The state and the widow: Pension debates in Inter-War Years Australia

Book chapter

Damousi, Joy. (2013). The state and the widow: Pension debates in Inter-War Years Australia. In In L. Haney and L. Pollard (Ed.). Families of a New World: Gender, Politics, and State Development in a Global Context pp. 99 - 118 Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315811048
AuthorsDamousi, Joy
EditorsL. Haney and L. Pollard
Abstract

[Extract] In this chapter, I pursue several arguments which emerge from the discussion about the widows’ pension and charity during the inter-war years. The first is that in the relationship between the family and the state it was the survival of the family that preoccupied the state and the lawmakers, and not the plight of widows per se. The ideology that informed these discussions reflected, in Ellen Ross’ words, the “fantasies of finding the perfect mother.”9 The introduction of the pension was a means to prevent further fragmentation within the family unit by allowing women to remain in the home and not become breadwinners. Its aim was to restore the stability between public and private life and reinforce the boundaries between these two spheres. But as Tamara Hareven points out, families did not always conform to such prescriptions, and they exercised considerable agency in the ways in which they “planned, initiated, or resisted change; [they] did not just respond blindly.”

Page range99 - 118
Year2013
Book titleFamilies of a New World: Gender, Politics, and State Development in a Global Context
PublisherRoutledge
Place of publicationLondon, United Kingdom
ISBN9780415934466
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315811048
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85055302249
Web address (URL)https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/acu/reader.action?docID=1702275&ppg=108
Research GroupInstitute for Humanities and Social Sciences
Publisher's version
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