Kvinders medborgerskab i 1950’ernes atomalder. Civilforsvaret og danske kvinders beredskab

Resumé

Women’s Citizenship in Denmark during the Early Nuclear Age: Danish Civil Defence and Women’s Voluntary Services
The article studies the role of gender in civil defence, a central component of Danish nuclear culture. The main focus is on the roles and responsibilities ascribed to women in a modernizing society that faced new security challenges as a result of the deepening Cold War and changes in nuclear weapons technology. This theme is approached through a non-legalistic concept of citizenship that zooms in on the identity and recognition that were offered to female volunteers in Danish civil defence during the 1950s. The article draws on and contributes to three existing historical perspectives on the period: the position and responsibilities of the housewife in Danish society at the time; the history of everyday life in Denmark during the Cold War; and transnational dynamics in the post-war decades. Women were accorded significant importance in civil defence at a time when the rationale and effectiveness of this defence was increasingly questioned. The analysis highlights how the role and responsibility of women were closely tied to the abilities and qualities of the housewife, a dominant ideal of womanhood at the time. Civil defence efforts were explicitly connected to the role of women in the family and the home. In this respect, Danish civil defence organizations and especially the Women’s Voluntary Services (Danske Kvinders Beredskab) were inspired by activities in and information emanating from the US. From the mid-1950s when the introduction of thermonuclear weapons drove a gradual process of individualization in civil defence, efforts were made to extend the activities and attributes of female civil defence volunteers to all Danish women. These developments are reflected in the communication and public information of Danish civil defence.