Challenging Norms: Family Planning as a Reflection of Social Change in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe(7 New Perspectives on Central and Eastern European Studies)

Access to reproductive healthcare, including abortions and family planning services, remains a deeply polarizing issue within contemporary Eastern Europe. Originally a question reserved for couples, this topic has since been elevated to the public realm through the emergence of modern nation states. Challenging Norms offers a geographically wide-ranging re-examination of family planning in twentieth-century Eastern Europe, interrogating the relationship between social attitudes to family planning and the forces of social, economic, and political modernization. In doing so, this volume highlights how these changes provide invaluable insights into ever-evolving societal norms and values.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: Challenging Norms: Family Planning as a Reflection of Social Change in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe. Introductory Remarks Heidi Hein-Kircher and Elisa-Maria Hiemer Chapter 1. Family Planning, Reproductive Decision-Making, Health Feminism: Changing Norms and Social Practices of Reproduction in the Twentieth Century Isabel Heinemann Chapter 2. Conflicting Norms: The Evolvement of Fetal Rights vs. Reproductive Rights in a Transnational Perspective. The Cases of Ireland and Poland Anja Titze On the Stage: Negotiating the Intimate/Private Chapter 3. “Mother, Think of Me”: Women and Mothers in the Upper Silesian Plebiscite Propaganda Allison Rodriguez Chapter 4. The Vicious Circle of Abortions. Family Planning in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) Ivana Dobrivjović Chapter 5. Wartime Sexual Violence and Its Consequences in the Catholic and Medical Postwar Discourses in Poland, 1945–1946 Jakub Gałęziowski Chapter 6. Revisiting the “Illegitimacy” Phenomenon: Evidence from the Twentieth-Century Greece Tryfonas Lemontzoglou Against the Norms: Revisiting Family Concepts Chapter 7. Hungarian and German Childbearing in Nineteenth-Century South Transdanubia: A Fertility History of the Roman Catholic German Community of Mágocs and the Calvinist Hungarian Community of Vajszló (1791–1890) Gábor Koloh Chapter 8. Prostitution and Motherhood in the Twentieth Century in Czech Lands Dominika Kleinova Chapter 9. Sexuality, Reproductive Rights, and Partnership as Areas of Conflict in Post-War Poland Michael Zok Chapter 10. From “Abortion Culture” to Family Planning. The Continuities and Discontinuities of Birth Control Regimes in Twentieth-Century Hungary Fanni Svégel Across Borders: Shaping the Knowledge Chapter 11. Confrontation and Dialogue: Family Planning Narratives and Activisms in Interwar Poland Sylwia Kuzma-Markowska Chapter 12. Family Planning in Slovakia 1939–1945 and its Ideological Influences Eva Škorvanková Chapter 13. Sovietization of Women in Lithuania: Representations of Motherhood and Family Planning in the Magazine Tarybine Moteris (1952-1989) Ieva Balčiūnė Chapter 14. Navigating late USSR Family Planning: Scattered Narratives from Demography and Medicine Nataliya Shok and Nadezhda Beliakova Conclusion Agata Ignaciuk Index

About the Author :
Heidi Hein-Kircher has been Director of Martin Opitz Library (Herne) and Professor at Bochum University since October 2024. Before, she was head of the Academic Forum at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe. In her research, she focuses on gender and family history, urban history, historical security, and minorities studies, and on the emergence of modern values and norms in Eastern European societies since the nineteenth century. Her recent publications include the co-edited volumes, Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and Historicizing the Mobility/Security Nexus and the Making of Order (Routledge, 2023).