Maternal subjects: representations of women in Irish government health ephemera, 1970s-1980s

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines how a state-endorsed ideal of motherhood was promoted via health material in late twentieth century Ireland. Examining the ways in which women were portrayed and addressed in material advising on pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal care, this article discusses the representation and creation of maternal ‘subjects’ in health ephemera issued by the Irish government in the 1970s and early 1980s. An analysis of five examples of health pamphlets produced by the Department of Health and the Health Education Bureau between 1970 and 1982 determines the primacy of motherhood as a social norm in health education material. Visually, the material evolved during this period; displaying increasing informality of pose and the eventual inclusion of a father figure. However, the connexion of mother and child was retained and prioritised throughout all of the examples discussed.When contextualised against the cultural and political circumstances of their production, it can be argued that health pamphlets articulated a state endorsement of idealised maternity for Irish women. This was engendered by a prevailing Catholic morality and the historical involvement of the Church and the Irish State. Despite developments in Ireland’s political and ideological landscape in the 1970s and 1980s – demonstrated by events surrounding women’s liberation and advances in women’s employment rights and reproductive rights – the dominant role of motherhood remained as an ideal which was presented across the spectrum of visual culture. This position was reinforced by the Irish state via contraception legislation, elements of the Irish constitution, and as will be demonstrated, by a preponderance of imagery which centred on an idealised maternal role within health material.