Pursuing pronatalism: non-governmental organisations and population and family policy in Sweden and Finland, 1940s–1950s

Sophy Bergenheim,My Klockar Linder

doi:10.1080/1081602x.2020.1796748

Sophy Bergenheim, My Klockar Linder

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602x.2020.1796748

Copy DOI

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to nuance notions of ‘pronatalism’ by applying it as an analytical concept for studying population and family policy Sweden and Finland in the 1940s and 1950s. This endeavour is pursued by analysing the ideologies and practices of three pronatalist non-governmental organisations from Sweden, Finland and Swedish Finland: the Swedish Population and Family Federation (Befolkningsförbundet Svenska Familjevärnet), the Finnish Population and Family Welfare League (Väestöliitto) and the Swedish Population Federation in Finland (Svenska Befolkningsförbundet i Finland, SBF). All three organisations promoted family-friendly policies, emphasised the need for wide-spread population policy education or ‘propaganda’, and framed pronatalist population policy as a collective issue of the nation or ‘people’, yet with different motivations and framings. Väestöliitto and SBF related the so-called population question to an external threat: the Soviet Union that threatened the geopolitical status of Finland, and the pressure of the Finnish-speaking majority, respectively. In addition, SBF saw that the Finland-Swedes were delusional about their demographic and cultural vulnerability and were hence causing their own demise. Familjevärnet, on the other hand, first and foremost connected family and population policy to the furthering of welfare, solidarity and democracy, primarily within Sweden but also transnationally. Respectively, the organisations also framed motherhood slightly differently. Väestöliitto and SBF portrayed procreation as a civic duty and motherhood as the most important role of women. Familjevärnet also viewed motherhood as an important and natural role for women, yet not as an exclusive civic duty. Rather, it emphasised that all citizens had a duty to contribute to a positive demographic development and family-friendly society, either through procreation or by partaking in the cost of bringing up children.

Highlights

This article examines pronatalist ideas as a part of population and family policy develop ment in Sweden and Finland in the 1940s and 1950s
Plant and van der Klein (2012) explicitly identify maternalism as an analytical concept not used by historical actors. They recognise the value of a broad, diverse and ‘slippery’ concept for analysing complex and multifaceted phenomena – a notion that we respectively extend to the concept of pronatalism
We are deliberately not committed to a specific definition of either pronatalism or maternalism, nor do we aspire to formulate narrower or more precise definitions. Rather, taking their broad and ambiguous definitions as our starting point, we demonstrate examples of the different forms and nuances pronatalism and maternalism can entail in Nordic nations

Summary

Introduction

As solutions for addressing the ‘population question’ (and for normalising ideals), Väestöliitto and SBF alike proposed establishing four children per family as the minimum norm; Väestöliitto even demanded that the preferred number of children was six or over (Eklund, 1944; Väestöliitto, 1942) This goal was to be achieved through ‘positive popula tion policy’; for both organisations, this referred to family-friendly policies that redistrib uted the burden of child-rearing across the society, like social benefits and family taxation. As their own task in pursuing these goals, Väestöliitto and SBF emphasised ‘propa ganda’ (‘population (policy) propaganda’, ‘natality propaganda’ etc.) and ‘education’ (Finnish: valistus, Swedish: upplysning) This referred to education and research on national and grassroots-level for correcting misconceptions and negative attitudes towards families among citizens, employers and decision-makers (Bergenheim, 2017; Eklund, 1944; Väestöliitto, 1942). The issue at stake was birth control – and the irony can be noted that Wahlund, who in the press reports in the early 1940s had been described a successor of Myrdal, a decade later was referred to as a ‘child limitation prophet’ (‘Barnbegränsningsprofet’, 1952)

Comparisons between nations and organisations

Findings

41. NLS: Svenska familjevärnet