The dire consequences of industrialisation triggered much debate over the ‘social question’, in Sweden as elsewhere. Poverty and unemployment were the two main issues debated in political and intellectual circles during the early decades of the 20th century, but they were not the only ones. Rescuing the family from the destructive effects of industrialisation was identified as the key to the longterm survival of society; saving the family from poverty, bad housing conditions and infant mortality, and upholding assumed morally correct sexual behaviour thus came to the forefront of debates. Perhaps the most debated issue concerned decreasing fertility rates, but women's participation in the labour market was also highlighted. Even though the dominant belief was that female employment threatened established family and gender norms, the divide between work and family life was obvious already in the early 1900s and became even clearer during the 1930s. This gave rise to the first family policy paradox: improving opportunities for married women in the labour market while encouraging childbirth and supporting stay-at-home wives. This chapter deals with how the concept of family was debated and interpreted in the very first steps towards a modern family policy.

Gender relations in a male-breadwinner model

The growing numbers of women and children employed in industry in the early 1900s triggered the first steps towards legal protection for mothers in the workplace. Liberals, social democrats and even conservatives were taken aback by the social consequences of rising numbers of working women and children, and called for the protection of new mothers and children from heavy work. In 1900, parliament passed a law forbidding women and minors to work underground and preventing mothers from working at all during the first four weeks after giving birth (Carlsson, 1986; Wikander, 1999). A few years later, night work for women was banned. After that, the protection of working women came to a halt. Although government commissions suggested the introduction of ‘motherhood support’, ‘breastfeeding support’ and free midwifery services, these were never realised (Abukhanfusa, 1987). The turning point came in 1929, with the commission on motherhood protection (SOU 1929:28).

Up until then, the debate about female employment had fluctuated, primarily focusing on women's employment in industry and its psychological and physiological consequences.