Den kolde krig - en kønnet konflikt?
14.8.2005: 9.30–11.00.
Marie Cronqvist : Forsker ved Historiska Institutionen, Lund.
Nuclear Families in the Atomic Age
Cold War, Civil Defence and Gendered Responsibilities
The threat of atomic warfare was a significant element of Cold War culture, at times openly alarming, at times inaudibly looming in the background. The WW III threat was discernible not only to political leaders around the world; it also deeply affected the everyday lives of ordinary people in east and west. An important contributor in making the threat comprehensible was civil defence.
While earlier research has dealt with civil defence extensively from a mere propaganda perspective, this paper addresses the cultural aspects and the sense making of Cold War civil defence with certain emphasis on the construction of gender and family life. In the case of emergency evacuation, the gendered divisions of moral responsibilities in the threat of nuclear war suddenly become apparent. Thus, the key word for this study of "duck and cover" mentality is rhetoric, not propaganda. The task of civil defence rhetoric in Cold War everyday life was as much to draw attention to and explain the unfathomable threat as to encourage hopes of security.
My aim is to investigate the civil defence security metaphors and gender divisions of the Swedish folkhem, but comparisons with civil defence material in other countries such as Denmark and the USA will constitute an important framework within which similarities as well as specific national experiences in the western Cold War milieu will be visible.
Iben Vyff: Ph.d. studerende, Institut for historie og samfundsforhold, Roskilde
Kønnets betydning i danskernes møde med Sovjet og USA i 1950'erne - belyst gennem danske rejseskildringer
1950ernes Danmark var i høj grad præget af den kolde krig, men
perioden er også kendetegnet ved intense mentalitetsmæssige brydninger,
der blandt andet markerede overgangen fra mangelsamfund til forbrugersamfund,
fra landbrugsland til moderne by- og industrisamfund og for kvindernes vedkommende
en splittelse mellem familietradition og ligestilling. Med 1950ernes danske
rejseskildringer fra henholdsvis USA og Sovjetunionen som kildemateriale vil
jeg diskutere, hvordan kønnet, som en blandt flere tematikker, synes
at tydeliggøre et interessant spændingsforhold mellem periodens
helt overordnede problemstillinger, og hvordan kønnet som prisme reflekterer
den hverdagsmæssige tænknings reaktioner på koldkrigskonflikten.
Ligeledes vil jeg diskutere, hvilke forestillinger om dansk identitet eller
dansk selvforståelse, der kommer til udtryk i mødet med USA og
Sovjetunionen.
I mit bidrag til sessionen vil jeg overordnet præsentere forskelle og
ligheder i beskrivelserne de to lande imellem, og jeg vil blandt andet diskutere,
hvorfor kvinder generelt ikke får mere plads i rejseskildringerne, hvordan
de to køn karakteriseres, hvilke kontekster beskrivelserne indgår
i, hvordan forholdet er de to køn imellem og hvorfor moderniteten ses
som farefuld for den amerikanske kvinde og som frugtbar for den russiske kvinde.
The significance of gender in the encounter between the Danes and the Soviet Union and the United States of America, respectively, during the 1950's as seen in the light of Danish travel writings
During the 1950's, Denmark was very much affected by the Cold War, but the
period was also characterized by intense changes of mentality, marking the transition
from a poor society to a consumer society, from an agricultural to an urban,
industrial society, as well as, on the part of the women, the feeling of being
torn between upholding family traditions and wanting equal rights. Using Danish
travel writings of the 1950's as my source material, portraying travels in the
United States of America as well as the Soviet Union, I intend to discuss how
gender, one among several themes, illustrates the tensions between the general
issues of the period and the way that gender in the way of a prism reflects
the reactions of ordinary people to the conflicts of the Cold War. Furthermore,
I intend to discuss the impressions of Danish identity or self understanding
that surface due to the encounter with the United States and the Soviet Union.
In the course of my contribution to the session, I will line out similarities
and differences between the descriptions of the two Big Powers. Then I will
move on to discuss a range of issues, among these the fact that women are generally
ill represented in the travel journals, the ways that the two sexes are characterized,
the contexts of the descriptions, as well as the relations between the two sexes.
Why is it, for instance, that modernity is viewed as dangerous to the American
woman, while it is seen as fruitful to the Russian woman?
Irene Andersson, lektor i historia med didaktisk inriktning
Malmö högskola, lärarutbildningen
"Fredsälskande kvinnor" - ett hot under kalla kriget
Efter andra världskriget mobiliserade kvinnor för fred, både i civilförsvaret men också som aktiva fredsarbetare. Det sistnämnda blev problematiskt i den stegrande konflikten mellan öst och väst. Kvinnor som engagerade sig för fred sågs av sin omgivning antingen som lömska kryptokommunister eller som blåögda idealister. Kommunisterna betecknades visserligen som farligare än idealisterna, men dessa riskerade att snärjas i de "röda" kvinnornas garn. Särskilt om båda kategorierna var medlemmar i samma organisation som fallet var i Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund, SKV. Sedan 1930-talet bestod SKV av både liberala och socialdemokratiska kvinnor och många var nära involverade i Den kvinnliga Medborgarskolan vid Fogelstad. Under kriget förde förbundet en tynande tillvaro men mellan åren 1948 och 1952 växte organisationen från ett par lokalföreningar till över ett hundratal. SKV öppnade sig nämligen 1946 för kommunister och anslöt sig till Kvinnornas Demokratiska Världsförbund, KDV. Det socialdemokratiska partiet och det liberala folkpartiet förbjöd sina medlemmar så småningom att engagera sig i SKV. Många lämnade förbundet medan andra valde att stanna kvar och motiverade sitt val med att broar mellan öst och väst behövdes för fredens skull.
På SKV:s program stod först och främst kampen för fred, men också kvinnors lika rättigheter och barnens välfärd. Konkret kunde det handla om tvättstugor och skolluncher, men också namninsamlingar för fred, t ex Stockholmsappellen. Det var emellertid främst kampen för fred och närheten till kommunismen som gjorde att Säkerhetspolisen och Försvarsmakten oroades av att förbundet växte med sådan kraft. Arkivmaterial från de båda övervakningsmyndigheterna visar tydligt att förbundet sågs som en förtäckt kommunistisk organisation och att de "fredsälskande kvinnorna" framstod som ett hot. Under flera år kartlade man SKV och dess verksamhet noga. Mitt paper handlar om hur denna övervakning utfördes, hur myndigheterna uppfattade och konstruerade de "fredsälskade kvinnorna" men också om innehållet i det farliga fredsarbetet. Varför var dessa kvinnor farliga?
"Peaceloving Women - a Threat during the Cold War"
After the Second World War women mobilized for peace, both in the civil defence but also as active peaceworkers. To work for peace was not easy during the conflict between east and west. Women who were engaged for peace were seen as wily cryptokommunists or as blue-eyed idealists. The communists were characterized as more dangerous as the idealists, who on the other hand could risk to get trapped in the "red" womens net. Especially if both communists and idealists were members in the same organisation as was the case with the Swedish Women's Leftist Association, SKV (Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund). In the 1930s the members of SKV were liberal and socialdemocratic women and many of them were involved with the Civic School of Fogelstad. During the war the association lost a lot of members and but between 1948 and 1952 the number of local associations grew from a couple to over one hundred. In 1946 SKV opened up to communist women and decided to join the Women's International Democratic Frederation, WIDF. The Socialdemocratic party and the Liberal Party forbid their members a couple of years later to be a part of SKV. Many women left the association but others stayed and justified their membership by saying that there was a need for bridges between east and west.
To SKV the most important aim was to work for peace, but also women's rights and a better life for children. It could be working for laundry-rooms and school dinners. It was however the peacework and the closeness to the communists that made the Security police and the Military authorities worried about the fast extension of SKV. They kept a record over the organisation. The files show us today that the "peaceloving women" were seen as a threat and SKV as a communistic coverorganisation. My paper is about this registration, how it was conducted, how the authorities constructed the "peaceloving women" but also about the content of the dangerous peacework. Why were these women dangerous?