Försvarna av hemmafronten : Finlands svenska Marthaförbunds minoritetsnationalistiska mobilisering och konstruktion av kvinnliga samhällsmedborgare 1932––1939

• Main Author: Lavonius, Jenny
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier 2021
• Subjects: maternity; home; minority nationalism; discipline; gender; 20:th century; patriotism; History; Historia
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-188419

This study examines the moral regulation of the Swedish-speaking Martha Organization in Finland during the 1930’s, from two aspects; the construction of the ideal female citizen and the mobilization of minority nationalistic identity. The ideal female citizen was supposed to develop traits such as work ethics, piety, compassion, motherly care and peacefulness. The ideal female citizen should also encourage temperance, thus the sobriety of men was viewed as a womanly responsibility. Due to mothers’ decisive impact on the moral health of the youth, the Martha Organization aimed at shaping the attitudes of the members. Women’s roles as mothers and housewives prepared them for citizenship, since women had the same duties in society as they had in the household. During the 1930’s Finland was marked by the pragmatic gender order of the agrarian society, even though the modern gender order of industrial society gradually grew in importance. The Martha Organization aimed at mobilizing minority nationalistic identity, as well as encouraging binational Finnish patriotism amongst its members. This survey analyses the mobilization of the Swedish-speaking minority nationalistic identity in general, as well as the particular minority nationalistic identity of Åland. These mobilization processes took place in relation to each other, accordingly they were similar in nature. The public sphere was understood as a continuation of the private one in the Martha ideology. Consequently, the love of the home and the fatherland were important values for both these minorities. The Swedish-speaking minorities shared the love of freedom, Western rationality and mother tongue, as well as the notion of being a national elite. The minority nationalistic identity of Åland resembled that of Swedish-speaking Finland. Even so, minority nationalism on Åland was built around a self-image of being an unique ethnicity, while underlining the close cultural connections to Sweden. Apart from the years around the implementation of Åland’s autonomous status in 1922, the minority nationalistic identity of Åland has been neglected in previous research. The Finnish 1930’s were marked by conflicts between the Finnish-speaking majority and the Swedish-speaking minority, clashes that never reached Åland. The language question was practical in nature — especially on Åland, where the population hardly spoke Finnish — but even so, it was framed in ideological terms. Thanks to the Martha ideology, gaps between the Finnish-speaking members and their Swedish-speaking counterparts could be bridged, as well as those between Åland and the rest of Swedish-speaking Finland.