Birgitte Soland - Becoming modern : young women and the reconstruction of womanhood in the 1920s

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BECOMING MODERN

BECOMING MODERN

Young Women and the Reconstruction of Womanhood in the 1920s

Birgitte Sland

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright 2000 by Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,

Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,

3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY

All Rights Reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sland, Birgitte, 1959-

Becoming modern : young women and the reconstruction of womanhood in the 1920s / Birgitte Sland

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-691-04927-0 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. WomenDenmarkHistory20th century. 2. Sex role

DenmarkHistory20th century. 3. FeminismDenmark

History20th century. I. Title.

HQ1672.S65 2000

305.4'09489dc21 00-021053

www.pup.princeton.edu

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

ISBN-13: 978-0-691-04927-4 (cloth)

ISBN-10: 0-691-04927-0 (cloth)

eISBN: 978-1-400-83927-8

R0

For all the people on both sides of the Atlantic whom 1 feel fortunate to call my family

Acknowledgments

As A EUROPEAN teenager in the late 1970s, I spent a good part of my life in cheap apartments and damp basement rooms, smoking cigarettes and discussing Karl Marxs Das Kapital with comrades who were as committed to the Revolution as I was. Off and on, when our discussions ran dry, I would visit my grandmother, who always offered coffee, pastries, and delightful company. Besides, she had impeccable working-class credentials, having worked as a cleaning lady her entire adult life while raising three kids on her own. It was therefore with incredulity that I heard her question my political activities. I just dont know, she suddenly said one day. Your generation, you seem so clever, so accomplished, but I dont think you know how to have fun like we did. At the time, I was too young and too self-absorbed to ask what she meant, but by now I realize that she may have been right. My grandmother, a modern young woman in the 1920s, certainly danced more than I ever did. And she dressed better. My first thanks therefore goes to my grandmother, Rosalie Christensen, who indirectly brought me to this topic.

In the years since then, I have incurred numerous other debts of gratitude. At the University of Minnesota, where I wrote the dissertation that preceded this book, I received crucial financial support for my research from the Graduate School and the History Department. A University of Minnesota dissertation fellowship, an Institute of International Education research grant, and a William Stearns Davis Memorial Fellowship all proved extremely helpful. I also benefited from the generous comments and constructive criticisms of many excellent teachers and scholars, including Sara Evans, Michael Metcalf, Gianna Pomata, and Ann Waltner. Barbara Laslett, in particular, asked challenging questions and has continued to push me to clarify my thinking. Nan Enstad, Sharon Dohorty, Tim Coates, Louise Edwards, Winston McDowell, John Wrathall, and other fellow graduate students read conference papers and chapter drafts, gave helpful suggestions, and offered their camaraderie. Special thanks to Susan Cahn, whose companionship contributed to making those years a rich chapter in my life.

But among the many Minnesota folks, I owe the greatest debt to Mary Jo Maynes. It was her brilliant teaching that first led me to stray from my commitment to return to Denmark after a brief stint as an intellectual tourist in the United States. As my adviser, she allowed me to pursue my intellectual interests, never questioning the validity of my topic or my approach, but providing ample advice and incisive criticisms. And long after her official duties came to an end, she has remained a generous mentor and a good friend.

In the years since leaving Minnesota, a Seed Grant from the College of Humanities at the Ohio State University and generous leave time from teaching obligations in the History Department made it possible to complete this project. I have also benefited enormously from the help of friends and colleagues who read drafts of this book, encouraged and supported me, offered their criticisms in the true spirit of intellectual exchange, and laughed at the right times. For that and for many other acts of random kindness, I would like to thank Susan Hartmann, David Hoffmann, John Rothney, Steven Conn, Michelle Mouton, Ken Andrien, Pippa Holloway, Katja David-Fox, and Sonya Michel. I am especially grateful to Leila Rupp, who has been an extraordinary colleague, mentor, and friend. Her enthusiasm and confidence in my work never failed, and without her help, advice, and tireless promotional efforts this book might never have seen the light of day.

I am also indebted to a host of people on the other side of the Atlantic. My thanks goes to the many Danish archivists and librarians who often went far beyond the call of duty in their efforts to help and to the many women who agreed to be interviewed for this project. I am deeply grateful for their willingness to share their time and their memories and for trusting me with their words.

Numerous Danish friends offered encouragement, companionship, and generous hospitality. I owe thanksand many mealsto Dorthe Spbk, Aage Kirk, Lone Smetana, Peter A. Petersen, Susan Moller Jensen, Bahman Safanyia, Stig Winther Petersen, Hanne Nielsen, Hanne Moller Andersen, Jan Haverslev, Ole Christiansen, Ruth Grnborg, Sren F. Nielsen, Allan Andersen, and Aase Bak.

I would also like to thank my family, Aase Sland, Peter Sland, Lone Terp Sland, Jens Sland, Tine Mangart Sland, Henrik Skov Andersen, and Michael Ballegaard, for all their encouragement and support. I am particularly grateful to my sister, Anne Marie Sland, whose humor, wisdom, and companionship, in good times and hard ones, means the world to me, and to my father, Harald Sland, who taught me the love of learning and never wavered in his entirely unrealistic estimation of my abilities. Finally, my thanks goes to Nancy Guzowski for her support, her love, and her laughterand for reminding me that there are days when it doesnt matter at all whether you can spell Thursday.

BECOMING MODERN

INTRODUCTION

IN AUGUST 1919, when Johanne Blom turned fifteen, her aunt gave her a diary. At first she thought it an odd gift, but in the years that followed she would fill its delicate cream-colored pages with detailed, and often humorous, descriptions of her family and friends, her work and leisure in a working-class neighborhood in Copenhagen. Occasionally, she would venture from these topics and use her diary as so many other young girls have doneas a place to record her dreams and desires, her hopes and longings. In one such entry, written on January 21, 1923, she noted that I so look forward to getting married and having my own home. I would like to have children. Three I think. That seems a good number. A few years later, after she had met the man whom she would later marry, she repeated this vision of the good life. I can think of nothing better, she enthused, than becoming Ejnars wife.

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