Maternalism as a Paradigm

International Trends Maternalism as a Paradigm The foUowing papers on the topic "Maternalism as a Paradigm" were prepared for the 1992 Sodal Science History Association meeting in Chicago. The authors examined the concept of maternalism in U.S., German , and Russian history; Kathleen Uno was unable to return from Japan in time for the conference and so her paper is presented here for the first time. The papers appear with only modest editing, and are foUowed by a brief summary of the discussion which foUowed the presentations. © 1993 Journal of Women's History, Vol 5 No. 2 (Fall) Maternalism as a Paradigm Defining the Issues Lynn Y. Weiner There has been among historians a growing interest in the concept of "maternalism" as a way to explain variations in the pohtical, social, and cultural behavior of women. At the same time there have been diverse and often contradirtory assumptions about just what the term means.1 Maternalism has been used by U.S. historians to describe the ideology of eighteenth-century "Repubhcan Motherhood," the behefs of the nineteenth -century Congress of Mothers, or the interest of twentieth-century progressive reformers. Beheving that a comparative approach might yield some interesting results, I asked scholars who work on Imperial Russia, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. to think about how "maternalism" was played out as a strategy or discourse in their research area, and to suggest some limits and possibilities of "maternalism" as a paradigm for historical analysis. The ensuing discussion was complex and fascinating. Maternalism in the presentations and discussion was seen variously as feminist, antifeminist , conservative, progressive, radical; or some combination thereof. Taking as a starting point that "maternalism" impHes a kind of empowered motherhood or pubhc expression of those domestic values assodated in some way with motherhood, the authors tended to focus on the relationship of maternalism to either state-buüding or to feminism. Adele Lindenmeyr's work on maternalism and chüd welfare in tsarist Russia suggested that for various material reasons the Russian case stood apart from that of the U.S. and Europe, because maternalist rhetoric and ideology appeared to be absent in the construction of poHdes affecting women and the state. In a different vein, Ann Taylor Allen's research on Germany Linked notions of maternalism to feminist ideology and action and found an evolving tradition of feminist support for state activism. In the case of Japan, Kathleen Uno argued that a tradition undermining the sodal importance of motherhood was replaced in the modern (1886-1945) era by Western notions of maternity which were supported by male Japanese nationalists. MoUy Ladd-Taylor tested a very useful typology of U.S. maternalism on four groups of activists: the National Congress of Mothers, the HuU House/ChUdren's Bureau network, the National Association of Colored Women, and the National Women's party, and suggested the importance of recognizing distinctions between maternalist and other (e.g., feminist) © 1993 Journal of Women's History, Vol 5 No. 2 (Fall) 1993 International Trends: Lynn Y. Weiner 97 poHtics of motherhood. Eüeen Boris simUarly argued for a flexible definition of maternalism, taking into account factors of race and dass, and pointed out that in the case of the working women, the conflation of woman with mother holds myriad dangers. FinaUy, my own work on the La Leche League suggested some tensions embedded in the essentiahst notions of empowered motherhood. In the case of the La Leche League, I used the term "maternalist" to describe the League's promotion of breastfeeding and a particular style of chüd nurture as a sodaUy beneficial activity in the mid-twentieth-century United States.2 League members took the private behavior of motherhood and invested it with pubHc purpose. The League's notion of its own history and my interpretation alike seem to indicate that this use of the term "maternalism" embodies some contradictions. The League had been founded in 1956 to promote breastfeeding, natural childbirth, and an intense style of mothering, in part as a response to the influence of "sdentific motherhood" and its emphasis on male expertise in obstetric and pediatric medicine.3 League founders beheved they were redaiming the practice and...