Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: the natural history of a social problem
- 2 Young laborers in the population, labor force, and industrial law: structural preconditions of the youth salvation campaign
- 3 Youth savers and youth salvation: the image of young workers and institutional reform
- 4 Vocation and civics: the continuation school in practice
- 5 Beleaguered churches: Protestant and Catholic youth work
- 6 The Socialist youth movement
- 7 Youth cultivation: the centralization and militarization of youth salvation
- 8 Preparing for motherhood: the inclusion of young working women in youth cultivation
- 9 Youth cultivation and young workers in war
- Epilogue and conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Preparing for motherhood: the inclusion of young working women in youth cultivation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: the natural history of a social problem
- 2 Young laborers in the population, labor force, and industrial law: structural preconditions of the youth salvation campaign
- 3 Youth savers and youth salvation: the image of young workers and institutional reform
- 4 Vocation and civics: the continuation school in practice
- 5 Beleaguered churches: Protestant and Catholic youth work
- 6 The Socialist youth movement
- 7 Youth cultivation: the centralization and militarization of youth salvation
- 8 Preparing for motherhood: the inclusion of young working women in youth cultivation
- 9 Youth cultivation and young workers in war
- Epilogue and conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On 30 April 1913, slightly more than two years after the promulgation of the Prussian Youth Cultivation Edict, the minister for religious and educational affairs, Trott zu Solz, issued a new edict that extended government financial support to youth cultivation activities for post-school-age females. The reason for this inclusion, according to the new edict, was that
… whoever wishes to raise a physically and morally strong, God-fearing, monarchical, and patriotic generation must also help ensure that young females are healthy in body and soul, of firm character, and armed with the knowledge and ability that are indispensable for their future profession as helpmate of the man, educator of children, nurturer of family happiness, bearer and protector of good morals.
Although the edict declared that, in general, youth cultivation for post-school-age females should be pursued in the same manner as that for young males, nonetheless some means would necessarily be gender specific:
Essentially different are only such means that in part serve to protect against those dangers to which the female sex is specifically vulnerable and that lead in part to a higher evaluation of the profession of housewife and mother and should help teach and develop the necessary qualities and skills to this end.
Among the measures recommended by the new edict were the promotion of physical culture through gymnastics, hikes, and gardening and the establishment of simple, homey rooms or recreational centers for economically active young women, where standard youth cultivation activities like lectures, religious instruction, singing, and sociable gatherings could take place.
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- Information
- 'Who Has the Youth, Has the Future'The Campaign to Save Young Workers in Imperial Germany, pp. 165 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991