere University, 2000.
Mrs. Darré Jensen, “Illegitimate Children,” Report of the International Congress of Women (Toronto: G. Parker and Sons, 1909), 220–222 (quotation 221).
Katharine Anthony, Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1915), 143–204
Grace Abbott, The Child and the State, Vol. 2. (Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1938), 522–534 (partial text of law, 527–532).
Camilla Jellinek, Jahresbericht der Rechtschutzstelle für Frauen und Mädchen, Heidelberg E.v. für das Jahr 1906 (Heidelberg: n.p., 1906), 7.
Camilla Jellinek, “Das uneheliche Kind und seine Mutter in der modernen europäischen Gesetzgebung,” Monatsschrift für Kriminalpsychologie 10 (1913–14): 141–153 (quotation 153).
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Allen, A.T. (2005). From Patriarchy to Partnership: Feminism, Motherhood, and the Law in Western Europe, 1890–1914. In: Feminism and Motherhood in Western Europe, 1890–1970. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981431_3
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