Czechoslovakia in the first postwar decade was a site of communist remodeling of society that was happening across the region. When did the communist rhetoric take hold? How did expertise (medical, legal, demographic) feed into governmental policies? In this paper, I will focus on two discursive shifts: the first one ...
(Show more)Czechoslovakia in the first postwar decade was a site of communist remodeling of society that was happening across the region. When did the communist rhetoric take hold? How did expertise (medical, legal, demographic) feed into governmental policies? In this paper, I will focus on two discursive shifts: the first one from immediately postwar measures that were to be taken in the realm of the family and sexuality to the communist rise in power (1945-1950), and the second one of experts advising the government reconsidering the policies and expertise of the 1950s (turn of the 1950s/ 1960s).
In the first postwar government, communists presented rather modernist policies, such as simplification of divorce or equalizing the status of children born out of wedlock, while other governmental parties objected and suggested keeping the laws favoring the traditional family. The government discussed bills proposed by population experts advising to introduce mandatory eugenic screening before marriage. Public discourse shifted after the communist takeover in 1948. By 1950, the laws were introduced that reshaped the family to be headed by equal spouses, supported women’s inclusion in the labor force, simplified divorce. The state tried to collectivize housework, build nurseries and kindergartens, and banned the Eugenics society. Medical experts promoted women’s health which contributed to the legalization of abortion in 1957.
Towards the end of the decade, a body of expert knowledge on population began to solidify. Headed by demographers, a State Population Committee was created as an advisory body. The statistics they collected were closely studied and experts discussed measures to prevent population decline. Abortion policies were fine-tuned, maternity leave assessed, taxation and family benefits recalculated with the aim of promoting more children being born. The discourse changed in the early 1960s as experts revised the utopian approach of the long 1950s that had wanted to dramatically change society and family life.
This paper draws on archival sources from the National Archive of the Czech Republic (materials from governmental bodies and committees, testimonials by medical and other expert organizations), legal codifications (family law, abortion), medical and demographic journals, and demographic data.
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