Nationale Identität und Geschlecht in Österreich nach 1945 by Erika Thurner

Abstract

Reviewed by: Nationale Identität und Geschlecht in Österreich nach 1945 by Erika Thurner Michael Boehringer Erika Thurner, Nationale Identität und Geschlecht in Österreich nach 1945. Innsbruck: Studienverlag, 2019. 180 pp. In the times of COVID-19, when women disproportionally affected by the economic fallout of the pandemic endure a "she-cession" as they are refunctionalized as primary familial caregivers (unpaid, of course) and when an ensuing de-globalization of economies is employed to shore up nationalist and identitary perspectives, the reissue of Erika Thurner's Nationale Identität und Geschlecht in Österreich nach 1945 furnishes a welcome gender-critical perspective on the process of nation-building since the end of World War II. Thurner's study, first published in 2000, examines the political process of developing (and maintaining) a stable national Austrian identity following the loss of the Austrian population's "emotional home" after 1945 (50). Her findings demonstrate that Austria's nationalizing project adheres to the blueprint of other Western nations and relies on traditional gender hierarchies to stabilize the emerging Second Republic. Thurner's point of departure is the need for Austria's postwar political leadership to ensure the acceptance of the new democratic state by the majority of its population. The numerical "excess" of women, Thurner argues, had to be brought to accept again the restrictions and limitations required by a "natural," hierarchical, and dimorphic gender order via legislation, propaganda, and coercion. From the mid-1950s on, this process resulted in the acceptance of traditional ways of family, work, and life by the majority of Austrian women. Against this background, Thurner unfolds the struggle for emancipation by Austrian women up to the new millennium. As such, Thurner's informative study fills a void even today in nationality research by highlighting the role of gendered power relations in the nation-building process and countering the dominant societal discourse of "gender neutrality" (18). Based on a constructivist understanding of the concepts "nation," "gender," [End Page 146] and "identity," Thurner's sociological study, taking an interdisciplinary approach, includes analyses of political efforts to establish a separate Austrian identity via a "nationalism light" (79)—strategy that aims to differentiate itself from the pan-German völkisch rhetoric of National Socialism by invoking a dynastic "House of Austria" ideology. Thurner refers to a wide variety of sources to show the re-masculinization of Austrian society via the promulgation of a male "worker-hero" ideal intended to restrict women to home and family. Her succinct case studies include analyses of the pre- and postwar (lack of) participation of women at universities; the male-dominated structures of the early postwar Austrian literary establishment; the male-centric culture surrounding the national icon of Kaprun; the social disciplining of and male aggression against young "wayward" women who transgressed "national" boundaries by participating in the postwar sexual economy; the participation of women in postwar politics, both as politicians and voters; the conflicting demands placed on women as (biological) mothers of a "new" Austria and as second-class workers in the growing economy; the function of the military as an exclusionary masculinist space and the cautious inclusion of women into the military; and the function of sports as a masculinist vehicle for national-cultural identification and strict gender dimorphism. While much of this information is well known, Thurner's study shows some distinctive strengths: Aside from the broad range of economic and cultural institutions under analysis, she includes little-known primary sources, such as interview excerpts by Ingeborg Bachmann or by Edith Lassmann, the sole female architect who participated in the construction of Kaprun, that demonstrate both these women's view of the national project "Austria" and reflections on their own standings within postwar patriarchal structures. Thurner also unearths astounding pieces of information that illustrate both the necessary and voluntary complicity of women in early Austrian consensus society, such as the fact that in 1959 over 80 percent of women participated in the workforce due to economic necessity, while public discourse framed this participation as overblown female consumerism (95). By focusing on the few notable women in positions of influence and responsibility, Thurner is able to highlight the overwhelming absence of women in the postwar Austrian...