Be fruitful and multiply : Slovakia's family planning under three regimes (1918-1965) / Denisa Neštáková.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neštáková, Denisa, author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Series:

Studien zur Ostmitteleuropaforschung ; 58.

Studien zur Ostmitteleuropaforschung ; 58

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reproductive rights--Czechoslovakia--20th century.

Reproductive rights.

Human reproduction--Political aspects--Czechoslovakia--20th century.

Human reproduction.

Women's rights--Czechoslovakia--20th century.

Women's rights.

Women--Government policy--Czechoslovakia--20th century.

Women.

Physical Description:

x, 266 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Marburg : Verlag Herder-Institut, 2023.

Summary:

"With a focus on reproductive policies in 20th-century Slovakia, which aimed at regulating the reproductive behavior of its citizens, this book sheds light on the long history of ­policing women's bodies as an intrinsic means of controlling their lives. The history of family planning in 20th-century Slovakia offers a glimpse into past developments relating to abortion, birth control, sexuality and reproductive rights in East Central Europe, as well as the rest of Europe. Thus, it allows a broader understanding of the similarities and differences between the East and the West. By examining the tendencies toward more liberal and progressive reproductive policies in the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938/9), then the shift to a conservative view of the family and women during the wartime Slovak state (1939-1945) and the "sexual liberation" of the 1950s and early 1960s in socialist Czechoslovakia, this volume examines the impact of political and social changes on family planning in modern Slovak history. This work shows that irrespective of which regime ruled over men and women in Slovakia, they all endorsed reproductive growth, and an increase in the birth rate was supported, desired, required and sometimes enforced. The private decision-making of individuals in family planning thus became a matter of public interest, in which populism, traditionalism, conservatism, pronatalism and religion combined or clashed with eugenics and racism, as well as with science, public health and feminism. Sometimes these aspects of family planning operated in parallel and created stories of backlash, resistance and ruptures. In the midst of all this was the female body, which was obliged to serve accordingly" -- From Amazon.

Contents:

Part I: Between state building and sexual liberalizations: the first Czechoslovak republic 1918-1939

Part II: Kinder-Küche-Kirche, Slovak version: The Slovak state 1939-1945

Part III: Sexual revolution or Communist interest? State socialist Czechoslovakia 1945-1965

Be fruitful and multiply. On demand.

Notes:

Include a list of abbreviations and a list of illustrations.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-258) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9783879694853

3879694850

OCLC:

1425865732

Publisher Number:

9783879694853