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ABSTRACT
This article contributes to literature discussing the reemergence of eugenics in post-World War II reproductive and population political contexts by comparing Austrian and Hungarian publications on sex education and family planning between the 1950s and the 1980s. It presents neo-Malthusian ‘population preservation’ in Austria and anti-Malthusian pronatalism in Hungary as affected by and negotiated through the Cold War divide in global population politics. One of the main arguments of the paper is that despite being on two different sides of the Iron Curtain, discourses and policies around sex education and family planning in Austria and Hungary shared remarkable similarities: Echoing sex education discourses of the first half of the 20th century, professionals East and West insisted on the connection between sex, marriage and procreation. Furthermore, the eugenic concepts of ‘quality’ and ‘healthy’ birth in discourses around family planning characterized postwar reproductive politics in both countries. Professionals called for and ensuing policies in the 1970s and 1980s supported an increase in fertility among better educated and financially better-to-do women, while immigrant families in Austria and Romani families in Hungary were targeted by antinatalist discourses and practices. The last part of the paper presents differences in the gendered content of the two countries’ sex education material. These can be partly explained by the different degree of influence of the Catholic Church in Austria and Hungary and the differences in communist and feminist ideologies that shaped discussions around women’s equality.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Agata Ignaciuk and Gábor Szegedi for commenting on the paper that formed the basis of this article at the European Social Science History Conference 2018 in Belfast. I also wish to thank Dorottya Szikra and the two anonymous reviewers of the History of the Family for their time and helpful recommendations. I am grateful for support by the International Visegrad Fund and the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at Közép-Európai Egyetem (KEE). The research to this article was partially sponsored by KEE. The theses explained herein are representing the own ideas of the author, but not necessarily reflect the opinion of KEE.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In the late 18th century, English economist Thomas Malthus, argued for the regulation of population growth as an answer to the problem he had posited about the relationship between population size and food supplies. He warned that food production that was disproportionate with the high rate of demographic growth would not be sufficient to sustain the human population. His ideas inspired ‘neo-Malthusians’ in the early 20th century to argue for a planned regulation of birth and death.
2. The IPPF was founded by American birth control activist Margaret Sanger and the president of the Family Planning Association of India at the Third International Conference on Planned Parenthood in India in 1952. Sanger’s activism in the United States between the 1910s and the 1940s was based on both feminist thought and eugenics.
3. Decree 1040/1973 (X.18.) of the Council of Ministers on Population Political Tasks.
4. Sexualerziehung in den Schulen, Erlass vom 24.11.1970, cited by Weiss (Citation1974, pp. 106–111). This law was based on the West-German model from 1968.
5. The Vienna Catholic Academy was founded by the Archbishop of Vienna, Theodor Innitzer, in 1945 for the training of the laity. The academy that existed under this name until 2017 worked as a research and training institute for the cultivation of the catholic worldview. Besides a yearbook, an own journal called ‘Mitteilungen der Wiener Katholischen Akademie’ and the research publication series ‘Austria Sacra’ it financed a great number of publications on a variety of themes in the humanities and social sciences, including sexual education.
6. The book was translated into German in 1926 already as Die volkommene Ehe.
7. The society that is still active today has been called Austrian Society for Family Planning [Österreichische Gesellschaft für Familienplanung] since 1970. Hugo Husslein (1908–1985) graduated at the Medical Faculty of Vienna University in 1933. He received postgraduate training in Vienna and Prague and habilitated in 1948. Between 1956 and 1964 he was head of the Ignaz Semmelweis Gynecological Clinic in Vienna, and from 1964 until his retirement of the Second University Gynecological Clinic in Vienna. Under his direction prenatal care was reformed and a pass for pregnant women was introduced.
8. The costs of abortions were to be covered by women undergoing an abortion. The cervical cap was called pessary at the time, and was a barrier contraceptive that blocked sperms from entering the uterus.
9. The Austrian Society for the Family and Child was member of the International Association for Maternal and Neonatal Health (IAMANEH). Based in Geneva, the IAMANEH is a still active international non-profit organization and a global actor in the field of fighting against maternal and infant mortality.