About woman

Fearing a general European war, the journal of the NLP’s Women’s Secretariat consistently admonished women to knit gloves and socks for Finnish and Norwegian soldiers. The Defense Department paid for the wool. Different patterns for Finland and Norway were published in the journal, and so many women responded that in the spring of 1940, it was impossible to provide enough Wool. The end of the Soviet-Finnish war in the spring of 1940 only brought scorn for the “so-called socialist state.” The Soviet Union had demonstrated that all socialist principles of people’s freedom and self-determination had been abandoned and thus had behaved exactly like the capitalist states. Well over twenty years of admiration disappeared in a very short time.

Fascist Italy was hardly mentioned, while outspoken abhorrence characterized attitudes toward Nazi Germany and Fascist Spain. Original Thesis writing service and overnight assistance online. Order thesis done by professional thesis writers! The “enslavement of women” was mentioned in every article on these regimes. German women were asked to consider if they had been strong enough in their defense of freedom. The barbaric conditions for German women were used to warn about what might happen in Norway if the NLP did not win the 1936 election, because only democratic nations would defend women’s rights. Spanish women, on the other hand, were seen as heroes, defending socialism and freedom against fascism. Nazi Germany was criticized for mobilizing women in the defense industries and pressing them to take over men’s jobs, while, understandably but a little ironically, when in 1938 Spanish women did the same thing, they were seen as playing an important role in a worthy cause. The main contribution to the socialist side in the Spanish Civil War was fund-raising for medical and sanitary aid and especially for building children’s homes. This activity continued until the outbreak of World War II.

In general, socialist women followed the predominant socialist attitudes to political developments in Europe. The Russian revolution was greeted as “a glimpse of light.” Admiration for the Soviet Union and abhorrence of the Nazi and fascist regimes was partly explained by the fate of women under the latter. Alexandra Kollontai, among the most prominent Bolsheviks — commissar for social policies after 1917, Soviet ambassador to Norway in 1927 and to Sweden in the 1930s — was viewed as the symbol of the important possibilities offered to women in the Soviet Union. Many of the articles on the U.S.S.R. in Working Class Woman stressed positive changes for women. True, there were difficulties in building a socialist society, but improvements were considered more important: better wages, better employment opportunities, and better education. Even the Soviet restrictions on abortion adopted in 1936 were defended on the grounds that assistance to pregnant women and mothers was now sufficient and that day care centers were being built at an astonishing rate. Although there still was room for improvement, dire want and poverty no longer required abortion as an option. Restrictions on abortion were also seen as a protection of women against sexual exploitation. Professional Online essay editing by trusted editors: online editing of high quality only! A number of articles in 1938 and 1939 praised the wonderful conditions for children, the marvelous school system, and other improvements of importance especially to women. Working Class Woman offered no criticism of the Soviet Union before 1939.

But admiration for the “first socialist state” was brought to an abrupt end with the Finnish-Soviet war of 1939. All sympathy now was directed towards the Finnish working class. Immediate action was taken to send assistance in the form of doctors, nurses, medicine, clothes, all provided by extremely successful fund-raising campaigns in which labor women participated.

Only in one organization were women expressly not welcome — an elitist students’ organization centered on the journal Dawn, (Mot Dag) soon to become the foremost critical intellectual journal. In 1925, Dawn left the NLP and, apart from a short adherence to the Communist party, remained unaffiliated with any political party until it dissolved in 1936. Nevertheless, it was very important to the radical wing of the NLP. Although women had had access to the university since 1884, they were still a small minority among students. The combination of strict discipline, compulsory attendance at meetings, and the expectation of a high intellectual level among Dawn members all worked to exclude women. Dawn’s somewhat despotic leader, Erling Falk, simply stated that “the weight of their [women's] brains is less [than men's].” Even marriage was regarded as a breach of loyalty to Dawn. If you want Custom essay writing, get essay help at the best site! We compose Custom essays from scratch! However, when two prominent men, who were already married, wanted to join the organization, their wives were admitted to the meetings. This was not considered “dangerous …so long as they [their wives] behaved modestly.”

Despite opposition, more women joined Dawn. Falk now required that he be kept informed of “which woman belonged to which man,” in order to prevent promiscuity. Despite vehement protests from some of the women who wanted to remain within the main organization, they were soon relegated as a special section of Dawn. Around 1930, however, one woman became a member of the Dawn’s leadership. Falk continued to find women a problem; his contempt for them was pronounced in what was said to be one of his favorite expressions: “these cackling geese.” One of the “cackling geese,” Kirsten Moe Hansteen, in 1945 became a member of government, representing the Communist party; another, Nina Haslund Gleditch, organized international aid for Spanish children and acted as secretary to the Foreign Department of the Norwegian exiled government during World War II.

The NLP Youth Organization, started in 1903, followed the general trend of gender preference. It was charged with recruiting members for the party and was to voice the special interests of young people of both sexes. During the interwar period it by and large followed the splits and reunifications within the main party. The leaders were men, a good number of whom later became important in the party.

Other significant examples of cultural expressions of interwar socialism were The Workers’ Sports Organization, established in 1924 Workers’ Film Group, started in 1928. Workers’ Sports was created to challenge bourgeois sports organizations, which had been mobilized as strikebreakers in the early 1920s. Contrary to bourgeois sports, which cultivated elite and competitive forms, the goal of Workers’ Sports was collective achievement in mass sports such as gymnastics. In competitive sports, women had traditionally been marginalized as not fit for hard physical competition. Most women seemed to have accepted this view and preferred mass sports, especially the popular “housewives gymnastics” where large groups of women performed together. This was also the case within the Workers’ Sports Organization. The desire to offer alternative activities for unemployed youth probably also accounts for the rather masculine profile of Workers’ Sports Organizations. The Workers’ Film Group was started in 1928 by young male amateurs, some of whom later became very able filmmakers. The best Custom Thesis and individual assistance online. Purchase thesis written by professional thesis writers! Most of the films are now lost, but contemporary descriptions give some indication of the contents. They were propaganda films aimed at winning elections and they mainly pictured problems connected with the male labor market and the politics of the bourgeois parties. The world of working-class women was patently absent. The few references to women typically refer to the girlfriend of the young working-class hero, or the farmer’s daughter, awarded as a prize to the young cropper after many social problems had been solved. In these films women were marginal to the world of work and politics.

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