Policies and practices of fertility control under the state socialism

Abstract

The socialist state run modernization produced low fertility throughout Eastern Europe. Fertility rates started falling soon after the end of the Second World War quickly reaching below replacement levels in many areas. This article examines the state responses to the falling fertility as well as birth control practices that individuals relied on in order to maintain small families. After outlining some common features of population policies under the state socialism, the article focuses on family planning policies in Yugoslavia. It is argued that liberal population policy and uninterrupted liberal abortion legislation in Yugoslavia, resulted, among other reasons, from the communist leadership's commitment to national and gender equality, respectively. It is further argued that gender hierarchy within the marriage and family remained almost untouched by the socialist project of women's emancipation and that these hierarchical gender relations shaped birth control practices in specific ways.

Abortion and gender relationships in Ukraine, 1955–1970

“…The modernization of patriarchal gender relationships, however, can occur in different ways (Therborn, 2004). After gender equality was introduced in the public sphere by socialist regimes in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, traditional patriarchal gender roles within the family remained unchallenged (Drezgić, 2010). As women achieved equal rights in the labor market, they were faced with the reality that they must carry the double, or even triple, burden of being a working woman, housewife, and mother.…”

“…This combination of legal abortion and informal patriarchy may indicate that Ukrainian women could have used abortion as a way to counter male authority, as women in Yugoslavia did (Morokvasic, 1984). It has, however, also been documented that some women sought abortion to maintain traditional gender roles and not to challenge men's authority in birth control matters (Drezgić, 2010;Paxson, 2002). This study therefore asks: What was the role of women's agency in abortion decisions?…”

Strong families and declining fertility : a comparative study of family relations and reproductive careers in Soviet Ukraine

“…After gender equality was introduced in the public sphere by socialist regimes in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, traditional patriarchal gender roles within the family remained unchallenged (Drezgić, 2010). As women achieved equal rights in the labour market, they were faced with the reality that they must carry a double, or even triple, burden of being a working woman, housewife and mother.…”

“…As women achieved equal rights in the labour market, they were faced with the reality that they must carry a double, or even triple, burden of being a working woman, housewife and mother. Moreover, in these parts of Europe, motherhood remained an integral element of womanhood, and women faced the strong expectation that they continue carrying the greatest responsibility for childbearing and childrearing (Drezgić, 2010;Morokvasic, 1984;Paxson, 2002;Rotkirch and Kesseli, 2010). Men, on the other hand, still held the major responsibility for birth control.…”

“…This combination of legal abortion and informal patriarchy may indicate that Ukrainian women could have used abortion as a way to counter male authority in the same way as women in Yugoslavia did (Morokvasic, 1984). It has, however, also been documented that some women sought abortion to maintain traditional gender roles and not to challenge men's authority in birth control matters (Drezgić, 2010;Paxson, 2002). The main question I address in this chapter is therefore: What was the role of women's agency in abortion decisions?…”